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TO THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS
of the
Walthamstow Urban District Council
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to submit my Twenty-seventh Annual Report on the
Vital Statistics and Sanitary Administration of the District for
the year 1924.
The Report is compiled in accordance with the instructions
issued by the Ministry of Health in 1921.
The year under review, apart from the number of cases of
Encephalitis Lethargica arising from March until September,
presented no special features of importance.
Compared with 1923, there was a considerable drop in the
birth-rate—17.4 against 19.4—and an increase in the death-rate—
10.01 compared with 8.96.
There were 183 more deaths in 1924 compared with 1923 and
the increase was distributed over nearly all the principal diseases
which bulk largely in Mortality Statistics.
Deaths from Influenza were greater by 23; those from Heart
Disease and Arterio Sclerosis by 61; Tuberculosis by 14; and
there were 92 more deaths from other diseases of the Respiratory
Organs—Bronchitis and Pneumonia.
There was no increase in deaths from Cancer, but strangely
we had 30 more deaths in children under one year of age, although
the number of births was 238 less than in 1923.
Twenty of these deaths were due to Pneumonia; 5 to Whooping
Cough ; 2 to Measles; and 4 children were lost by want of attention
at birth.
The increased number of deaths must not be interpreted as a
reflection on the work of our Child Welfare Centres or Health
Visitors, nor could they be prevented by any Welfare System of
visiting and advice short of provision for specialised Hospital
treatment.
The Registrar-General estimates that our 1924 Mid-year population
was 131,100, or 137 more than our excess of births over
deaths would account for, compared with 1923.