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75
Phthisis Deaths. -During 1908, 221 persons were certified as
having died of consumption. Of these, 53 had been notified during
the year as suffering from the disease. The death rate per 1,000
is 2.3, a figure which may be compared with that for London, viz.,1.32,
and the average phthisis death rate for the Borough, which seems to
be about 2.5 per 1,000.

The number of deaths amongst males, as is usual, is, it will be
noted, much greater than among females. The figures in 1907 were:
Males, 142; females, 101. So far as season is concerned, the deaths
were distributed as follows:—62 in the first quarter; 54 in the
second; 55 in the third; and 50 in the fourth.
Phthisis in Relation to Occupation.—An analysis of 140
of the 221 deaths from phthisis during the year reveals the fact that
the highest mortality occurred amongst those who follow occupations
which are laborious, and in which there is much exposure. Labourers
headed the list with 23, and carmen and cabmen came next with 19.
Most deaths occurred at the middle period of life, 35—45. The well
known careless and intemperate habits of the persons following the
occupations named undoubtedly exert an influence not only in connection
with infection, but with death from the disease as well.
A very large proportion of the deaths from phthisis occurred, as
usual, in institutions, especially poor law institutions. This is mainly,
of course, due to the fact that the persons resorting to hospital are
in the later stages of the disease. The fact that the poor law institutions
are so commonly those in which death occurs, suggests that
not only the persons dying of consumption in Finsbury, but those
infected with the disease, are of the poorest. That phthisis is very