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Town Hall, Fulham, S.W.
Gentlemen, March 16th, 1896.
REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT MEDICAL OFFICER
TO THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL.
The report of Dr. Young, one of the Assistant Medical Officers to
the London County Council, on the Sanitary Condition Administration
of the Parish of Fulham, has been referred by the Committee to me
for my observations.
The first portion of the report—which deals with the situation, area,
rateable value, population, the density and age and sex constitution of the
population of the parish-requires no comment, as the facts and figures
have been given in my reports.
With regard to the death-rates given, with which you are also
familiar, it will be noticed that in 1894, as well as in the other years
referred to, the corrected death-rate was lower, though only slightly so,
in Fulham than in London.
Dr. Young remarks that the zymotic death-rate of Fulham is higher
than that of London, but in comparing the zymotic death-rates, the age
constitution of the districts must, as I have pointed out, be taken into
account, as the most prevalent of the seven principal zymotic diseases are
mainly fatal to young children; in fact, upwards of 90 per cent. of the
deaths from these diseases are of children under the age of 15 years, so
that a district with a population containing a large proportion of children
will, other things being equal, have a higher zymotic death-rate than a
district with a population containing a small proportion of children. The
proportion of children under 15 years of age amounts in Fulham to 36.6
per cent. of the population, and in London to only 32.4, and taking this
difference into consideration it will be found that the corrected zymotic
death-rate for Fulham is only 5 per cent. higher than that of London,
while the uncorrected zymotic death-rate is no less than 16 per cent.
higher.
In making these calculations, I have corrected an error in the zymotic
death-rate for 1891, as given in the report, which should be 2.3 instead
of 3.1.
The infantile mortality which, as Dr. Young points out, is also higher
than that of London, is adversely affected by the fact that the proportion
of illegitimate to legitimate births is higher in Fulham than in London,
for, as is well known, the mortality of illegitimate is more than double that
of children born in wedlock, though this factor does not by any means
entirely account for the difference in the infantile mortality of London and
Fulham. On the other hand, the death-rate of children betwen the ages
of 1 and 5, an important sanitary test, is lower in Fulham than in
London.
The next matter dealt with by Dr. Young is the general structure and
conditions of the houses in Fulham, and this is perhaps the most
important feature in the report. Dr. Young says:—"A marked feature
which attracted attention in this district is the inferior character of the
building which has taken place in some parts. Houses which I found