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45
Observations on the recent Report made by the Medical Officers of the
London County Council on the Sanitary Condition and Administration
of the Parish of St. Luke.
To the Public Health Committee.
Gentlemen,
The first subject contained in the above Report calling
for comment is the difference in the birth and death-rates therein
from those set out in the Report which I have recently submitted
for your consideration, and I think the explanation is to be found
in the fact that Dr. Young has obtained his figures from the
Returns of the Registrar-General, and which, for reasons I have
given, are not strictly reliable. This observation applies also to
the Zymotic Death-Rate.
With respect to the deaths of infants under one year of age,
the number appears to be much less than occurs in the adjoining
districts of Holborn aud Clerkenwell, which are given for comparison,
and while in four of the six years quoted it was slightly
above that of London as a whole, in the other two years it was
less, but it must not be forgotten that these figures are based
upon the assumption that the total number of births which take
place in the parish belong to St. Luke, whereas nearly 500 do
not so belong, consequently when death occurs to any of these
the record is made in another district.
The three subjects, however, which call for the special consisideration
of your Committee are:—
First, the necessity for the amendment of the Bye-laws relating
to houses let in lodgings or occupied by more than one family.
Second, the desirability of increasing the number of your
Sanitary Inspectors; and
Thirdly, the provision of further accommodation at the
Mortuary.
In reference to the first of these I may mention that the matter
has been under the consideration of the Vestry from time to
time since 1874, and Bye-laws were first made by the Vestry in
1884, but it was not found practical to put them in force, and as
doing so was then permissive the subject was allowed to remain
in abeyance until by the Public Health (London) Act the making
and enforcing of the Bye-laws became compulsory.