[Report 1897] / Medical Officer of Health, Sherborne U.D.C. / Town.

  • Sherborne (Dorset, England). Town Council.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1897] / Medical Officer of Health, Sherborne U.D.C. / Town. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    MEDICAL OFlu To the Chairman and I, . Urban / District Council. Gentlemen,— c She>, It is . Ann” ,«m my privilege to present you with an 7 *v*al Report as Medical Oiflcer of Health for the Urban Sanitary District of Sherborne. I believe the year of 1897, which iu many respects is a remarkable year, will not as far as its Sanitary history is con¬ cerned, for this District, be a very eventful one, or as far as I am aware, can be considered a record one in any degree. I will commence by taking the vital statistics, which are as follows ;— Mortality.—The total number of Deaths registered as occtiring within the District were 81—and may be shown by the following tables :— 1st Quarter.—Males, 11. Females, 12.—28. 2nd „ „ 7. „ 12.-19. 3'rd „ „ 7. „ 8.-15. 4ths „ „ 15. „ 9—24. Males, 40. Females, 41. 81 Total DEATHS OCCURRING IN INSTITUTIONS. _v 1st Qj\. 2nd 3rd 4th lhe Y.eatman Hospital ... 3 2 3 2 -- The Alms House . 0 0 0 1 - The Union Workhouse ... 3 3 3 1 - 10 1 9 5 5 0 4 20 DEATHS OF PERSONS NOT BELONGING TO THE DISTRICT. 1st Quarter, 5 ; 2nd, 3 ; 3rd, 7 ; 4th, 2. Total, IT. After deducting the deaths of persons not belonging to the District, the actual number for the year is 64, and the AnLual Death Rate is ll^jfper 1000 of the Population. During the last five years, 104' has been the highest and 71 the lowest number of deaths registered during the year. SIMer 1 Year. 3 2 1 4 10 AGES AT WHICH DEATH OCCURRED 1 year 5 years 15 years under under unner 5 years 15 years 25 years 25 years 65 yrs. under and 6*5 years Upwds 3 0 2 6 1st Quarter. 2 0 2nd Quarter, 0 0 3rd Quarter. 2 ' 0 4th Quarter 1 4 8 9 8 3 28 i 8 3 10 28 ■ above were 8, over 80 years of - 3 • oldest being 87 y e** 'H. Cerec-.*. Heart Disease 3 1 3 2 — ±z 8 Influenza ... 0 1 6 1 — 2 Cancer 0 1 2 0 — 3 Typhoid 0 0 0 0 — 0 Scarlet Fever . 1 0 0 0 — 0 Measles 0 0 0 3 — 3 Whooping Cough Old Age & Gen’rl C: ..... 0 0 0 0 — 0 ases 9 7 7 10 — 33 23 19 15 24 81 In the preceding table there were included five deaths from Accident or the result of violence—there were none due to self-destruction. 1st Quarter. - 2nd 3rd 4th 55 55 55 BIRTHS. 22. 7. 14. 17. Females, 17. — 39 12. — 19 9. - 23 15. — 32 \ 55 55 51 Males, 60. Females, 53. 113 The Annual Birthrate being 20*54 per 1000 of the population. During the last six years the highest number of births for the year has been 148, and the lowest 112 for the district.. * Sickness. I feel I can say without contradiction, that the year has been an exceptionally healthy one I mean this in a general sense. It is true the latter part was marked by an epidemic of measles, but this princapally affected children. The district was entirely free from Whooping Gough throughout the whole year, and there were only two cases of Scarlet Fever, which occurred in the last quarter. And I am happy to state there was not a case of Diptheria. There were some case of Enteric Fever, but they were mild and of a sporadic character,itnever threatened an epidemic form. As far as possible I endeavoured in all the cases to trace out the origin of the infection. The first case was in the first quarter, and was evi¬ dently brought into the town by a boy on a visit, he made a quick recovery and no other case occurred until the second quarter, when there were four cases, two of them were in a dwelling house at the West Mill near to the outfall of the Sewage System, and were evidently caused byemanations from the residuum of the sewage which was being removed, in my opinion in a too liquid form and was very offensive from the tanks, and was taken daily in front of the door of the- dwelling-house. I reported upon this matter at the time to your authority, and means were directly taaen to remedy it and stop further infection, with good results, the other two cases which occured about the same time were undoubtedly due to the same source of infection. I am strongly of opinion, that a serious epidemic was averted by the timely and energetic means adopted as soon as the mischief was discovered. The other cases that occurred were of a very mild type and mostly situated in the same locality the upper part of the town—and although I was not able to detect the cause. I felt they were most probably due to defective drainage and sanitary arrangements, as they chiefly occurred in very old houses and dilapidated premises, the drainage in the neighbourhood Las since been much improved, and fortunately, no other case has appeared, at this part of the Town '