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PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT,
TOWN HALL, WEST HAM.
To the Public Health Committee.
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,
I beg to submit to you my Tenth Annual Report as your
Medical Officer of Health.
The Report deals with the year 1896, and in it I am instructed,
by the order of the Local Government Board, to include a summary
of the action taken by the Sanitary Authority during the year for
preventing the spread of disease, and also an account of the sanitary
state of the district generally at the end of the year.
It is obvious that there are many matters having direct or indirect
effect upon the public health with respect to which the Council has
taken action through the Engineer's Department, and which therefore
need only a passing, if any, reference in this Report.
Area and Population.—The County Borough comprises 4,706
acres. The enumerated population in 1891 (census) was 204,903, and
the inhabitated houses numbered 32,066, giving an average of 6'3
persons to a house, and 43.5 persons to an acre. The estimated
population, according to the Registrar General, for the middle of 1896
should be 261,279. There is no reason to suppose that the ratio of
persons to houses has increased, and calculating upon this basis from
the number of inhabitated houses it would appear that the foregoing
estimate is too high. I have on various occasions pointed out my
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