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REPORT.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to lay before you the Annual Report for
this parish. I need scarcely remind you that my appointment as
Medical Officer of Health dates from January last; and that consequently
my personal supervision extends only to the three months
ending March 25th, 1876.
It was my wish, and the Sanitary Committee were willing, that this
report should be for the year ending December, 1876; but, upon
inquiry, I found that, by the 25th and 26th Victoria, cap. 102, sec. 43,
Metropolitan Medical Officers of Health are required to present the
Annual Report in the month of June. I must, therefore, at the commencement
of my task, crave your kind indulgence for the meagre
dimensions and many short-comings of this, my first report.
The Vital Statistics, which are appended, are based upon the
quarterly printed returns of the Registrar General; those for the
months of January, February, and March, which are somewhat more
detailed, have for their foundation the weekly returns from the same
authority. They are not so full as I could wish, the returns alluded
to extending only to the principal zymotic diseases, and one or two
others.
In former years, each Metropolitan Medical Officer of Health was
supplied, weekly, by the Registrar General with the particulars of all
births and deaths occurring in his district. Last year, however, notice
was given that, for the future, the weekly returns would not be
forwarded, and that, if the various local authorities still required those
returns, they could have them by paying the District Registrars at the