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While it does not appear to reach the exceptionally low figure of
1910, the result for the year is not unsatisfactory, for, with the
exception of that year, it is the lowest one for the past ten years.
The low death-rate of 1910 was, it is true, owing partly to the
smallness of the actual number of deaths, but it was also brought
about by the over-estimation of the population in that year.
The actual number of deaths at all ages in 1912 is the lowest
recorded since the institution of the Council in 1901, and if the
estimate of the population were corrected by the enumeration of
1911 the death-rate for 1910 would no longer hold pre-eminence,
1912 holding the position of the lowest recorded death-rate. No
doubt the diminution in it of the infantile mortality had also
important influence in bringing down the general rate, but, apart
from that, there is a substantial reduction, which affects ail the
districts except Dulwich, where, strange to say, there is an increase.
Possibly this is due to the increasing number of young couples of
a child-producing age going to live in the newer houses that are
so rapidly appearing in that neighbourhood. An increased number
of children born must of necessity increase the number of subjects
more liable to fatal accidents and diseases. With regard to the
other districts, all have shared in the decrease, especially South
Peckham, while North Peckham seems to have benefited least.
Camberwell takes the position of the tenth lowest among all
the London Boroughs, there being below it on the south side of the
Thames, Battersea, Wandsworth, Lewisham and Eltham, while it is
seventh below the death rate for the whole County, which is computed
at 136 per 1,000.
When the weather of the summer of 1912 is considered it
becomes a matter of no surprise to find that there is a considerable
drop in the number of deaths under one year, these being 551, compared
with 735 in the preceding year, and the proportion per 1,000
births falling from 109 to 83.
Taking the report of the Registrar-General it appears that
compared with other Sanitary Authorities it had the tenth lowest
proportion of deaths under one year to the thousand births, and
following the practice of recent years I again set out the table,
going back to the year 1906, which shows how Camberwell stands
when a comparison is made between it and other boroughs which
have employed health visitors for some time past. I think it must
be admitted that the comparative figures continue to show that
without a health visitor the infantile mortality has not decreased in
any less degree than in those sanitary districts where they are at
work. Camberwell has throughout been third on this list during the
period to which it refers, except in 1908 and 1910, when the rate was
equal to that of Lambeth, while Hampstead and Woolwich always
show a less infantile mortality than we do. From the reports of
other medical officers I gather that the giving of advice without more
substantial help is not always satisfactory, an opinion on which I
have always insisted, and some health visitors point out that in
their opinions their efforts for good are much hampered by their