[Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Southend-on-Sea Borough.

  • Southend-on-Sea (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Southend-on-Sea Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    To these must be added 30 deaths of residents which occurred in public institutions outside the district. Thus we get 596 as the nett deaths belonging to the district. This number gives a nett death-rate of 14*20 for 1904. The death rate for England and Wales for 1904, was 16*2. The rates in the immediately preceding years in Southend were ii-88 in 1903 ; 13*29 in 1902 ; 16-84 i11 I9GI 5 T4-44 I900- During 1904 there were registered the deaths of 139 persons upwards of 65 years of age, that is 23-3 per cent, of the total deaths. 180 deaths or 30*2 per cent, of the total were under one year of age. The large number of deaths among infants during August, 1904, is what chiefly accounts for the increased death rate as compared with 1903. This formed the subject of a special report on epidemic diarrhoea which I laid before the Town Council in September last, and will be referred to again in this Report under the heading of Infantile Mortality. The number of uncertified deaths during the year was 31, compared with 29 in 1903, 24 in 1902, 22 in 1901, 27 in 1900. Infantile Mortality. This is an important index of the sanitary conditions of a district or sub-district. It is the proportion of deaths occurring among infants under one year per 1,000 births. Southend does not stand well in the matter of infantile mortality. In a town so well situated ; of modern growth ; with no actual slums ; with no very congested areas ; with the affected districts well drained and sewered, and with good arrangements for the collection of house refuse; infantile mortality ought not to be excessive. What are the actual figures ? In 1904 there were registered in the Borough 179 deaths among infants under 1 year of age, and the death of one infant belonging to Southend was registered as having occurred in the Union Workhouse, Rochford. 180 infant deaths gives an infantile