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92
1911
The diarrhœal diseases as a whole caused 461 deaths, which are equal to
a death-rate of 1.41 per 1,000: the 324 deaths from diarrhoea alone being equal
to a rate of 0.99 per 1,000, as compared with one of 0.23 in the preceding year.
The third quarter of the year was responsible for the chief mortality, for in it
342 deaths from these diseases, together with enteritis, were registered ; in
other words, 74.2 per cent. of the total deaths from these two diseases occurred
in this quarter. In the first quarter there were only 31, or 6.7 per cent; in
the second quarter 32, or 6.9 per cent., and in the fourth 56, or 12.2 per cent.
These figures tell us plainly that the hot and dry summer experienced last
year had a very aggravating effect on the mortality returns. This is well seen
in the chart facing page 47, which shows the weekly mortality of the borough
during 1911, and in the twenty-six preceding years. There it may be seen
that although the death-rate had been considerably below the average of the
26 years in nearly every week, yet from the first week of August until the first
week in September, it was persistently above it. Such a rise in the mortality
was almost entirely due to the diaxrhoeal diseases and to a few other ailments
which are affected by heat. It is to be noticed also that 309 out of 461 deaths,
or 67 per cent., occurred under the age of 1 year, while 74 were between the
ages of 1 and 5 years, and 78 above 5. It is thus clearly apparent that the chief
mortality was among children under 1 year of age, and as has been
mentioned when dealing with infantile mortality, these deaths are for the most
part preventable, for there is no reason why so many children, as shown in the
Tables dealing with the method of feeding infants, were fed on such a variety
of fermentable foods instead of on the breasts of their mothers.
Table LXVI. gives the deaths, the temperature of the air, the temperature
of the earth, and the rainfall for each week of the third quarter, where it will
be seen that as the temperature both of the air and the earth rose, so also did
the deaths from the diarrhoeal diseases, and when they began to fall so also
did the mortality from them.