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6
PREFACE.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit the Thirty-Second Annual Report on the Health
of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich.
In accordance with the instructions of the Council the report follows the outline
indicated by the Ministry of Health in order to ensure uniformity in the presentation
of Annual Reports of Medical Officers of Health throughout the country.
The vital statistics for the year are as follows:—The birth rate was 14.0, compared
with 15.1 in 1931; the death rate was 11.1 as compared with 11.6; the
infantile mortality rate was 60 as compared with 59; the neo-natal mortality rate
(deaths under four weeks, per 1,000 births) was 24.82 as compared with 28.77.
Maternal deaths numbered 6—two less than in 1931—the rate for the year being 2.92.
The population of the Borough is estimated by the Registrar General at the
middle of the year to be 146,900. This is the total population and includes the
military. It marks a return to the pre-war practice of the Registrar General who has
now discontinued the system inaugurated during the war of differentiating between
the civil and military populations. It is on this figure that the rates of the Borough
are calculated and so, when any comparison of figures in this report is made with
those of the past 17 years, this change of practice must be allowed for.
During the year a volume of the 1931 Census Reports showing the tables relating
to the Administrative County of London was published. From this the figures in so
far as they relate to Woolwich have been extracted and comparisons are made with
the figures for 1921. This report shows that the population of Woolwich has
increased during the last decade by 4.6 per cent, compared with an increase of 15.67
per cent in the previous inter-censal period. The increase is, however, practically
confined to Avery Hill and Sherard Wards. The detailed figures, so far as they relate
to population, will be found in the first part of the report, and so far as they relate
to dwellings, rooms and families, in the Housing Section of the report.
Compared with 1931, the incidence of notifiable infectious diseases showed little
change. There were fewer cases of diphtheria (233 against 281) and more scarlet
fever (544 against 387). The number of cases of pneumonia notified fell from 371 to
247, while the number of notifications of puerperal fever and puerperal pyrexia