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

  • Chelmsford (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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

    3/40
    Fairfield, Chelmsford, February 16th, 1910, TO THE MAYOE AND OTHER MEMBERS OP THE TOWN COUNCIL OP THE BOROUGH OF CHELMSFORD. Gentlemen, I have again the pleasure to present my Annual Report as Medical Officer of Health dealing with the vital statistics and the general sanitary condition of the Borough. Speaking in general terms, I believe you will find this Report highly satisfactory in character except in one particular, i.e., the Birth-rate. The year 1909 in question, from a sanitary and medical point of view, has been a very favourable one. No epidemic of any Zymotic Disease has occurred, and those cases of Notifiable Diseases that have arisen have been very mild in character. Again the general Death-rate is abnormally low— lower, in point of fact, than it has ever been before in the Borough; also, the Infantile Death-rate has fallen to the lowest point yet recorded. The Zymotic Death-rate is again so low that the figure, •31 per 1,000 deaths, is very remarkable. Against these most satisfactory figures I have to record with much concern a Birth-rate of only 18*45 per 1,000. This rate, the lowest I can find recorded for the Borough, is, in my opinion, absolutely disastrous, and goes far to remove the good impression given by the exceedingly favourable Death returns. The Birth-rate had steadily increased during the preceding two years. I had hoped to be able to record another increase, yet it has fallen to an alarmingly low figure. The average Birth- rate for the past ten years has been 23-8 per 1,000, which is a low return; yet this year it is only 18*45 per 1,000. I expect this will be the lowest Birth-rate recorded by any Urban District throughout England.