[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Friern Barnet].

  • Friern Barnet (London, England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Friern Barnet]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    20 In concluding this report, it is necessary briefly to refer to the account of statistics given relating to sickness and mortality in the district. There has been a small amount of illness and deaths caused through defective sanitation, such as typhoid fever ; this illness is entirely preventable. Scarlet fever and measles are chiefly spread by means of direct personal contact, and as the means of communication with surrounding districts are so easy, it is not to be surprised that these illnesses should rapidly spread when introduced into a district. Insanitary condition of premises is also a potent cause for the favourable extension of these diseases. Your Council, by adopting the necessary measures of notification, providing means for isolation, and disinfection has used your best endeavours to prevent infectious illness. The vital statistics of your district show a satisfactory state of affairs. The birth-rate, 26.5, is some what low. The mean annual birth-rate for the ten years 1883-1892 for England and Wales was 31.9 ; the mean annual birth-rate for the ten years 1884-1893 in your district was 33.0. The death-rate for the year 1895 is 10.0 per 1,000 ; this is a very low rate. The mean annual death-rate for England and Wales for the ten years 1883-1892 was 19.2 per 1,000. The mean annual rate in your district for the ten years 1884-1893 was 11.8 per 1,000. The zymotic death-rate was low, namely, 0.9 per 1,000. In England and Wales the zymotic death-rate was 3.1 per 1,000 in the year 1893. It will be noticed in the pages of the report that for the first time it has been possible to give a correct account of the population calculated on the census returns of the years 1881 and 1891, and a correct rate of births and deaths, and mean rate for ten years, 1884-1893. The Infantile Mortality was 117 to a thousand births, considerably lower than last year. Diarrhœa, a disease very fatal to young children, was markedly absent from your district during the year. Of diseases which caused deaths, it is to be noticed cancer and phthisis maintain about the same average each year. Cancer is supposed to be more prevalent on a clay subsoil than on other kinds of subsoil. A belief is also gaming ground that cancer may be due to a parasite; but in an exhaustive report by Dr. Klein, in the report of the Medical Officer to the Local Government Board, 1894, it is stated that the evidence at present it not sufficient to prove the assertion that cancer is due to a parasite. Convulsions caused eleven deaths in infants. These deaths illustrate how easy it is to disturb the delicate nervous system of a young child. Heart disease caused nine deaths, and probably points to the break-down in the principal organ of life as the result of increased exertions in the struggle for existence. My report contains a record of your Council's action in approaching, during the year, difficult questions relating to public health, namely. constant water supply, ventilation of sewers, prevention of dampness in buildings, etc. I would here gratefully acknowledge the invariable courtesy I have met at your hands, and the just consideration my reports have received. I have also to thank the officials of the Council for kind assistance I have in the course of my duties received from them. I have to subscribe myself, Your Obedient Servant, HUGH STOTT.
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