HH62/1/ABERD/51

Transcription

Aberdeen County Council.

DEESIDE DISTRICT.

REPORT BY MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
For Year 1891.

The Deeside District has by far the largest area of any
district in the County, its total acreage being 416,882, while
the Deer District, which is second in extent, has 166,817
acres. But a great part of the district consists of mountain
and moorland, and the total population is only 13,070. It
is far the most thinly populated of the districts, the density
of population being only .031 persons to the acre, which
gives about 32 acres for every person. Alford, which comes
next in sparseness of population, gives .065 persons to the
acre, or 15.3 acres for each person.
The births in the district in 1891 amounted to 370; the
total deaths to 224. The total birth-rate, 28.3, is very
slightly under the average of the rural districts of the
County, which is 28.8, but slightly above that of the
Mainland Rural Districts of Scotland, which is 27.9. The
average birth-rate for the whole of Scotland is 31.2.
The death-rate from all causes, for 1891, is 17.138.
This is very high as compared with the average of the rural
districts in the County, which is only 14.484. The disease
groups that contribute most towards it (see Tables in
Appendix) are the tubercular (especially in the form of
phthisis) nervous, circulatory, and respiratory. The death-
rate from zymotic diseases, on the other hand, is rather
under the average. The tubercular death-rate is very
high, being .6 per 1000 more than that of any other
district. The explanation of this may, perhaps, be found
in the fact that people resort to the district for cure from
this disease. It is a point worthy of careful investigation.
It will be seen, however, from Table B that the death-
rate for last year is unusually high, and may have been