[Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Huddersfield County Borough.

  • Huddersfield (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Huddersfield County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/114 (page 4)
    i To the Chairmen and Members of the Health and Sanitary Committees of the County Borough of Huddersfield. Gentlemen, I have the pleasure to present the thirty-eighth Annual Report on the health of the borough since the hist appointment of a Medical Officer of Health. It is the fifth prepared by me. The methods of estimation of population, in addition to that of the Registrar-General, are again set forth with his, except the fourth, namely, that based on a comparison of the number of children on the School Registers of the Education Authority. This is omitted because the Education Department have during the past year omitted names from the registers under certain circumstances, and are unable to supply figures for 1905, which may be compared with those for 1904 and preceding years. The method of estimation of the Registrar-General, is based on the assumption that a population which has in¬ creased during one inter-census period of 10 years, will continue to increase, and that it will do so at the same rate during the next 10 years. A decrease is estimated in the same way. Thus not only is the rate assumed to be uniform for the extended period of 10 years, but the further assumption is of necessity acted upon that the change continues in the same direction, whether of increase or decrease, for 20 years. It is to bfl expected a priori where this system is applied to a large number of communities of varying numbers of inhabitants, that in certain instances it will break down. Because it is highly improbable, in the smaller places particularly, that the rate, of change will be uniform, and a, diminution in a. rate of increase need only continue long enough to become a positive decrease. Doubtless the method is the best devisable for common applica¬ tion to a large number of places; but it is clearly permissible to supplement it by conclusions arrived at by persons familiar with local conditions. This has been done. The results appear to show that the population of Huddersfield has again become a