[Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Swinton & Pendlebury Borough.

  • Swinton and Pendlebury (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Swinton & Pendlebury Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/42 (page 8)
    Diseases ”—[other than Enteritis, Meningitis and Peritonitis] —(21). That is to say, about 42 per cent, of the whole number of these infant deaths arose from constitutional or hereditary diseases ; whilst, if those arising from such causes as “Atrophy, Debility and Marasmus” are included, as well as from all forms of “ Tuberculous ” diseases, the figures amount to about 50 per cent, of the whole. Bronchitis and Pneumonia accounted for about 15 per cent, of the total number of deaths under the age of one year, and Diarrhoea, as before mentioned, for about 16 per cent. With the figures for 1905 before one, however, it must fairly be admitted that, with a district Infant Mortality rate of 128*8 per 1000 Births,—varying from as low as 63*7 in South Ward, to 190*2 in the West Ward,—the results are far more satisfactory than we might have been led to expect. Arising out of my report for 1904 on this question, a Special Com¬ mittee of the Council was appointed in the early part of 1905 to investigate the matter more closely, as well as the high mortality then existing from Respiratory diseases, though that Committee has not as yet reported on its work, and it will, I am sure, greatly rejoice the members of the Council to know that during the year 1905 there has been such an enormous falling- off in at least one of these two important sources of an increased death-rate. I would fain hope that many of the sug-gestions made by me on pp. 13-16 of my Annual Report for 1904 may have been taken up and acted upon by those for whom they were intended. In any case, the further report, which, in due course, will come up for your consideration, will, I trust, enable us to discover some means whereby the good results of 1905 may at least be maintained, and, it is to be hoped, subsequently improved upon where possible. Respiratory Diseases.—The general District rate from these affections in 1905 was 3*6 per 1000, that for East Ward