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THE STRAND DISTRICT, LONDON. 135
to conditions of life in which there must be poverty,
ignorance and neglect.
The same causes which produce this large infantile
death-rate tell also, in a measure, upon the health of
the older members of the community; thus we find
that diseases of the respiratory organs (excluding consumption)
were responsible for 23.5 per cent. of the
total deaths; tubercular diseases (consumption, &c.) for
16.3 per cent.; and other zymotic or specific diseases
for 12.3 per cent. These three groups of diseases which
are responsible for more than half all the deaths in this
District can be attributed in great measure to causes
which may be prevented.
Diseases of the Respiratory Organs are, of course,
largely due to cold and damp; but over-crowding, with
the insanitary conditions resulting therefrom, the want
of sufficient food and clothing must also be reckoned, as
tending to their production. In certain parts of the
Strand all these factors play important parts.
Tubercular Diseases cause the next largest number
of deaths, viz.:—109 (16.3 of the total) at the rate of
4.31 per 1,000 inhabitants. Of these the disease
affected the lungs in 91, in 9 the brain, in 2 the
bowels; while 7 deaths are ascribed to general
tuberculosis or to some manifestation of the disease
in parts not already mentioned. Many factors are
concerned in the production of this disease, as the
want of pure air and light, sedentary and other occupations
in badly ventilated workshops and rooms, overcrowding,
privation, intemperance; but it must also be
taken into account that tubercular disease is due to a
micro-organism, and that the conditions just mentioned
arc those which are favourable to its growth and spread.