[Report 1909] / Medical Officer of Health, Bath City & County Borough.

  • Bath (England). City and County Borough Council.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1909] / Medical Officer of Health, Bath City & County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    69/72 (page 69)
    CONCLUSION. There was no serious outbreak of disease during the year 1909 calling for special comment. A study ot the principal table of causes of death, page 39, will show that deaths from preventable causes were considerably below the average of the preceding ten years, the returns for this period being given in the end columns. If we compare the deaths at various age periods we notice that there is a great saving of life in recent years, particularly during the first half of life when persons are far more susceptible to the influences of general environment than at later periods. The corrected annual death-rate, 12*6 per 1,000, is surprisingly low if we remember that Bath is a resort for invalids, many of whom taking up their residence here at or beyond 60 years of age. The variation in the weekly death-rate is of course very great, from 5 to 25, and this variation is almost entirely due to conditions which are universally prevalent. Weekly death- rates are calculated on the assumption that the deaths which occur in one week, continued in the same proportion throughout the year, would produce the stated rate per 1,000 as an annual death-rate. The chief inference to be drawn from a weekly death- rate is that a certain number of persons have had their deaths retarded by favourable or hastened by unfavourable climatic conditions. The daily death rate is of course still more erratic. If we examine the chart on page 48 we may see that on 157 days there was no death in Bath—giving a negative death-rate simulating Immortality. On 22 days there were seven deaths, which, if continued daily throughout the year would give an annual death-rate of 51 per 1,000. It is not safe to draw conclusions from the annual death-rate of a small population, such as a community of 1,000 persons, and for the short period of one week—the weekly death-rate of a city of 50,000 population presents about the same probability of error. In endeavouring to estimate the influence of temperature upon the death-rate I have taken the returns for L,ondon, which has a population nearly one hundred times greater than Bath ; the results are stated on page 46 for the five years, 1905-9. The number of deaths and the death-rates per 1,000 of the various age periods, in weeks of varying temperature, being grouped to show the influence of temperature. By the mean absolute minimum temperature is meant the mean of the lowest temperatures recorded in that series of weeks under consideration. For example, there were 20 weeks in the five years during which the mean minimum temperature for the week was below 320 F. ; the absolute minimum varied from 12*1° to 27*6° F,, the mean of the twenty weeks was 227. There were 24 weeks when the mean minimum temperature was between 32° and 340, the absolute minimum varying from 17*9° to 30,4°, the mean of the absolute weekly minimum being 270.