London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1912
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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192
Annual Report of the London County Council, 1912.
out for 1,000 families, in which there is at least one child who was mentally defective, and for 3,000
families in which at least one member had gained a scholarship or bursary. As the latter group were
on an average some five years older than the former the data were corrected to the younger age by noting
the dates of death of any members of the family, and subtracting those who had died after the date on
which the individual round whom the record centred had reached the age of 9.
From the data thus collected the following results appear:—
| Number in fraternity. | Standard deviation. | Number dead | Standard deviation. | Correlation between number born and number dead. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Defective" families (1,000) | 6.46 | 3.35 | 1.91 | 2.15 | r = .7 +.01 |
| Normal "scholarship" families (3,000) | 4.59 | 2.48 | 0.48 | 0.89 | r = 5 ± .009 |
This gives an average net family of 4.55 for the defectives and 4.11 for the normals, showing that
although the selective death rate has reduced the disparity, it has not, up to the period represented by
a record centring round a child of the age of 9, reversed the balance in favour of the inferior stock.
Defective
stock.
The detailed distribution of deaths and size of fraternity among defective stocks is shown in the following table:—
| Number of children dead. | Size of fraternity. | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | ||
| 0 | 44 | 45 | 68 | 54 | 47 | 36 | 29 | 19 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 356 |
| 1 | 22 | 22 | 24 | 18 | 21 | 28 | 11 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 168 | |
| 2 | 12 | 19 | 20 | 23 | 24 | 26 | 17 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | - | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 160 | ||
| 3 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 14 | 8 | 6 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 117 | |||
| 4 | 6 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 14 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 73 | ||||
| 5 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 57 | |||||
| 6 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | - | 1 | — | 1 | - | 36 | ||||||
| 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 13 | |||||||
| 8 | 1 | 1 | - | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | 1 | - | - | 9 | ||||||||
| 9 | 3 | - | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | 5 | |||||||||
| 10 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||||
| 11 | - | - | - | - | 1 | — | 1 | — | — | 2 | |||||||||||
| 12 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 13 | - | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | — | 2 | |||||||||||||
| n | — | 1 | — | — | — | — | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| 44 | 67 | 102 | 106 | 103 | 109 | 113 | 97 | 89 | 53 | 38 | 31 | 21 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1,000 | |
Scholarship
stock.
The next table gives the same information regarding normal or scholarship stock.
| Number of children dead | Size of fraternity. | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | ||
| 0 | 210 | 411 | 435 | 358 | 246 | 174 | 132 | 68 | 40 | 16 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | 2,105 |
| 1 | 25 | 81 | 110 | 88 | 87 | 66 | 44 | 28 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — | 549 | |
| 2 | 5 | 23 | 43 | 49 | 39 | 25 | 15 | 13 | 7 | 3 | 3 | - | — | — | — | 225 | ||
| 3 | 1 | 7 | 14 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 5 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | 81 | |||
| 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | — | 1 | — | — | — | 27 | ||||
| 5 | — | — | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | 1 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 7 | |||||
| 6 | — | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| 7 | — | 1 | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | 3 | |||||||
| 8 | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | ||||||||
| 210 | 436 | 521 | 492 | 385 | 326 | 251 | 154 | 99 | 60 | 31 | 19 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3,000 | |
Schools for
the physically
defective
Physically defective children have been under the special care of Mr. Elmslie, and he has received
assistance from the other medical officers who, when visiting the schools for the purpose of admission
examinations, were asked by the head teachers to see special cases. Mr. Elmslie has kept a duplicate
set of records of his observations, from which he contributes the following analysis of the defects of