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69
SECTION IV.—CAUSES OF SICKNESS.
Specify any causes of sickness and invalidity which have been
specially noteworthy in the district during the year. (This should
include information obtained from local general practitioners).
It is very difficult to write definitely on this section of the
Annual Report, because the Medical Officer of Health has no
access to any sickness returns such as those which are available
to the officers of approved societies under the National
Insurance Act, and the information which is expected to be
given in this section can only be a matter of impressions
gleaned from such sources as the local general practitioner,
or the monthly certificates of illness handed in by members
of the Council's staff, and such deductions as can be made
on the incidence of certain diseases in the death returns. It
is on this basis that this section is written.
The impression which the year left on most of us from a
meteorological point of view was an unfavourable one. The
weather was cold and damp, particularly in the early part
of the year, and, as a consequence, there was an excess amount
of respiratory and rheumatic affections, the deaths from these
diseases being higher than they have been for some years.
It should be mentioned here that the number of deaths is not
a definite measure of sickness and can only be regarded as an
index. Influenza, of a milder type than has been experienced
in recent years, was present in epidemic form in January,
February and March, and its distribution was general throughout
the Borough. Judging by the notifications received, there
was an increase in the amount of pneumonia, 354 notifications
being received compared with 242 in the previous year. This