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
City of London 1907
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London, City of ]
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The accompanying Table has been partly compiled from the Annual Reports of the Local Government Board, to which are added some figures for the City of London, and London as a whole:—
| Year. | Total Number of Samples Examined in England and Wales. | Number Examined in the City of London. | Percentage of Total Number Examined in City of London. | Number of Persons to each Sample examined. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales. | City of London. | London. | ||||
| 1881 | 17,823 | 162 | .92 | 1,462 | 318 | 760 |
| 1882 | 19,439 | 197 | 1.01 | 1,350 | 252 | 732 |
| 1883 | 19,648 | 201 | 1.02 | 1,363 | 240 | 725 |
| 1884 | 22,951 | 285 | 1.24 | 1,182 | 164 | 716 |
| 1885 | 23,230 | 206 | .88 | 1,184 | 221 | 699 |
| 1886 | 23,596 | 188 | .79 | 1,181 | 235 | 672 |
| 1887 | 24,440 | 294 | 1.20 | 1,171 | 146 | 596 |
| 1888 | 26,344 | 178 | .67 | 1,086 | 235 | 551 |
| 1889 | 26,954 | 249 | .90 | 964 | 162 | 542 |
| 1890 | 27,465 | 165 | .62 | 946 | 239 | 557 |
| 1891 | 29,028 | 169 | .42 | 999 | 227 | 580 |
| 1892 | 32,447 | 123 | .38 | 894 | 303 | 573 |
| 1893 | 37,233 | 104 | .28 | 779 | 347 | 530 |
| 1894 | 39,516 | 161 | .40 | 734 | 216 | 492 |
| 1895 | 42,962 | 266 | .60 | 661 | 127 | 414 |
| 1896 | 45,555 | 212 | .47 | 636 | 148 | 399 |
| 1897 | 46,856 | 220 | .47 | 619 | 138 | 381 |
| 1898 | 49,555 | 230 | .46 | 585 | 122 | 353 |
| 1899 | 53,056 | 171 | .32 | 547 | 164 | 325 |
| 1900 | 62,858 | 145 | .23 | 461 | 186 | 312 |
| 1901 | 67,841 | 854 | 1.26 | 479 | 32 | 291 |
| 1902 | 72,321 | 1,248 | 1.72 | 450 | 21 | 252 |
| 1903 | 78,077 | 1,179 | 1.51 | 417 | 21 | 233 |
| 1904 | 84,678 | 1,035 | 1.22 | 384 | 23 | 213 |
| 1905 | 86,182 | 1,102 | 1.28 | 377 | 20 | 211 |
| 1906 | 90,504 | 1,030 | 1.20 | 359 | 20 | 203 |
| 1907 | Return not yet received. | 1,092 | — | — | 19 | — |
*The figures in this column are based on the Imperial night census, and are obviously misleading.
Unfortunately there are no accurate means of arriving at the number of persons in the City during the daytime.
It will be seen from Table I. that in the course of the seven years 19011907,
7,540 samples have been taken in the City, or upwards of 1,000 samples
annually, and that of these, 580 were found adulterated; the average annual
percentage of adulterated samples during the seven years being 7.7. The
actual percentage of adulteration at the present time is, however, lower
than this, having fallen from 13.11 in 1901 to 6.68 in 1907.