[Report 1936] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City.

  • Edinburgh (Scotland). City Council
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1936] / Medical Officer of Health, Edinburgh City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Public Health Departi\ Johnston Edinburgh; My Lord Provost, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit the Annual Report on the Health of the City for the year 1936. Population.—The estimated population for the City is 464,139 210,720 males and 233,419 females. This figure represents an increase of 3,262 on the previous year’s estimate. Births.—There were born 7,391 children 3,759 males and 3,632 females. This gives a birth-rate of 15-9 per 1,000. The birth-rate in 1935 was 15 3 per 1,000. Illegitimate births numbered 464 or 6‘3 per cent, of the total. Liberton ward (25-1) had the highest birth-rate and Morningside ward (8 0) the lowest. Deaths.—After adjustments for transfers the deaths from all causes totalled 6,226—3,017 males and 3,209 females—equal to a death-rate of 13 4 per 1,000. This is a slight increase over the preceding year—the death-rate in 1935 being 13 3 per 1,000 of the population, and the total number of deaths 6,132. The average death- rate for five years 1930-1935 was 131 per 1,000 of the population. George Square ward (17 2) had the highest general death-rate. It is interesting to note that for the seventh successive year Gorgie ward has had the lowest genera death-rate (9 8). Included in this ward, which has a population of 30,388, is the ex- tensive housing area at Stenhouse. The fall in the birth-rate, aided by a greater expectation of life, is causing a larger proportion of the population to be centred in the later decades of life. Forty-nine per cent, of the total deaths in the City related to persons over the age of 65 years. This ageing” of the population is not confined to the City, but is the experience of the whole country and is a factor that is likely to have, in time, a profound effect on the whole social structure of the people, quite apart from its effects on socia legislature. When the total City deaths are analysed by cause it is found that one of the leading features is the increase in the number of deaths from diseases of the heart. These conditions, responsible for 1,317 deaths, are numerically the greatest single cause of death—451 of the deaths occurred in persons below the age of 65, that is to say, in those who are still by modern standards, young and active. The vast majority of cases of heart disease are rheumatic in origin though the symptoms of the causal rheu- matic attack may have been vague and fleeting. Whilst advances in medical science may greatly mitigate the after-effects of rheumatism in the young, and while the bchool
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