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To the Chairman and Members of the
Sutton (Surrey) Urban District Council.
Gentlemen,
In accordance with the Regulations of the Local
Government Board, I present my Annual Report for
the year 1910.
The general health of the district has been good,
and the death-rate from all causes—9.3 per 1,000
persons living—has twice only (9.2 in 1903, and 8.9 in
1905) been lower, and is 1.3 below the average rate
for the previous ten years.
With the exception of an outbreak of measles in the
spring—evidently of a mild type, as no death of a
resident from this disease was registered—there has
been a marked freedom from epidemic diseases, the
combined death-rate from the seven principal, viz.—
Small-pox, Scarlet Fever, Enteric Fever, Diphtheria,
Measles, Whooping Cough, and Diarrhœa—being less
than half the average rate for the previous ten years.
The Infantile Mortality Rate, i.e., deaths under one
year of age per 1,000 births, was 65, the same figure as
in 1909, and a low one for an Urban District; still, as
during the past five years (1906-1910), the rate for
infants born in houses rented at or under 10s. per
week has been thrice that of those born in houses
with a higher rental, one may reasonably hope for a
further reduction in the infantile mortality in this
district.
Leaflets on the feeding and care of infants are sent
to all cottages as soon as the Registrar's weekly
returns of births are received. These probably have
some good effect, but better results should follow if
the Notification of Births Act were in force, and home