[Report 1926] / Medical Officer of Health, Royal Tunbridge Wells Borough.

  • Tunbridge Wells (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1926] / Medical Officer of Health, Royal Tunbridge Wells Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/88 (page 15)
    Borough death rate, 9.9 is seen to he much below that of any of the groups mentioned in the Table^—it thus maintains the reputation of the town as a health resort. Table showing the average number of Deaths at several ages for consecutive periods of five years. . 1896 to 1900. 1901 to 1905. 1906 to 1910. 1911 to 1915. 1916 to 1920. 1921 to 1925. 1926.* Deaths at under 1 year ,, 1 and under 2 \ » 2 ,, 5/ 5 „ 15 ... „ 15 „ 25 ... „ 25 „ 45 \ „ 45 „ 65/ ••• ,, 65 and upwards 72 25 21 20 121 154 57 29 11 13 141 178 46 23 10 14 141 205 40 16 16 12 145 234 36 / 6 \ 9 15 21 r 47 \ 107 245 23 3 5 6 10 36 104 276 28 6 3 6 8 44 104 268 * The Mortality for 1926 is inserted for comparison. Individual diseases or groups of diseases were considered in some detail in my Annual Report for 1925. I do not propose to do more than refer briefly to these conditions in my present Report. Cancer was as usual one of the chief causes of death ; taking toll as it does of persons in the later years of life, it appears to fall more heavily on an elderly population such as that of Tunbridge Wells than upon the population of, say, a manufacturing town, which attracts young adults. Tuberculosis, on the other hand, takes toll of many of the youthful adults, consequently its incidence is somewhat less here than in industrial towns. Infectious Diseases.—In the early months of the year an outbreak of Measles and Whooping Cough occurred. These diseases, though not often immediately fatal, leave behind them the seeds of ill-health, and deaths of children attributed to Bronchitis and Pneumonia, or it may be to Tuberculosis, are often the result of primar^^ attacks of Measles or Whooping Cough. There v/as in 1926, a rise in the infant death rate, as w’ell as in the death rate amongst children ; this rise could be attributed at least partially to the above-mentioned