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PREFACE
To the Chairman and Members of the
Carshalton Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report on the health of the
district for the year 1957.
As usual its early pages deal with vital statistics which constitute the
mathematical expression of the state of the public health in terms of fertility,
numbers and mortality. They are the indices by which progress in public
health is measured and without which sanitary reforms and the Public
Health Acts would not have been possible.
The district has entered upon a phase which is entirely new and that
is in relation to its numerical constitution. Until the last year or so the
district continued to grow and its population to increase with a varying rate
of increment. Recently however there is evidence that the progressive
increase in population has been brought to a halt and for the time being at
any rate the trend has been slightly reversed. This is due to several factors,
chiefly the gradual ageing of the population from its low level of 25 years
ago and a falling birth rate, the virtual absence of scope for further development
within the district and the abatement of overcrowding by movement of
population to the new towns and elsewhere.
The birth rate in 1957 was the lowest in the history of the district and
only the fact that it still enjoys a very favourable death rate, provides a not
unsatisfactory natural increase.
Of the total mortality the continuing high rate for cancer of the lungs
remains a disturbing feature. If the association with long practised excessive
smoking is valid, and there appears to be little doubt of it, this high
rate will inevitably continue for some years until either the disease is
prevented by restriction of the smoking habit or by the elimination if possible
of the carcinogenic agent in cigarettes or until a cure for the disease is
found once it is established.
After an interval of twelve years during which time more than 10,000
Carshalton babies were born without the loss of a single mother, it is sad to
report that a maternal death occurred in 1957. This was a true case of
septic infection which in earlier times took a considerable toll of women in
childbirth. The discovery of penicillin and other anti-biotic agents provided
a greatly improved means of combating maternal infection, but with the
passage of time many strains of organisms have developed resistance to
these once all-powerful bacteriocides. The organism which killed this
mother was such a one.
Control over the spread of infectious illness was maintained with an
encouraging degree of success. With the exception of measles for which no
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