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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 1903.
I am pleased to say the Report furnishes abundant evidence of the
healthiness and general good sanitary condition of the District.
The general death-rate is the lowest recorded for the past twenty-four
years, and nearly 2.5 lower than the average for the previous ten years,
while the birth-rate, 33.25, is only slightly lower than in 1902, and
nearly .5 higher than the average of the previous ten years.
Compared with England and Wales, your birth-rate is 4.85 higher
and your death-rate 4.32 lower than the country generally.
Considering the working-class population you have to deal with, and
the situation of your District, these figures are highly satisfactory.
The Infantile Mortality rate (the number of deaths of children under
one year for every 1,000 births) was the extremely favourable one of
113-7—one of the lowest recorded—and 30 lower than the average for
the preceding ten years, as against 132 for England and Wales as a
whole and 144 for the 76 Great Towns.
The Zymotic death-rate, or the death-rate from the seven principal
communicable diseases, was 1.97 compared with 2.65 for the previous
ten years.
The Sickness and Mortality rates for Infectious Diseases were both
low, and compare favourably with previous years, notwithstanding the
increased number of cases of Typhoid in September, October, and
November.
The Infectious Sickness rate, 6.2, was the lowest on record, and the
marked diminution in the number of cases of Scarlatina and Diphtheria
since the opening of the Sanatorium, would certainly appear to be due
to the facility—inadequate though it be—provided for isolation of first
cases.