[Report 1936] / Medical Officer of Health and Sanitary / Public Health Inspector, Peterborough City.

  • Peterborough (England). City Council. nr 94004832.
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1936] / Medical Officer of Health and Sanitary / Public Health Inspector, Peterborough City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ANNUAL REPORT 1936. Ihe report is required to open with any specially noteworthy causes of sickness or invalidity in the area during the year 1936. It is highly satisfactory to be able to record that with regard at least to epidemic diseases there was no fatality in this Borough during 1936 from Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever, Enteric (Typhoid or Paratyphoid) Fever, or Measles : albeit there were cases from each of the diseases referred to. Of the scarlet group there was an unusual amount—more than in any post¬ war individual year—and a totally inordinate incidence during the first 15 or 16 weeks of the year (over half the year’s incidence took place in the first lustrum). All parts of the town were involved, but the old Borough area being more closely populated was more heavily attacked, though the numbers were in inverse ratio to severity ; so mild was much of it that in whole series the rash was so fleeting as never to have been detected—if it ever appeared at all— and certain cases notified one day would be pronounced “ clear ” in as short a space as five days’ time. SOCIAL CONDITIONS and CHIEF INDUSTRIES CARRIED ON IN THE AREA. Peterborough is sometimes referred to as an agricultural area, but agri¬ cultural pursuits constitute an insignificant element amongst its inhabitants’ occupations. Only 3.7 per cent, of its gainfully occupied male population have anything to do with agriculture. Brickmaking is in similar case with still fewer adherents at 1.5 per cent. Peterborough is an industrial town occupationally with its manufacture of bakers’ ovens, railway repair shops, elastic and corset factories, (herb-) bulb factory, aeroplane manufacture, some brewing, making of armaments and, (temporarily), an Air Force training centre (pilots and aircraftsmen). Already alluded to, brickmaking is a minor issue in occupation of Peter¬ borough residents, the brickfields being all outside the borough on the South (Huntingdonshire), as is also a factory of 10 years’ standing manufacturing sugar from sugar beet. This last is of doubtful value occupationally-speaking. The nature of the work—a “ campaign ” it is termed—is of about 17 weeks’ duration each year. The consequence of this seasonal spell is to throw a lot of men out of work all at one time and at a time of the year (January) when their amalgamation into other employment is least likely. Its effect are manifested in the Child Welfare Department where the numbers on the free list inevitably augment at and following the termination of the Beet Sugar “ campaign.”