London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Southall-Norwood 1903
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southall-Norwood]
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14
to the epidemic prevalence of Measles and Whooping Cough, which
are neither dependent upon the sanitary condition of a district nor to
to any great degree preventible by the Sanitary Authority.
For these reasons, I have divided the Zymotic Death Rate into
two portions—a notifiable and a non.notifiable—and it is especially
the first which furnishes a clue to the health conditions ot a community,
since it includes those diseases which are more or less
directly the expressions of faulty sanitary states.
It will be seen that the rate from the Scheduled Diseases has
decreased approximately 1 per 1,000 for the last two years, which is a
very satisfactory feature. In this group is included the Enteric Fever
Mortality, and this is held to be the test par excellence of the sanitary
conditions, caused as it is by specific foecal contamination of water
and air.
There has only been 1 death in your District from Enteric Fever
during the past 10 years—in 1897.
Infant Mortality.
The deaths of children under 1 year of is equivalent to 133.3 , per 1 ,000 children born and registered.
| Deaths under 1 year | Death rate per 1,000 living | Birth rate per 1,000 living | Death rate per 1,000 children born and registered. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1892 | 27 | 14.4 | 37.2 | 139.8 |
| 1893 | 14 | 11.5 | 34.6 | 74.0 |
| 1894 | 27 | 10.9 | 31.9 | 146.7 |
| 1895 | 26 | 13.9 | 28.1 | 139.5 |
| 1896 | 31 | I2.6 | 28'1 | 149.7 |
| 1897 | 28 | 11.3 | 32.1 | 110.2 |
| 1898 | 32 | 14.1 | 34.8 | 112.3 |
| 1899 | 51 | 14.6 | 31.4 | 156.1 |
| 1900 | 44 | 13.2 | 34.3 | 124.6 |
| 1901 | 65 | 16.o | 34.3 | 180.5 |
| 1902 | 62 | 12.2 | 36.6 | 133.3 |
Deaths under 5 years.
The deaths of children under 5 years of age is 48.9 per 1,000,
calculated on the number living at that age at the census 1901.
The infant and child mortality constitutes a critical index of the
health conditions; it is held that the rates of mortality amongst
infants and young children exceeding rates for the county generally,
are indications of unsatisfactory sanitary conditions in the Districts
in which they occur. (The rate for England and Wales in 1896 was
161 per 1,000 births registered).
It must be, however, remembered the term " unsatisfactory
sanitary conditions," is a very wide one, and in the present instance
implies maternal neglect, artificial feeding, and, above all, improper