[Report 1900] / Medical Officer of Health, Preston County Borough.

  • Preston (Lancashire, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1900] / Medical Officer of Health, Preston County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Report of the Medical Officer of Health TO THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OE THE HEALTH COMMITTEE. Gentlemen, I beg to submit my Annual Report for the past twelve months, the closing year of the Nineteenth Century. Although in a great measure this is framed upon the same lines as its predecessors, it also contains some additional matter, since there is incorporated with it a Report upon the High Death Rate of the Borough, especially amongst infants and young children. This is in accordance with instructions received from a Sub-Committee which in March last was formed for the purpose of enquiring into the causes of the high Death Rate, and which, having met, resolved that a Report upon the subject should be drawn up and presented by the Medical Officer. It was afterwards decided that such a Report should be incorporated with the Annual one, and though, as I have said, this renders the present Report somewhat different from those of past years, it must be remembered that every Annual Report must of necessity be—amongst other things—an enquiry into the Death Rate, an analysis of the causes which have led up to it, and an epitome of the action taken to effect its reduction and improvement. Moreover the principal aim and object of the Health Committee, since its first formation as a Sanitary Committee in 1874 has been carefully to examine the causes of the mortality within the Borough, to take note of its distribution according to age period and locality, and to institute and support those measures most likely to result in its reduction. In dealing then with the whole aspect, causes, and conditions of this subject it is impossible to avoid a great deal of repetition, whilst the frequency and thoroughness with which it has already been discussed precludes the possibility of introducing much of a novel character, or of suggesting remedies which have not—as far as possible—already been tried.