[Report 1909] / Medical Officer of Health, Preston County Borough.

  • Preston (Lancashire, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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

    5/66
    Report of the Medicat Officer of Health. TO THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE HEALTH COMMITTEE. Gentlemen, In each of my recent Annual Reports I have been able to refer to a gradually decreasing rate of mortality, and I have the satisfaction of being able to preface this—for the past year of T909—with the statement that the death rate is absolutely the lowest to be found in the Borough records. The causes which during the period in question have combined to bring about this satisfactory result, are much the same as those which have beneficially operated during the last few years, and whilst the work of the Health Authority, and a wider knowledge of sanitation amongst the people, have had much to do with the improvement, it must not be forgotten that the improvement is general throughout the country, and is in part at least due to favourable conditions of climate and temperature. At the last census in 1901 the population of the town was returned as 112,982, and for the year just past was estimated by the Registrar General as 118,519, showing an increase for the 8 years of 5,537, whereas the natural increase—the excess of births over deaths—was 9087. So that if these figures be correct there must have been a very considerable number of persons leaving the town. But the boundaries of the town have not been extended, and one cannot but note the great number of houses, and better class cottages, which during the last few years have been erected in Penwortham and Fulwood, districts which, though out¬ side the borough boundaries, still form integral parts of the town. In this respect Preston stands at a disadvantage with many other towns, since the inclusion of the suburbs implies the inclusion of young people, who are beginning married life, and who without contributing much to the death rate, materially assist in maintaining the number of births. These are matters which must be taken into consideration when considering the vital statistics of any given town or district, and which go to prove that it is by the quality—the nature—of the recorded deaths, rather than by their actual number, that the health of any locality must be guaged.