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ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Bexley.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report for the
year, 1955, the tenth which it has been my privilege to present.
The widening of our conception of health in recent years
to include mental as well as physical aspects imposes special
difficulties on anyone who attempts an objective assessment
of the health of a community. The Medical Officer of Health
of the Urban District Council of Bexley in the year 1901,
on the other hand, could have suffered from no such
inhibitions faced, as he was, with a heavy load of infectious
disease, an infant mortality rate of 136.6 per thousand live
births and a wide variety of environmental problems which
survive only as a faint echo in the present day health
administration of the Borough. It should be borne in mind
that the population of the district at the turn of the century
was barely 13,000 but, even so, there were 9 cases of
smallpox with 1 death, 35 cases of diphtheria with 8 deaths,
and 5 deaths from measles and whooping cough, respectively.
School closure was a frequent occurrence on account of
infectious disease, and mass exclusion of children took place
during that year on no less that 6 occasions.
Sewerage schemes were in their infancy and, even in
1909, house refuse was removed by the Council once a
fortnight, placed on agricultural land and ploughed in. The
first Midwives Act had yet to be passed (1902) and maternal
mortality was high (about 5 deaths per thousand total births)
due, largely, to the ministrations of midwives of the Sairey
Gamp type who were entirely untrained and were, in addition,
dirty, dishonest and intemperate. Nutritional standards
were much lower than they are today and the health of
schoolchildren, in particular, was a source of great concern.
The School Health Service did not come into operation until
1907. The general level of health of the population was well
exemplified by the fact that, of all recruits examined in 1901,
40% were found to be unfit for army service on account of
lack of physical development, defective vision, bad teeth and
heart disease.
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