View report page

3
Public Health Department,
Quarry Hill,
Grays, Essex.
To the Chairman and Members of the Orsett
Rural District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you my Sixth
Annual Report upon the Health and Sanitary Circumstances
of the Orsett Rural District.
Once again I am pleased to report that the District
appears an unusually healthy one. The Death Rate at
8.9 compares well with that of 1932 (9.7) and still better
with the national rate of 12.3. The infantile Mortality
Rate is lower at 40.1 against 50.2 last year (Rate for
England and Wales 64.0). The Birth Rate has dropped
from 17.5 to 15.5, but is still above the national Rate of
14.4. The nation's falling birth-rate has been the
subject of much alarmist propaganda during the last
few years, and I think that the Press occasionally tends
to present somewhat one-sided views to the public. In
the days of very high birth-rates the amount of sickness
and deformity amongst the newly-born was infinitely
greater than it is to-day, and much more of it remained
untreated. An enormous number of infants died in
the first few years of life. To-day, although the birthrate
is lower the average child's expectation of life is
much greater, and infant mortality has dropped by
leaps and bounds. The odds in favour of the average
child growing up to become a healthy and useful citizen
are higher to-day than they have ever been in the
history of public health work, and for this reason I consider
that a lower birth-rate is not to be regarded as
the calamity it is sometimes represented.
Infectious diseases need no special comments. The
increase in the number of cases of Scarlet Fever notified