Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wealdstone]
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Wealdstone,
20th February, 1911.
To the Chairman and Members of the Wealdstone Urban
District Council.
Gentlemen,
I have now the honour of presenting my Sixteenth
Annual Report upon the health and sanitary condition of
the Urban District of Wealdstone.
I am glad to be able to report the lowest death-rate
we have yet reached, viz., 7 per 1,000. The birth-rate
has dropped 5.5, owing to a shortage of 63 in the number
of births compared with 1909. The death-rate, after
deducting deaths of residents outside the district, is only
6 per 1,000. The Infant mortality rate has gone down
to 63.3 per 1,000 births, a fall of 8.7, and the zymotic
death-rate stands at only .16 per 1,000 of population.
The estimated population is 12,555. This has been
arrived at, as usual, by taking a census of the inhabited
houses in the district and multiplying the total of these
by the number of inhabitants per house at the time of
the last Government Census. This is now so remote
(comparatively) that the estimate of population may be
only approximately correct, but is as near as one can
hope to arrive at without an actual census of inhabitants.
A Government enumeration of the population every five
years would immensely increase the value of the vital
statistics generally. It would not be necessary to include
in this all the information sought for at the decennial
census, in fact, only the number, age and sex of the
population need be taken for this purpose. So far as
our own population is concerned, my observation leads
me to anticipate that it has increased in density and the
actual figures will be found, when checked by those of
the next census (this year), to be in excess of those quoted
in this Report.
BIRTHS.
The total number of births registered in the district
during 1910 was 284. Eight of these were registered as
illegitimate. There were 144 boys and 140 girls born,
and the number of births decreased by 63 as compared