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5
duties assumed by the department, no fewer than 25,000
domiciliary visits chiefly having for their aim the reduction of
infantile mortality and the prevention of non-notifiable
infectious disease.
It is very pleasing to be able to report that during this
period of expanding activity there has been a substantial
reduction of the death rate of the District. This is shown in
the fourth column of Table No. 2 :—
This reduced mortality of Willesden residents is an asset
of which it is difficult to assess the value in terms of money,
for apart from the direct gain in lives saved, there is the reflex
enhancement of residential desirability, which, though an
unknown, cannot be a negligible quantity. Diminished
mortality, moreover, means diminished sickness, and diminished
sickness means greater efficiency of the units of the population
and greater earning capacity. But available data do not
enable these assets to be estimated. On the other hand, just
as domestic animals have their money value, and the average
prices of horses and dogs, asses and cattle, can be ascertained,
so also have human beings a value which may be represented
in monetary terms, and it is possible to measure approximately
the immediate economic gain in lives saved, by translating
them into terms of their minimum value as productive moneyearning
agents.
This value, averaged for men, women and children in the
United Kingdom was estimated by the late Dr. Farr as being
£159 per head.