View report page

7
The mortality in North Kensington was very much greater than in South Kensington, the
difference being mainly due to the prevalence of poverty in the former area. It should further be
borne in mind that the high death-rate for St. Charles, Golborne and Norland in the North
represent averages based on the combined experience of the good and bad areas which the figures
embrace; and for this reason the Ward rates which are in themselves excessive can only be accepted
as indicating the incidence of a very much heavier mortality on those streets and neighbourhoods
where the inhabitants live in a state of social degradation.

The diseases described in the above list as the "principal zymotic diseases," are small-pox,
measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, enteric fever (including fever not otherwise
defined) diarrhoea and enteritis. One fourth of the total number of deaths were registered as due to
diseases of the heart or the organs of respiration. Tuberculosis, a preventable disease, caused more
than 200 deaths, of which 179 were due to tuberculosis of the lungs. It should also be noted that
cancer was the cause of 228 deaths, as compared with 197 deaths from the same disease in the
previous year. The periods of life in which the various causes of death claim the majority of their
victims are indicated in Table III. Appendix, p. 77, and except in the case of deaths under the
age of one year will be considered in the section devoted to the prevalence of disease in the Borough
during the year.
The number of deaths and the death-rates from each of the seven principal zymotic diseases in
Kensington together with the zymotic death-rates for London and Kensington will be found in
Tables VI. and VII. Appendix, p. 80, arranged in quinquennial periods since 1881.
infantile mortality.