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PREFACE.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Merton and Morden Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Annual Report for the
year 1943.
It is my intention to endeavour to keep this report as
concise as possible, but as the annual report serves to a large
extent as a reference, it is often necessary to include descriptions
of public health activities even though they have been
fully dealt with in previous years. In this way, while repetition
is inevitable, the risk of the report losing much of its value for
reference purposes is avoided.
The vital statistics for the year 1943 are in every respect
satisfactory. The birth rate has risen again above last year's
highest figure since 1927, and is, in fact, the highest recorded
since 1923. This is a remarkable and noteworthy fact, that to
find a comparable birth rate we have to go back to the years
after the last war twenty years ago.
The total number of live births has made a new record.
The 1942 figure of 1,069 was then the highest recorded until
now, the figure for 1943 is 1,146.
The infant mortality rate at 23.5 deaths of children under
one year per 1,000 live births is another record. As has been
mentioned in previous reports, the infant mortality figure is
always anxiously watched. This figure follows closely the
progress in infant care and management. It has been mentioned
before that during the past thirty years the infant mortality
figure for England and Wales as a whole has dropped from
130 to 50. The figure for Merton and Morden is even more
remarkable. In 1898 the rate was 212 per 1,000 births.
This was before the amalgamation of Merton and
Morden and represents the figure for Merton alone. For
the ten years up to 1907 the average was 108. In 1908 it
suddenly dropped to 48, and it is recorded as a matter for
congratulation, at the same time pointing out that the lowest
figure recorded for the previous ten years was 85. Our present
figure is the lowest ever recorded and, with one exception, this
figure for the district has been at or below 40 for the past ten
years. Sixty per cent. of these deaths occurred in the first
month of life. Of the total deaths of infants under one year,
18 occurred in the first month. This, as I have remarked in
previous years, points to the fact that until the hazards to the
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