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7
PORT OF LONDON SANITARY OFFICES,
51, KING WILLIAM STREET,
GREENWICH, S.E.
TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE PORT OF LONDON
SANITARY COMMITTEE.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present herewith the Annual Report of the Medical
Officer of Health for the year 1915, being the fourteenth of the series.
I have to record the sad loss your Committee have sustained by the death of your
late Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Herbert Williams, which occurred after a very
short illness on the 16th January, 1916, while this Report was in course of preparation.
The Report, therefore, on this occasion will lack the personal note which is imparted
by the Officer under whose supervision the work comprised in the following pages has
been actually carried out.
Following the lines of past Reports, however, I give a few notes by way of
general comment on the year's work, supplemented where convenient by such facts as
have come within my personal knowledge.
The total number of vessels arriving in the Port of London, from "foreign"
during the year, was 7,161 at Gravesend, and 96 at Sheerness, the average for the
past ten years being 9,194.6 at Gravesend, and 299.7 at Sheerness.
Of the total arrivals, 2,393 were medically inspected at Gravesend, and 58 at
Sheerness.
The details of these figures are given in Tables I. and II.
Compared with the average for the past ten years, the percentage of arrivals
medically inspected during 1915, namely 33 per cent., represents an increase on the
average of about 6 per cent., and shows that closer medical supervision was desirable,
and therefore more work than usual has devolved upon your Medical Officers.
Infectious Disease is dealt with in Tables III. to XXVI.
Food Inspection is specially dealt with; full particulars will be found in
Tables XXVII. to XXIX.
Sanitary Inspection is summarised in Tables XXX. to XXXV.