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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH FOR 1940.
The report this year is again confined to essential
and urgent matters in accordance with Ministry of
Health Circular 2,314 of the 26th March, 1941. A sunmary
of vital statistics is appended, from which it will
be seen that the general health of the Borough has been
maintained at a high standard despite the conditions of
over-crowding when the majority of the population spent
many of the night hours in air raid shelters in the last
four months of the year. Some evidence was forthcoming,
however, that some persons were not bathing
and changing their underclothes as frequently as before,
and this was seen by an increased number of cases of
scabies. This, I understand, has been fairly general
throughout the country.
The Registrar General's estimate of population for
mid-year is 77,670 compared with 80,110 for 1939.
There has been a slight fall in the birth rate which is
only to be expected in view of the several conditions
brought about by the war. There has been an increase
in the death rate, largely due to deaths due to war operations,
but even after the application of the comparability
factor the death rate compares favourably with the rest
of the country.
The Corporation Maternity Home has been fully
occupied throughout the year and maternity and child
welfare clinic sessions held regularly, although smaller
attendances have been encouraged especially at the child
welfare sessions. There has been no curtailing of health
visiting, in fact there has been an increase in the number
of home visits made, and the only restriction in the
whole of the maternity and child welfare services
throughout the year was the discontinuation of special
classes in cookery and sewing.
The bye-laws affecting sanitation, as with other byelaws,
lapsed in October, 1940, three years after the Incorporation
of the Borough as required in the Borough
Charter. Application was made to the Ministry of
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