[Report 1899] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City.

  • Leeds City Council
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1899] / Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    103/182 (page 93)
    Diarrhcea in city during decade. In an earlier part of the report a comparison was made between the mortality from phthisis in the quinquennium 1890- 1894 and that in 1895-1899. 1 his was worked out for each in the intercepts. A similar table will be found attached, shewing the increase, or decrease, in the later, as compared with the earlier quinquennium (p. 94). In the whole city the increase in this quinquennium had been one of 20 per cent. During the five years 1885-1889 the Leeds death-rate from diarrhoea had been no, it fell in 1890-1894 to roo, but rose in 1895-1899 to no.* Owing to registration difficulties, and the possible under¬ estimate of our population, this increase of 20 per cent, may be more apparent than real. It has also to be remembered that the inclusion of a single year of heavy death-rate in any one of the periods would account for this difference. The years 1895 and 1897 were two such years of heavy mortality in the later period, whilst the year of lowest mortality in the whole decade (1894) occurred in the earlier period. It is convenient, however, to accept the apparent increase of 20 per cent. Districts whose rate increased more than cent, per cent.— Taking this average increase in the borough, it will be found that it was very much exceeded in the part of the East ward in Osmondthorpe, with which we have combined the part of the North-east ward in Chapeltown. In this almost rural district the increase is actually 367 per cent., the deaths in the first period having been 1, in the second 11. Even with this increase, * It will be noticed that these are annual rates. Those referred to earlier, in speaking of Leeds and other towns, were also annual rates, but they were annual rates dealing only with the third quarter—-a quarter of heavy mortality. If third quarters only had been taken the increase in the rate would have been 26 per cent, instead of 20, the numbers being 2-98 in the earlier, and 4-04 in the later