[Report 1918] / Medical Officer of Health, Accrington Borough.

  • Accrington (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1918] / Medical Officer of Health, Accrington Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/34 (page 3)
    To the Sanitary Authority of the Borough of Accrington. Gentlemen, I have the honour to su])init tor your consideration my Report on the Health and Sanitary condition of the Borough, for the year ending 31 st December, 1918. The population this year has been computed by the Registrar General to be 39,886 for the calculation of the death-rate, and 44,669 for the calculation of the birth-rate. The routine sanitary administration of the Borough has gone on tliroughout the year without interruption from strikes, and has been successful in keeping the Borough in a reasonable degree of cleanliness. We are fortunate in this town in having a very efficient system of scAvers and drains, and well paved back streets. This fundamental provision for cleanliness allows our great rainfall to act as a self-cleansing arrangement, washing and cleaning the streets of the Borough in a most thorough Avay. Cleanliness, personal and corporate, is the foundation upon Avhich good health stands. Judging from the condition of the children in the Public Elementary Schools of the Borough, I am warranted in saying that the general standard of personal cleanliness is good, and is improving. In oaw 99% of tho children examined little or no fault could be found under this head. A good deal of avoidable work has been inflicted upon the Scavenging Department by the bad state of repair of the coal carts, and also by the overloading of the same ; this has led to much dropping of fine coal in the streets, causing a great dust nuisance in fine, dry, windy weather, and making it impossible to get the ventilation of houses carried out satisfactorily. The births registered have slightly increased as against 1917, from 585 to 611, and the number of deaths have also increased from 565 to 601, so that the natural increase of population, that is the excess of births over deaths, has