View report page

22
It will be seen that heart disease, as in the last nine years, heads the list ; 444 deaths were due
to this cause compared with 509 during the previous year. Sex distribution of the deaths was 230
males and 214 females. Of the total, no less than 391 occurred in persons aged 55 or more.
Cancer came next, as in the last five years, with 275 deaths, an increase of 34 on the previous
year; 210 were in persons over 55 years.
Pneumonia, bronchitis and other respiratory diseases together caused 152 deaths, a decrease
of 34 compared with 1937. The age distribution is less marked in these deaths, deaths taking place
in every age group, though with a preponderance in the groups aged 45 and over.
Tuberculosis caused 120 deaths, of which 106 (64 males, 42 females) were from pulmonary
tuberculosis. The death rate from pulmonary tuberculosis is 0.77 compared with a national rate
of 0-53. This death rate continues its steady year by year fall.
Cerebral haemorrhage, which caused 60 deaths, is, again, mainly a disease of the elderly, only
eight of the deaths occurring in persons under the age of 55 years.
Influenza, which in 1937 caused 69 deaths, this year only caused five.
INFANTILE MORTALITY
Of the 1,602 deaths of persons of all ages belonging to the Borough, 99 or 6.18 per cent., occurred
in infants under one year of age, compared with 109 and 5.99 per cent. in the previous year.
The Infantile Mortality Rate (the number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000
live births) was 51 as compared with 56 during 1937. In only one previous year (1935) has the rate
been as low as this.
The Infantile Mortality Rate for England and Wales was 53 and for London 57.