Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green, Parish of St. Matthew ]
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16
I am indebted to the British Mcdical Journal for the following
Extract:—
THE DEATH.EATES OF LONDON SANITARY AREAS
DURING 1897.
" In the accompanying table will be found summarised the
vital statistics of the forty.three sanitary areas of the
Metropolis, based upon the Registrar.General's returns for
the year 1897. The mortality figures relate to the deaths
of persons actually belonging to the respective sanitary
areas, and are the result of a complete system of distribution
of deaths occurring in the public institutions of
London among the various sanitary areas in which the
patients had previously resided.
The 133,618 births registered in London during 1897 were
equal to a rate of 30.0 per 1,000 .of the population,
estimated at 4,463,169 persons in the middle of that year;
this rate was lower than in any of the ten preceding years,
during which the birth.rate averaged 312 per 1,000. In
the various sanitary areas the birth.rates showed, as usual,
wide variations, owing principally to the differences in the
age and sex distribution of their populations. In St. George
Hanover Square, St. James Westminster, Hampstead,
St, Martin.in.the.Fields, City of London, and Lee, the
birth.rates were considerably below the average; while
they showed a marked excess in St. Luke, Bethnal Green,
Whitechapel, St. George.in.the.East, Mile End Old Town,
St. Olave Southwark, and Bermondsey sanitary areas.
The deaths of persons belonging to London registered during
last year were 78,971, equal to a rate of 17.7 per 1,000 of
the population, against 17.4, 19 4, and 18.2 in the three
preceding years. The rate in 1897 was 1.8 per 1,000 below
the mean rate in the ten preceding years, and with one
exception was lower than in any year on record. The
lowest death.rates last year in the various sanitary areas
were 11.8 in Hampstead, 12.8 in Lewisham (excluding