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There has been a considerable improvement in the mortality from cancer of the
buccal cavity especially in males. It is evident that the increase in respiratory cancer,
however it may be exaggerated by improved diagnosis, overshadows all other changes
for both sexes. The increase since 1931 in male mortality from cancer of the digestive
system has been substantial, but in the last three years the death-rates for males
per 1,000 have been 1.144, 1.063, 1.057; and the increase now appears to be halted.
For females the death-rates have been 0.802, 0.818 and 0.868 and the increase is at
present progressive. The increase in cancer of the genito-urinary organs in males has
been large and can hardly be attributed to diagnostic advances. Deaths in the last
four years have been 372, 441, 433 and 456.
Road
accidents
Deaths from road accidents in 1948 amounted to 248. In the two previous years
the numbers were 316 and 319. Road accidents regrettably still require mention as
an important cause of death, to say nothing of the permanent invalidism resulting
from a proportion of the non-fatal accidents, but the reduction in 1948 is encouraging.
Infant
mortality
The infant mortality rate in 1948, 31 per 1,000 live births, constitutes a new low
record, an improvement on the rate of 34 per 1,000 live births in 1947. The movements
of the death-rates from the principal diseases at ages below one year since
1911 are shown in Table 7, page 119. The diagram on the next page illustrates the
contraction in the fatality of infants since the years 1911-14.
The increase in deaths assigned to congenital malformations and birth injury
is partly attributable to changes in classification following the adoption of the 5th
revision of the International List of Causes of Death, which added about 12 per cent.
to the deaths which would formerly have been assigned to this group and partly also
to a tendency for post-mortem examination to be done more frequently resulting in
increased precision in certification. For most diseases there has been a dramatic
reduction in mortality over the last forty years, and, even since 1927, the improvement
is substantial. The pronounced fall in the case-mortality of whooping-cough
and measles has helped to bring down the infant mortality rate. Diarrhoea and
respiratory infections too are now less frequently contracted, and methods of treatment
are more effective. Increasing attention has been paid to the care of the
premature infant, and there are signs that these efforts are having a salutary effect
on the mortality risk.
Deaths in various periods of the first year of life are shown in detail in Table 6,
page 119. Deaths under 4 weeks numbered 1,067, or 17.5 per 1,000 live births,