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TO THE
MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS
OF THE
BOROUGH OF SOUTHGATE
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen
I beg to present by Annual Report for 1959
It is fast becoming a standard introduction to this Report for
me to say that the year under review was more or less uneventful.
At the risk of repetition, however, I must once again state that
this has, in fact, as far as 1959 was concerned, been the case. I
hasten to add, of course, that this does not mean that the Public
Health Department was able to pass into a state of coma, or to rest
on its oars. The same amount of patient, unpublicised work has
to be done year after year if the fruits of the past are to be properly
garnered and if adequate safeguards are to be laid down for the
future. This is the aim towards which the Public Health Depart'
ment continually strives.
To deal first of all with the incidence of infectious disease, 1959
was a particularly happy year. A full report on this subject will
be found in the section which deals specifically with infectious
diseases. I will therefore leave any further remarks until I am able
to deal with this particular problem.
The vital statistics for 1959 were also satisfactory, although I
must once again enter a caviat against placing too much
emphasis on the vital statistics which apply to only one year and
to a population of approximately seventy thousand. None the less,
the figures give rise to satisfaction, especially when studied over a
period of several years. The death rate was 10.9, exactly the same
rate as that recorded for 1958. The birth rate rose from 11.4 in
1958 to 13.0 in 1959. In actual fact, the birth rate was relatively
constant from 1955 to 1958, the only significant rise having taken
place last year. Once again, there were no deaths from puerperal
sepsis. Unfortunately, one woman did die in childbirth, but the
cause of death, after very careful investigation, was found to be due
to embolism. The infant mortality rate, i.e. the number of infants
who died during the first year of life per thousand live births, was
15.3, as against 21.0 in 1958. These matters will, however, be
discussed in greater detail in the part of the Report which deals
with statistics and social conditions of the Area.
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