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municipality, nor vet upon this or that system of creche or milkfeeding,
but upon the health, the intelligence, the devotion and
maternal instinct of the mother. And if we would solve the great
problem of infant mortality, it would appear that we must first
obtain a higher standard of physical motherhood. Further, 1 am
bound to add, that if it be true that part of the decline in the birthrate
is due, as alleged, to the artificial prevention of birth, it is
probable that those same injurious influences are responsible for
some of the increase in the deaths of infants from prematurity and
allied conditions.
The chief infectious diseases caused 230 deaths, and consumption
caused another 215. Sixty-five deaths were directly attributed to
cancer and 30 to alcoholism. Turning to cases of infectious
sickness certified to the Public Health Department, there were
during 1905, 745 cases of notifiable infectious disease, 501 cases of
measles and 178 cases of phthisis. The total number of cases of
disease certified was therefore 1,424, as compared with 1,818 in
1904. With the exception of a small outbreak of scarlet fever in
"Model Dwellings" in the Eastern Division of the Borough, there
was no epidemic of any disease during the year, and our zymotic
diseases were much below the average hitherto experienced.
CONDITIONS OF LIFE IN FINSBURY.
When we come to consider what are the conditions of life of
which these statistics are the result, we are met by a large body of
facts not readily to be stated in figures. There are, however, some
figures which bear upon the matter.
(1) First, there is a density of 19.1 houses per acre in Finsbury
as compared with 8.2 in London generally. That is to say, the
land in Finsbury is more than twice as densely covered with
houses as the land in London generally. There are also, of
necessity, fewer open spaces. The Borough suffers from all the
disadvantages of Central London.
(2) Secondly, owing to the decline in inhabited houses being
more rapid than the decrease in population, the density of persons
per house increases, Tenements and model-dwellings abound in