London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1913
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
This page requires JavaScript
Report of the County Medical Officer—General.
41
from phthisis include deaths from miliary tuberculosis, which previously had been included under
general tuberculosis. These two circumstances in conjunction disturb the continuity of the phthisis
death-rates shown above, but it is unfortunately not possible to determine with any certainty from
the published figures of the Registrar-General whether, or to what extent, the increase in the deathrate
in 1911 denotes an actual increase in the mortality in that year over 1910. The more accurate
local distribution of deaths would not, however, affect the rate for England and Wales as a whole ;
and from the fact that the increase shown in this rate (exclusive of miliary tuberculosis), in 1911 over
1910, in the Annual Report of the Registrar-General for 1911 (see p. 35) amounted to 4.6 per cent., it
is reasonable to suppose that there was a corresponding actual increase in mortality in London. The
increase due to the addition of miliary tuberculosis to phthisis in England and Wales is found from
the same source (p. 156) to be 2.3 per cent.
The phthisis death-rate since 1850 (corrected for differences in the age constitution of the
population) in relation to the mean death-rate of the period 1851-1913 (males and females) is shown
in diagram (T).
This diagram shows the marked decline of phthisis mortality in both sexes since about 1865, the
greater incidence of such mortality on males than on females, and the fact that until recent years the
decline has been more manifest among females than males.
The following table shows the crude phthisis death-rates, and the rates corrected for differences
in the age and sex constitution of the populations of the various sanitary districts.
Phthisis
death-rates
in London
fcoroughs.
The factors for correction, also shown in the table, have been calculated by applying the 1911 census population, at each age and for each sex, of each of the London sanitary districts, to the death-rates, at each age and for each sex, obtaining in England and Wales during the decennium 1901-1910 :—
| Metropolitan borough. | Factor for correction f«»r age and sex distribution. | Crude death-rate. | Corrected death-rate. | Comparative mortality figure. (London 1,000.) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1908-12. | 1913. | 1908-12. | 1913. | 1908-12. | 1913. | ||
| London | 0.9628 | 1.34 | 1.30 | 1.29 | 1.25 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| Paddington | 0.9198 | 1.04 | 1.09 | 0.96 | 1.00 | 739 | 800 |
| Kensington | 0.9217 | 0.98 | 1.08 | 0.90 | 1.00 | 699 | 800 |
| Hammersmith | 0.9510 | 1.23 | 1.20 | 1.16 | 1.14 | 900 | 912 |
| Fulham | 0.9779 | 1.32 | 1.31 | 1.29 | 1.28 | 997 | 1,024 |
| Chelsea | 0.9151 | 1.40 | 1.23 | 1.28 | 1.13 | 992 | 904 |
| Westminster, City of | 0.8422 | 1.24 | 1.31 | 1.04 | 1.10 | 805 | 880 |
| St. Marylebone | 0.8932 | 1.28 | 1.36 | 1.15 | 1.21 | 887 | 968 |
| Hampstead | 0.9021 | 0.68 | 0.57 | 0.61 | 0.51 | 474 | 408 |
| St. Pancras | 0.9322 | 1.58 | 1.50 | 1.47 | 1.40 | 1,139 | 1,120 |
| Islington | 0.9573 | 1.29 | 1.33 | 1.23 | 1.27 | 954 | 1,016 |
| Stoke Newington | 0.9329 | 1.00 | 0.93 | 0.93 | 0.87 | 717 | 696 |
| Hackney | 0.9730 | 1.31 | 1.15 | 1.27 | 1.12 | 983 | 896 |
| Holborn | 0.8577 | 2.11 | 1.87 | 1.81 | 1.60 | 1,400 | 1,280 |
| Finsbury | 0.9976 | 2.05 | 2.01 | 2.04 | 2.01 | 1,577 | 1,608 |
| London, City of | 0.8219 | 1.65 | 1.48 | 1.35 | 1.22 | 1,046 | 976 |
| Shoreditch | 1.0270 | 1.85 | 1.79 | 1.90 | 1.84 | 1,470 | 1,472 |
| Bethnal Green | 1.0436 | 1.59 | 1.55 | 1.66 | 1.62 | 1,284 | 1,296 |
| Stepney | 1.0282 | 1.69 | 1.68 | 1.74 | 1.73 | 1,346 | 1,384 |
| Poplar | 1.0222 | 1.42 | 1.46 | 1.45 | 1.49 | 1,117 | 1,192 |
| Southwark | 0.9786 | 1.89 | 1.85 | 1.85 | 1.81 | 1,428 | 1,448 |
| Bermondsey | 1.0123 | 1.79 | 1.61 | 1.82 | 1.63 | 1,405 | 1,304 |
| Lambeth | 0.9548 | 1.42 | 1.29 | 1.36 | 1.23 | 1,048 | 984 |
| Battersea | 0.9829 | 1.26 | 1.13 | 1.24 | 1.11 | 960 | 888 |
| Wandsworth | 0.9627 | 0.91 | 0.86 | 0.87 | 0.83 | 672 | 664 |
| Camberwell | 0.9902 | 1.27 | 1.15 | 1.26 | 1.14 | 974 | 912 |
| Deptford | 0.9820 | 1.30 | 1.30 | 1.28 | 1.28 | 986 | 1,024 |
| Greenwich | 1.0040 | 1.22 | 1.17 | 1.23 | 1.17 | 949 | 936 |
| Lewisham | 0.9693 | 0.72 | 0.74 | 0.70 | 0.72 | 541 | 576 |
| Woolwich | 0.9781 | 1.23 | 1.50 | 1.20 | 1.47 | 930 | 1,176 |
It will be seen from the foregoing table (comparing the corrected death-rates) that among the
several sanitary districts, in the quinquennium 1908-12 and in the year 1913, Finsbury, (2.04 and 2.01
respectively) had the highest phthisis death-rate and Hampstead (0.61 and 0.51 respectively) the lowest.
The death-rates from phthisis in London in each of the four quarters of the year 1913 were as follows :
first quarter, 1.55; second quarter, 1.27 ; third quarter, 1.07 ; and fourth quarter, 1.32.
The figures upon which the above table is based, so far as the years since 1910 are concerned,
are those given in the Annual Summaries of the Registrar-General, which represent the deaths of
Londoners occurring within the Greater London area. The Registrar-General since 1911 has supplied
corrected figures which purport to give the deaths of London residents occurring in the whole of England
and Wales. The effect of this more exact allocation of deaths, will be seen from the following table,
23610 G