[Report 1898] / Medical Officer of Health, Cannock U.D.C.

  • Cannock (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

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

Credit: [Report 1898] / Medical Officer of Health, Cannock U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (7) The carry ini’; nut <>F the ineasures recommended to be i^enerally under tlie direction of iledical Officers of Health, though a su])ervision is desiral)le of the IMedical Officers of Health by the Oounty Medical Officers for the elicctive apj)licatioii of means for tlie prevention of tuber- culosis, especially those etinnected with the control of tho milk supply. Five deaths occurreil in the Cannock ward, live in the Hednesford ward, three in the Chadsmoor ward, and four in the Workhouse—total, 17—indicating’ a ratio of 'll per 1000, against 9 recordetl for tho prcceiling year with a ratio of '4 per 1000. An iutere.sting pajjer on The iuliuence of locality on the prevalence of malignant disease was read last year befoi’e the llirmingham and iMidland Counties Hranch of the British Medical As.^ociatiini by Dr. Xason, of Xnneaton, whei’cin from observations of the comparative occurrence of the disease in the registration ilisti’icts of Xuneatf)n, Athcr.stone, iMarket Bosworth, and 1 bstock during tho 10 years 1886-1896 he gives the following relative percentages of mortality for the same period, viz.: ^ Five parishe.'^ lying on low ground near the / river ... ’O i>er cent. (1) Nuneaton. > parishes lying on higher ground, and ' further from the river ... 3 per cent. (2) Atherstone District, surrounding the sluggish river Anker ’72 per cent. (3) liartshill, part of Atherstone di.sfrict, hut higher, and also further from river ... ’3.3 per cent. ^ ^I bstock, near a small stream ’(',1 per cent. (4) :Market Bosworth ^ ytarket Bosworlli. higher, with better fall. Division. ^ stream near 28 per cent These statistics, if 1 may use his own words, “seemed to point to one thing vc ry clearly, viz., that the cases of malignant disease teml to grou]) themselves chiefly about the low-lying land in the neighbourhood of the sluggish streams, or where there is little fall, and where tlie subsoil must, in consequence, be but indiiferently drained, and that the clo.ser to the stream the more frequent the occurrence of malignant disease. Assuming that “one of the factoy-s in the causation of malignant disease is a micro-parasite having it.s habitat in stagnant water or ill-drained soil,” he concludes that as in the case of mularial organisms, “e.xhalations from water or sodden soil thus impregnated might be the means of conveying the infection. Cancer.