London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

Shoreditch 1927

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]

This page requires JavaScript

Table: In the subjoined table the causes of death amongst infants under one year are given for each of the eight Wards of the Borough :—

In the subjoined table the causes of death amongst infants under one year are given for each of the eight Wards of the Borough :—

Cause of Death.Moorfields Ward.Church Ward.Hoxton Ward.Wenlock Ward.Whitmore Ward.Kingsland Ward.Haggerston Ward.Acton Ward.Totals
Smallpox...........................
Chicken-pox...........................
Measles............1.........1
Scarlet Fever...........................
Whooping Cough...1231...31...
Diphtheria and Croup...........................
Erysipelas.........1............1
Tuberculous Meningitis.........11.........2
Abdominal Tuberculosis............1.........1
Other Tuberculous Diseases...........................
Meningitis (not Tuberculous)............1...124
Convulsions...31...1...1...6
Laryngitis...........................
Bronchitis...4...122...110
Pneumonia (all forms)...1437523539
Diarrhoea...1...............12
Enteritis...72231......15
Gastritis...........................
Syphilis.....................11
Rickets............1.........1
Suffocation, over-lying...1...51.........2
Injury at Birth...l..................1
Atelectasis...l......1......13
Congenital Malformations......1......1...13
Premature Birth1521711526
Atrophy Debility and Marasmus...373512...21
Other causes...413...12213
Totals14519253191320163

Text

Copy text to clipboard

The infantile mortality rates of the eight wards of the Borough are given in
Table VI. (Appendix). The rate was highest in Church and lowest in Moorfields,
being 110 and 10 per 1,000 births respectively. The infantile mortality for England
and Wales was at the rate of 69, and for London 59 per 1,000 births.
The deaths of children between the ages of one and two years numbered 53,
the chief causes being measles and diseases of the respiratory organs. Between the
ages of two and five years 43 deaths occurred, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria,
whooping cough, diseases of the respiratory organs and violence by accident or
negligence being the main causes. Altogether 259 or 19.5 per cent, of the total
number of deaths at all ages were of children under the age of five years.
Taking the deaths at all ages, the chief causes were : diseases of the circulatory
organs, including heart disease, which accounted for 164, tuberculosis 144, including