[Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health, Luton County Borough.

  • Luton (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health, Luton County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/16
    Borough ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH, Mr. HORACE SWORDER, LRC.P, M.R.C.S., For the Year ended the 31st day of December, 1904. Presented to the Sanitary Committee on the zyth day of February, igoy, and ordered to be printed. Medical Officer of Health’s Office, George Street, Luton, January 26th, 1905. Gentlemen, I beg to lay before you my Report for the year ended December 31st, 1904, being my Twenty-sixth Annual Report. During the year 1,035 births and 496 deaths have been registered, equal to annual rates of 27.2 and 13 per 1,000 respectively. During the 1st quarter there were 248 births and 103 deaths. 2nd , > 1 7 263 , no 3rd 7 7 » 25b . 151 4th 7 7 7 268 , 132 The births exceeded the deaths by 539. There were 130 deaths under 1 year. ,, 33 ,, between 1 and 5. ,, 333 ,, from 5 and upwards. Forty-one deaths were referred to the seven principal zymotic diseases, viz., three to Measles, one to Diphtheria, one to Fevers, and thirty-six to Diarrhoea. The zymotic rate was equal to only just over one per 1,000, and is probably one of the lowest ever recorded. As we do not believe that sanitary defects have, in our Borough, any particular influence in causing such a large mortality to be referred to Diarrhoea, we could wish that the term zymotic was reserved for Small-pox and kindred diseases. Small-pox.—In the first quarter two soldiers were kept under observation for a short time owing to communications from the authorities at Southampton that they had come off steamships on which cases of Small-pox had occurred. In April, from private information received, I kept two men under observation ; they had been at some gathering in a neighbouring town and found themselves in the same room with a man suffering from Small-pox. Dr^IT. E. Armstrong, Medical Officer of Health for Newcastle, has made a most practical report on the subject of Small-pox in relation to vagrancy in England and Wales during the year 1903. Together with 126 Medical Officers of Health of Provincial Cities, Boroughs and Urban Districts, having populations of 20,000 and upwards, I answered ten queries relating to the subject.