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brought to my notice during the year, but that small number
certainly does not represent the total prevalence of this unfortunate
practice—unfortunate because it brings ill health to
the mother, and, in the event of the child surviving, ill health
to it after its birth, which is often premature.
Death-rate.—The death-rate in Hornsey last year was only
104 per 1,000 population (Table A). This is a low rate, and
would not have been possible had the Borough been visited
by epidemics of any magnitude. A lower death-rate than this
can hardly be expected in this district on account of the excess
in our population of elderly persons.
The Infant-mortality rate in Hornsey during the past year
was by far the lowest oil record, and only 36 per 1,000 births,
compared to 69 per 1,000 births for London and 75 per 1,000
births for England and Wales. This is a record of which our
town may justly be very proud. The infant mortality rate is
a very excellent index for gauging the health of a district, for
the delicate organisms of little children are very sensitive indicators
of insanitary circumstances. Infants react very readily
and quickly to their environments, and in an unhealthy town
a low rate of infant mortality is never found.
It will be seen from the Chart (Table H) that a considerable
proportion—two-thirds—of our infant deaths were due to
ante-natal causes, to influences which affected the child before
birth. "This ante-natal death-rate has remained fairly constant
for a long period of years, and it is to reduce this that the
ante-natal work of the Maternity Centres was instituted. In
the course of time I have no doubt that the work of our antenatal
sessions will succeed in reducing materially this waste of
infant life, and already we can see some little improvement,
but the results are not yet obvious. Before any marked reduction
in this child mortality can take place it will be
necessary to educate the mother regarding the need for antenatal
supervision. Nature teaches a mother without our education
to take a sick or ailing child to a doctor or to a maternity
centre, but she does not, so naturally, seek skilled advice during
the period of her pregnancy.
Although the rate of infant mortality during 1024 is satisfactorily
low, compared to rates in former years, yet it could
be lower still; and when our ante-natal sessions have b en