[Report 1884] / Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham.

  • Birmingham (England). Council.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1884] / Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/140 (page 15)
    Lady wood 1st Quar. 252 2ncl Quar. 255 3rd Quar. 291 4th Quar. 290 Total Total Deatlis, Deaths, 1884. 1883. 1,088 1,004 Total Total Death- Distribution of Deatlis, Deaths, rate, deaths among 1882. 1881. 1883. Registration 971 907 19-9 ^'i^-15i“tricts. St. Thomas ... 218 243 232 214 907 828 818 783 21-9 St. Martin ... 198 200 251 221 870 812 863 761 20-9 St. George ... 354 370 461 421 1,606 1,548 1,567 1,525 24-5 All Saints 404 418 401 431 1,654 1,682 1,501 1,436 31-7 Deritend 343 316 402 408 1,469 1,408 1,365 1,312 16-4 Duddeston ... 266 285 326 289 1,166 1,186 1,100 988 19-6 Edgbaston ... 59 71 76 77 283 246 240 226 11-3 I have thought well to append, as usual, to the actual mortality figures the Death-rates of the several Eegistration Sub-Districts, for the enumerated populations of each of which I have availed myself of the published Tables relating to the Census of 1881, and in order to estimate their populations at the middle of 1884 I have adopted the usual and only course open of proceeding on the supposition that the rate of move- ment of the population of each District which prevailed between 1871 and 1881 has been exactly maintained since that date. Owing to the extensive demolitions effected in at least one of the Sub-Districts, viz. Saint Thomas’, since the last Census enumeration, it may be taken for granted that the population of that District, every inch of which, so to speak, was previously built upon, must by this method be rather over-estimated, and that therefore its Death-rate should be considered a little higher than it is stated in the Table. There is, however, no reason to doubt that, as the time since the taking of the last Census is uot at present very great, the Death-rates for those Districts which do not contain in them any Institutions for the sick may be relied upon as being approximately correct guides to an estimate of the healthiness of each of these Sub-Divisions of the town. In those, how- ever, containing Hospitals and the like, however accurate may be the estimate of their populations, the estimate of their Death-rates is very seriously vitiated by the presence in them of such Institutions, among the inmates of which the rate of mortality must necessarily be most abnormally large. If it were possible to distribute the Deaths of persons in these Institutions among the localities where they resided prior to their admission into them, it would not only be easier to compare the Death-rate of one portion of the Borough with the others, but as it is well known that many of the inmates come from localities altogether outside our Borough boundaries, I should also be in a better position to make a needed correc- tion in our Death-rate for the number of outsiders who have recourse to our Hospitals, and die there, which must be considerably greater than the number of those usually resident in the Borough who chance to be taken ill and succumb elsewhere.