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Much has been done by legislation and local administration
to lower the death-rate, but it appears to me that the infant
death-rate would be very much less if it were not for the
want of knowledge and carelessness on the part of the public
generally and individually. I think the time has now arrived
when some superior effort should be made to educate the public,
especially the poorer part of it in tbe simple principles of home
sanitation, personal hygiene, and the feeding and care of
infants, if we are to further reduce the infant death-rate. And I
regard such an idea with more favour, because I know it represents
a field of labour where the greatest prospects of success exist. In
Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Buckinghamshire women
have been appointed to visit the houses of the poor, and, by
practical demonstration, instruct them in the sanitation of their
homes, in personal hygiene, and in the feeding and care of infants.
I should be glad to see such an appointment made in Hackney ; for
I am strongly of opinion that it must be by the public that the
infant death-rate must be further reduced, and that will not be
brought about, until they are familiarised by actual demonstration
with the elementary principles of preventive medicine.
Senile Mortality.—The deaths amongst persons at 65 years
and upwards were 872; between 65 and 75 years, 438; between
75 and 85 years, 344; and above 85 years, 90 deaths. The death
for the age period of 65 and upwards is 3.8 per 1,000 living.
SPECIFIC CAUSES OF DEATH.
Class I.
Specific Febrile or Zymotic Diseases.—The deaths during the
year due to the chief zymotic diseases numbered 747. This is a decline
of 55 upon the number recorded during 1898, and is equivalent to a
zymotic death-rate of 3.3 per 1,000 living persons. The zymotic deathrate
for all London for 1899 is 2.48 per 1,000 living persons.