View report page

— 7 —
been subjected to epidemics of Pneumonia, Summer Diarrhoea,
Measles, Whooping Cough, Influenza or Small-pox. The deathrate
of a district is not, however, the best means of deciding
whether the sanitary circumstances are perfect or otherwise; for,
as I have pointed out, the rate (apart from fatal epidemics)
depends much upon the numbers of infants and of the aged in
a district. Mortality falls heavily upon the two extremes of age;
and the town with few babies and old people will have a much
lower death-rate than another equally healthy in which there are
many old persons or infants. If our present-day population and
death-rate in Hornsey remained stationary the average age at
death would be 90 years. Eightly to judge of the health of a
district the infant mortality rate and such records of sickness
as are available are more to be relied upon than the death-rate by
itselL
The Infant Mortality rate of the Borough during the past
year was remarkably low, namely, 52 per thousand births. This
is nearly the lowest rate on record, and one of which we may
justly be proud. Summer diarrhoea was practically absent from
Hornsey during 1922, and therefore the lives of many babies were
spared. The frail body of a little child is a very delicate indication
of insanitary conditions, and the infant mortality rate reflects
very truly the hygienic condition of a town. There are
three main causes of the death of children during their first year
of life. Firstly, they suffer from the ill-health of the parents—
they are " born tired " or diseased, and live for a few hours or
days; secondly, they die from injuries received at birth; and,
thirdly, they perish from diseases and infections that are acquired
amid unhygienic surroundings. It is this third group of morbid
conditions against which at present we are fighting most successfully;
but in future we hope to reduce the ante-natal causes of
death by being able to give more attention to mothers at our
ante-natal clinics. The intermediate group, injury at birth, is
not in this Borough a cause of much infant mortality. There
will be found in the Appendix to this Report (Table G.) a diagram
which shows the infant mortality rate over a number of years.
From this it will readily be seen that the death-rate due to antenatal
causes has remained fairly constant for many years, while