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30
1903]
once may recur, and, therefore, it should be the constant aim and the strong
endeavour of those responsible for the health of this populous metropolitan
borough to strive with might and main to administer the sanitary laws, that
that which seems attainable, may at least deserve to be attained.
It has been the privilege of the Medical Officer of Health in his returns for
the several quarters of the year to report that each one was in itself a record.
Thus the death-rate of 16.31 per 1,000 in the first quarter had never been
equalled by any previous return; so too was it with the return of 14.46 per
1,000 in the second quarter, although in the previous year the rate was almost
identical with it, being 14.47; in the third quarter again the rate was only 12.16;
while in the fourth quarter it was 14.26 per 1,000, which was only once
approached, namely in 1894, a remarkably healthy year, when it was 14.94.
The death-rate of a county taken as a whole is invariably lower than that of
its populous places, but even then it is very rare to find one so
low as 14.2.—the present death-rate of Islington. The latest available
returns for the United Kingdom show that the lowest rate was 16.8
in 1894, and of England and Wales 16.9 in 1901; while they also record
that the lowest rate of Denmark was 15.5 (1899), of Norway, a most
healthy nation, 14.9 (1901), of Sweden 15.1 (1898), of Austria 24.2 (1901), of
Hungary 25.4 (1901), of Switzerland 17.6 (1897 and 1899), of the German
Empire 20.5 (1898), of Prussia 20.0 (1898), of the Netherlands 16.9 (1897), of
Belgium 17.1 (1901), of Italy 21.9 (1897 and 1899), and of France 20.1 per
1,000 (1901) all of which death-rates but accentuate the low returns of Islington
during the past year.
The Borough Death-rate contrasted with that of other places.—
The borough death-rate contrasted favourably with the rate of the metropolis,
which was 15.2 per 1,000, or 0.9 more than it. This contrast is even better
than it appears, for when both death-rates have been corrected for the difference
in ages and sexes the rate for London becomes 15.9, and that of Islington 14.8,
or 1.1 per 1,000 less.
Compared with the Encircling Districts it had a lower death-rate than
St. Pancras (16.1), Finsbury (20.2) and Shoreditch (19.3), but a higher one than
Hornsey (7.9), Stoke Newington (12.6) and Hackney (13.8). In judging these
rates it must not be forgotten that Islington is more densely populated than any
of these places.