London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Walthamstow 1908
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]
This page requires JavaScript
5
This widespread absence of fertility, yearly becoming more marked,
will no doubt be explained in many ways, and the part played by
industrial and social conditions, religious and other influences will be
duly discussed. Enough for us to know that our low birth.rate favoured
our death.rate, and while acknowledging this we must give due credit to
the various measures taken on behalf of the Public Health and to the
yearly improved conditions under which we live.
As a guide to compare your district with other portions of the
Kingdom and to more readily appreciate our position, the following
table will serve:—
| Annual Rate per 1,000 Living. | Deaths under one year to 1,000 Births. | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Births | Death.rate. | Principal Epidemic Diseases Cols. 4.10. | Small.Pox. | Measles. | Scarlet Fever. | Diphtheria. | Whooping Cough. | Fever. | Diarrhoea. | |||
| Crude. | Corrected. | |||||||||||
| Cols. | 1. | 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. | 6. | 7. | 8. | 9. | 10. | 11. | 12. |
| England and Wales | 26.5 | 14.7 | 14.7 | 1.29 | 0.00 | 0.22 | 0 08 | 0.15 | 0.27 | 0.07 | 0.50 | 121 |
| 76 Great Towns | 270 | 14.9 | 15.8 | 1.59 | 0.00 | 0.31 | 0 10 | 0.16 | 0.29 | 0 08 | 0.65 | 128 |
| 142 Smaller Towns | 26.0 | 140 | 14.7 | 1.26 | 0.00 | 0.20 | 0.06 | 0.15 | 0.25 | 0.08 | 0.52 | 124 |
| England and Wales less the 218 Towns | 26.2 | 14.7 | 13.8 | 0.99 | 0.00 | 0.13 | 0.06 | 0.15 | 0.25 | 0.07 | 0.33 | 110 |
| Walthamstow | 26.48 | 9.56 | 10.1 | 0.95 | 0.00 | 0.27 | 0.08 | 0.15 | o.o1 | 0.09 | 0.30 | 100.8 |
| „ 1907 | 28.55 | 10.88 | 11.5 | 1.83 | 0.00 | 0.23 | 0.17 | 0.27 | 0.60 | 0.04 | 0.50 | 104.7 |
It will be noticed from the table that the death-rates from Scarlet
Fever and Diphtheria are similar to those of England and Wales and
only half those of 1907.
The steady decline in the death and attack rate of Diphtheria has
been remarked upon in each Annual Report since the Isolation
Hospital was established, and we now have reached the lowest mortality
figure yet recorded, which is one sixth of that in 1899.