London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Leyton 1904
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Leyton]
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Leyton Urban District Gouneil.
ANNUAL Health Report
FOR 1904,
by
A. F. PESKETT,
Medical Otllcer of Health.
Gentlemen,
I beg to present to you my Annual Report for 1904.
I have much pleasure in reporting a fairly healthy year, as
although numerically the deaths were greater than in 1903, this was
largely due to the epidemic infantile diarrhoea. It is again a remarkable
feature that disease is more rife in a dry season. For example,
in 1903 over 35 inches of rain fell, and our death-rate was 10.9, while
this year only 17 46 inches of rain fell, and our death-rate has risen to
13.1 per 1,000. Of course there has been a slight increase of population,
not so much in the matter of births, which only exceed the deaths
by 928 as against the 1,254 excess recorded in 1903, but by influx of
residents from other parts, and the weather has more bearing upon the
death-rate than the actual larger number of people in the district.
Largely on account of the dry weather the infantile mortality increased, as the following brief table clearly shows:—
| Death of Infants under 5 years of age. | |
| 1901 | 35 |
| 19O2 | 45 |
| 1903 | 35 |
| 1904 | 180 |