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45
[1911
authorities, so many thousands of lives are annually saved, would be more fully
recognised, not only by the people, but by the State; and their efforts would not
be so frequently thwarted, nor would they be looked on, as is too frequently
the case, by a certain class of small-minded people, sometimes interested, as
faddists. Nevertheless, their labour, not only in this country, but in other civilized
communities, especially in the United States, is receiving much more recognition;
and their advice is not so lightly put on one side, as formerly, for the people,
especially the democracy, have slowly, but very surely, learned by experience
that the Medical Officer of Health and his staff of sanitary inspectors are
their best friends. And so it should be among all classes; for you cannot
have ill-health among the less-favoured members of the community, without
its reflex action being felt by those in more favoured circumstances. The
present writer well recollects how, many years ago, he vainly appealed, when
Medical Officer of Health to a great county borough, to his council to rid itself
of a great nuisance, without avail, and how in one of the last reports he presented
to that body he told them that they were acting like the ostriches in the desert,
who, covering their heads in the sand, thought they were safe, because they
could not see their danger; but that, nevertheless, some day their town would be
afflicted with an epidemic of typhoid fever, from which, up to that time, it had
been happily and miraculously free. And he proved to be no false prophet;
for the day did come, not long after he had left the borough, when many people,
some of them most worthy citizens, were carried off by that fever. Of course,
then that council came to recognise the danger,, and the nuisance is becoming
a thing of the past; and there are no doubt many who regret that attention had
not been given to the warnings of their Medical Officer of Health.
Ages at Death.—If Table XXIX. be consulted it will be found that at each
period of life up to and including the age period 55-65, there was a decrease in the
number of deaths as compared with the mean of the similar periods of life
during the preceding ten years. Thus among infants (0-1) there were 1,033
registered as compared with a mean of 1,045. The deaths were, however,
256 more than were registered in 1910 ; and, indeed, they exceeded the numbers
registered in 1907, 1908 and 1909, in which years they were respectively 996,
894 and 841. The increase last year over the four years mentioned was mainly
due to the prolonged and hot summer which we enjoyed. Among children
from 1-5, however, the return of 475 deaths was 91 below the mean of the
ten years 1901-10; and it was also the lowest recorded, with one exception,
in any of these years. In the age period 5-15 there were 147 deaths registered,
which were only better on four occasions in twenty years, namely: in 1903,