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To the Chairman and Members
of the
Walthamstow Urban District Council.
Gentlemen,
I beg to present to you my Annual Report for 1902.
The year was a very favourable one.
We have experienced unusual freedom from Summer Diarrhoea,
which was mainly attributable to the heavy falls of rain, occurring during
the months of July and August, cooling the atmosphere, lowering the
earth surface temperature and preventing putrefactive changes.
In other respects the year was chiefly remarkable for the severe
epidemic of Small Pox which took its rise in London in the latter months
of 1901, and spread rapidly to the various suburbs. The full force of
the epidemic was experienced in your district in the first seven months
of the year under review, and one hundred and forty-four cases occurred
during that period followed by two in August, after which your district
became quite free.
With this exception, the year has been exceptionally free from illness
of all kinds, and, whether judged by the general death rate, Infantile
Mortality rate, Zymotic death rate, Infectious Sickness rate, or by any
of the standards usually adopted, one of the healthiest on record.
The Birth rate for the year was above the average for the preceding
ten years, and 33'81 per 1,000 of the population.
The Death rate was the extremely low one of 11'38, or 2'7 per 1,000
below the average for the previous ten years, and the lowest recorded
for 23 years, and 5 per 1,000 lower than England and Wales, 1902.
We have had a birth rate of 5 per 1,000 greater and a death rate of
5 per 1,000 less than the country generally, a condition that must be
looked on as highly satisfactory, considering the locality and character
of the population.