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9
INTRODUCTION
to the
ANNUAL REPORT of the MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
Health Department,
Town Hall,
Tottenham.
March, 1924.
To the Chairman and other Members of the Tottenham
Urban District Council.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have pleasure in presenting to you my Eleventh Annual
Report, namely that for the year ended December, 1923.
There have been no very conspicuous alterations in the administration
of the Health Department during the year. It has been a year of
consolidation and of preparation for modifications and amplifications that
promise further advantages. So far as figures can prove anything there
has been no falling back in any direction except in the number of births.
3,093 have been recorded this year as against 3,167 for the previous
year. On the other hand there has been a reduction in the number of
deaths by 295. The General Death Rate, 9.1 per 1,000 of the
population, the Infant Death Rate, 58.1 per 1,000 births, the Zymotic
Death Rate, 0.29 per 1,000 of the population and the Phthisis Death
Rate, 0.73 per 1,000 of the population are all reductions on previous
years. Notifications of Diphtheria amounted to rather less than half the
number in 1922, viz :—194, against 400, and whereas in 1922 Scarlet!
Fever notifications numbered 919, in 1923 the number was 385.
The housing difficulty remains a formidable proposition. So long
as there is not a surplus of houses for persons of the working classes,
so long will the difficulty remain of bringing occupied houses up to a