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9
Year. No. of Deaths. Year. No. of Deaths.
1901 185 1921 279
1902 155 1922 261
1903 187 1923 269
1904 174 1924 293
1905 172 1925 315
These figures reveal the importance of discovering the cause and cure for this disease. With
the exception of heart disease, cancer has recently been responsible for more deaths in Kensington
than any other malady.
Heart Disease.—Heart disease is still the commonest cause of death and last year 374 persons
died from this complaint, this number being 52 in excess of the figure for 1924. It must be
remembered that it is the deaths of old people which are mainly responsible for the large number of
deaths from this disease and cancer, and in assessing the significance to be attached to the increasing
percentage of people dying from these two diseases, it is important to bear in mind that the average
length of life is gradually increasing. The following figures show the extent of this increase in the
past few generations :—
Average Expectation of Life at Birth (ascertained by the Registrar-General) for England and Wales.
Males. Females.
For the period 1838-1854 39.91 years 41.85 years
For the period 1871-1880 41.35 „ 44.62 „
For the year 1923 57.59 „ 61.53 „
As members of the population are on the average now dying at a later period in life, it is only
to be expected that those diseases common to old age, namely, heart disease and cancer, will be
responsible for an increasing percentage of the total number of deaths, whilst those diseases, such
as the common infectious diseases, which more usually affect young people, will show a decreasing
percentage. In other words, two or three generations ago the deaths of many young persons from
acute infectious diseases removed from the population a very considerable number, many of whom,
had they been born 60 or 70 years later, would have lived a longer life which would have been
eventually terminated by those diseases more common to elderly people. It is obvious, therefore,
that it is not correct to state that the increasing percentage of deaths from heart disease and cancer
is entirely due to the increasing prevalence of these diseases in middle age and old age, for a considerable
proportion of the increase is due to the larger number of middle aged and old people in
the population of to-day.

Infantile Mortality.
During the year 1925, there were 2,846 births and 223 deaths of children under the age of
twelve months in the Borough. These figures give an infantile mortality rate (deaths of infants
under twelve months to each 1,000 births) of 78.
The following table gives the births and the infantile deaths and death rates in England and
Wales, London, Kensington and the various Wards of the Borough for the year 1925, and the
infantile death rates for the previous four years.