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TO THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS
of the
Walthamstow Urban District Council.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present to you my Annual Report for 1920.
It is the twenty-third submitted by me and its formation is based on
the Memorandum issued by the Ministry of Health in February last.
Much of the general information again asked for by the Ministry was
given in the Report for 1919, and with little variation is reproduced.
The first Report printed for the District was issued in 1889, and
consisted of six pages of written matter and five made up of Tables of
Deaths and Mortality rates.
That of the Inspector of Nuisances addressed to the Medical Officer
of Health occupied three pages.
There were four earlier Annual Summaries, mainly Tables of
Mortality and Sickness, on two sheets of foolscap.
In 1889 the population was estimated at 44,000; in 1920 the
estimate is 132,912.
In 1898 I inherited a "Register for Infectious Diseases," the only
official record then kept by the Medical Officer of Health.
In those days defective drains with their emanations, and similar
nuisances, occupied the main activities of those employed in the work
of Public Health. VVe have moved considerably from that position!
To-day, although the house and its surroundings play a large part in
the general well-being of the community, a truer conception of Public
Health and the means for its attainment and maintenance obtains, and
we rightly devote the greatest attention to the individual personally and
collectively.
In 1905 the first woman Health Visitor was appointed, and in 1909
Medical Inspection of School Children was undertaken.
There are now ten ladies fully occupied with the supervision of the
health of our child-bearing women, our babies and our school children.