View report page

30
PHTHISIS.
The deaths from Phthisis number 138, and give a phthisical deathrate
of 955 per million. This is considerably lower than the quinquennial
average 1901—05 for both sexes in England and Wales, which
equals 1214 per million. The phthisical death-rate for the corresponding
period in Willesden is 934 per million, a rate slightly lower than that
for 1907. The mean rate for Willesden during the last 27 years is
1,000 per million, so that the death-rate from phthisis is practically
stationary in this district. This is far from satisfactory.
Willesden being a new district which, for practical purposes, may
be taken to have grown within the period used for comparison—the
population in 1881 numbering only 27,000—we have the phenomenon
of a low but practically stationary phthisical death-rate extending over
a period during which a most marked decline has been observed in less
favoured areas. Assuming that the conditions of modern housing have
influenced this decline, the facts are suggestive that Willesden early
attained the full advantages derivable from this condition, and that
further reduction in the death-rate from phthisis is to be looked for as
a result of other changes than those comprised in better housing. It
would, however, be premature to conclude that this is so, for it must
be borne in mind that in recent years there has been a marked increase
in the number of houses of the industrial class, and these, though in
many respects superior to older houses of the same class, still preserve
some of their worst features. This is notably the case in respect of
size of rooms, an extremely important fact in relation to phthisis.
Reference to the small size of rooms in recently erected houses will
also be found under the heading "Customs and Inland Revenue Acts."
CANCER.
There were 108 deaths ascribed to Cancer, giving a cancer death
rate of 748 per million for the year.