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1927
ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1927.
Municipal Offices,
Acton, W.3.
July, 1928.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Acton.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to submit the Annual Report for the year 1927 on the
health of the Borough, together with the work of the Public
Health Department.
The Report is submitted in accordance with Circular 834
of the Ministry of Health, which requires the Medical Officer of
Health to make an Annual Report up to the end of December on
the sanitary circumstances, the sanitary administration, and the
vital statistics of the district, and shall furnish the Minister with
as many copies of such report as may be required. The Circular
also indicates the lines on which the Report is to be drawn and
the minimum information which it shall contain.
On the surface the vital statistics do not appear so
satisfactory as those of 1926. The death-rate and the infantile
mortality are higher, but both are lower than those of England
and Wales, and the death-rate is lower than that of London as
well. The higher death-rate is probably due partly to an altered
age-incidence of the population, and on a subsequent page figures
are given to show that the average age at death has been very
considerably raised during the past twenty years.
The district fortunately was free of Small-Pox during the
year, but the unvaccinated condition of a large portion of the
population is a matter of serious and anxious import.
In 1926, 10,146 cases of Small-Pox were notified in
England and Wales and in 1927, 14,769 cases were notified. It
is true that most of the cases have occurred in the North of
England and that the disease has been of a very mild type, but