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

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Walthamstow 1933

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]

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64
Several of the houses from, which cases had arisen, were
visited, a refuse shoot in the vicinity was inspected, and a ditch
at the back of the houses on one side of the street was inspected.
No obvious causal factor could be found in these directions.
The question of unemployment was then gone into, and failing
an explanation on this ground, the nett income per head was
worked out by Miss Lewis, Secretary of the Walthamstow
Branch of the Invalid Children's Aid Association. Four of the
families showed a nett income of less than 6s. per head.
Mr. West, your Council's Housing Manager, then pointed out
that these houses had been allotted about 6 years ago to families
which had previously occupied only one room. He suggested that
in view of the fact that only three of the fourteen children were
under 6 years of age in 1933, it appeared probable that the underlying
cause was that the children had been born and had been
previously brought up under grossly overcrowded conditions.

The following table shows the particulars regarding the above

cases:—

AgeReferred fo Convalescen Home Treatmentr Diagnosis, tFather's Employment.Nett income after deducting rent.Nett income per head per week after deducting rent.Number of children
s ds d
1Orthopaedic ClinicBowed TibiaeEmployee73/714/93
7TuberculosisDeb. after S.F.Employee36/53/68
6Officer,, „ Dysentery
5,, and Anaemia
13Rheumatism ClinicGeneral Debility and Nervous Exhaustion.Employee50/710/13
6HospitalNervous DebilityEmployee:73/714/93
8HospitalPersistent EnuresisEmployee39/89/112
12A.S.M.O.Anaemia and General DebilityEmployee53/17/75
11Tuberculosis OfficerCatarrhEmployee62/55/29
10HospitalPoor General Health, Loss of WeightEmployee53/55/47
8A.S.MO.AnaemiaEmployee40/76/9]3
1HospitalBickets. MalnutritionEmployee55/36/116
7Orthopaedic ClinicFlat FootEmployee50/-10/-3
12A.S.M.O.Debility and AnaemiaUnemp. 1 month20/92/7 unemp. 5/11 employee6