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URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL OF COULSDON AND PURLEY.
HEALTH REPORT FOR 1935.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present to you the Annual Report for 1935, this being
my fourth Report as your Medical Officer of Health.
The general arrangement adopted in previous Reports will be found
to have been retained to facilitate reference, while the impression gained
will probably be one of gradual development and, in general, the steady
improvement of the public health of your Urban District during the
21 years of its history.
The year 1935 compared favourably with its predecessors as judged
by the generally accepted standards. The Birth Rate again increased
slightly, while the Maternal, Infant Mortality and Death Rates remained
low, although the latter is tending to increase, probably with the
advancing age of the population of the District.
The wave of mild Scarlet Fever, which commenced in 1934, continued
in the early part of the year, but is gradually diminishing, as is also
an outbreak of Diphtheria, which was chiefly confined to one Ward
of the District. Most other forms of Infectious Disease showed a
diminished incidence.
Extensions in the work of the Department included the Housing
Survey and work under the Shops Act, 1934, investigations into the
condition of ice cream sold in the District and into an outbreak of
infectious Diarrhoea, and the establishment of a new Ante-Natal Clinic
at Selsdon.
Finally, the Council having to consider for the first time in its
history measures for the protection of the District against possible
attack by hostile aircraft, a considerable amount of time has been given
to this subject. Plans have been made, the detailed application of
which continues to demand the attention of your Officers. While it
must not be considered inevitable that this danger will arise, and undue
alarm is to be deprecated as being physically and mentally detrimental,
a false sense of security is equally unjustified, and it should be realised
that safety through air raid precautions can only be a matter of degree.
The way is strewn with practical difficulties, many of which are inevitably
insurmountable. Only by removing the possibility of the misuse
of aircraft for the settlement of international disputes can absolute
safety from the air be secured.
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