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35
In contrast with the position in recent years, there was little
variation in the deaths registered during the first and fourth quarters
which were 27.2% and 27.0% of the year's total, respectively, and
the second and third quarters recorded a similar situation, namely,
22.9% and 22.7%.
It will be observed from the following table that during 1964
the deaths occurring at 65 years and upwards accounted for 67.4%
of the total compared with a figure of 22.8% for 1901.

MATERNAL MORTALITY
There were no maternal deaths recorded during the current
year, a situation similar to that obtaining during the previous
two years. One maternal death was registered in each of the years
1961 and 1960, the respective rates being 0.75 and 0.78. Both of
these deaths were due to "self-induced" abortions.
At a time when one is apt to be carried away by the intensity
of "anti-drug" campaigns, it is a very sobering thought that, despite
the introduction by local authorities of ante natal clinics and other
health services in the early part of the century, the maternal death
rate in England and Wales remained at or about the consistentlyhigh
figure of 4.6 per 1,000 births from 1894 until the middle of
the 1930's when the introduction of sulpha drugs and, a little later
on, the antibiotics, reduced it to the much more favourable figure
it is today.