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To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Erith.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my sixth Annual Report
oil the Health Services of the Borough for the year 1945, the
year of Victory.
Social medicine of which we have heard so much of late,
is another name fbr work which medical officers of health have
been doing ever since they came into existence nearly 100
years ago. Exploring social conditions and their influence on
health is the everyday task of the health department, and the
annual reports of medical officers of health therefore are the
main source of knowledge of social medicine. Moreover
public health is dependent more on environment and education
than on medicine and the formation of healthy habits, the
development of the right outlook on health, social hygiene,
educational facilities, and opportunities to make the best use
of leisure are the fundamental principles on which to base the
people's health.
The statistics for 1945 are generally satisfactory. The
general death-rate, 11.78 per 1,000 of population, is again
slightly above the rate of 11.4 for the county, comparing
favourably with 13.8 for the Administrative County of London,
and with 13.5 for the larger towns. The birth rate of 19.13
is less than that fbr 1944 but higher than in the 15 pre-war
years, and the infant death rate of 39.61 compares well with
the rate of 45 per 1,000 births for whole of England and Wales.
For some decades now the production of children has been
increasingly a rational act, and the biological revolution in
which sex has been separated from child bearing can hardly
have been wiped out since 1941 when the increase in the birth
rate became so noticeable. The wave of marriages experienced
since the outbreak of war may supply a reason and a shortage
of contraceptives might account for a small proportion of the
additional births.