London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Walthamstow 1904

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]

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18
3 of residents whose deaths occurred elsewhere outside the district are
now added, making a total of 1,330 deaths properly attributable to
Walthamstow.
Of these deaths 691 were males and 639 females.
Four deaths were registered without a Coroner's or medical
practitioner's certificate, showing a very small percentage (-3) of
uncertified deaths. Even this should not be possible. All death
certificates should be transmitted by the certifying party — Coroner or
medical practitioner—to the Registrar, and no certificate should be
given without an examination of the dead body. This would be a great
safeguard to the public, and a more correct and true classification of the
causes of death would ensue.
Under present conditions it is quite possible to obtain a death
certificate for one who is very ill but not dead, and if no suspicion is
aroused no enquiry is made ; temptation is thus put in the way of the
criminally inclined.
The deaths registered represent a death-rate of 11-95 per 1,000 of
the population, or 4'25 per 1,000 below that of England and Wales.
The death-rate for 1904 for the "76 Great Towns " was 17'2.
Correcting our death-rate of 11 '95 for age and sex distribution, we
get a rate of 12'78, which is 4'42 per 1,000 lower than those places
truly comparable with our district.
The estimated populations of the " 76 Great Towns " are made by the
Registrar-General on a like assumption that our population is 111,282.
Taking the population as 108,000 our death-rate would be 12-3, and
corrected for age and sex distribution, 13'6, or 3 per 1,000 less than the
country as a whole, and 4 per 1,000 less than places—the "76 Great
Towns"-—comparable with Walthamstow. Even the "142 Smaller
Towns" given by the Registrar-General have a death-rate of 15-6 per
1,000 of their population.
One death was registered for every 81-2 persons of the population, as
compared with 1 in 90 in 1903, 1 in 87 in 1902, and 1 in 75 in 1901.
The ratio of male to female deaths was 100 to 92-4.
The causes of death and the ages of persons dying are set out on
page 26a.