View report page

5
of the population. The number of deaths is greater by 47 than the
corresponding number of the previous year ; the increase being
accounted for chiefly by rises in the number of deaths from measles
and cancer.
Sanitary Circumstances.
The Housing Act, 1935, imposed on every Local Authority
the duty of making an overcrowding survey of dwelling houses in
the area and of reporting to the Minister of Health the result of the
survey and the action proposed to be taken. The survey revealed
that overcrowding (according to the official standards laid down)
existed in 551 (i.e., 2.07 per cent.) of the 26,608 dwellings surveyed ;
and that in this area by far the greatest amount of overcrowding
exists in families of six persons and in dwellings with a permitted
number of five persons. Detailed information and statistical
results of the special overcrowding survey will be found on pages
48 to 55.
During the year some 14 dwelling houses were demolished as
the result of demolition orders made by the Council.
Infectious Diseases.
There has been a progressive fall in the incidence of scarlet
fever in the area during the last four years, and the disease continues
to be of the prevalent mild type to which we have become
accustomed during recent years. During recent years our former
conceptions of the nature of infection and epidemiology of scarlet
fever have been shattered at such a rate that we cannot afford to
disregard the results of experience of any method of dealing with the
disease, however unorthodox it may appear. On pages 74 to 89
of this report will be found extracts from my recent Presidential
Address to the Home Counties Branch of the Society of Medical
Officers of Health, in which i dealt with the results of certain local
modifications of orthodox methods of control. A summary of
these investigations appears on page 89.
Although the incidence of diphtheria was not so great as during
1935, there was an increase in the case fatality rate. Of 231 persons
notified to be suffering from diphtheria during the year, eleven died
as the result of the disease. The average age of the fatal cases was
4 years. These deaths from diphtheria are all the more lamentable
in view of the fact that the Council has established a special clinic