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so of the welfare of the population which the Council served. In his personal contacts
he was always friendly, always helpful, always ready to give of his wide experience and
knowledge whether to members of the Committee or to his colleagues, senior or junior.
His loss has been greatly felt in this area, both by members of the Divisional Health
Committee to whom he had endeared himself and by all of us who had the great
privilege of working with him. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family.
APPENDIX A
REVIEW OF MORTALITY IN THIS CENTURY
On pages 156 to 159 will be found a series of diagrams showing the trend of mortality
for different sex and age groups since 1900.
The graphs are logarithmic in the vertical scale to permit of easy comparison of
rates of change in the different age groups ; the relative change depicted in one part of
the graph is directly comparable with other parts by the slope of the lines.
It will be seen that the most striking reductions in the death rates have been in ages
under 45, especially in children aged 1-4 years. The percentage reductions in the age
groups are detailed below :
Percentage reductions in death-rates (1900-04 to 1951-55)
Age group Males Females
0-1 83 85
1-4 96 96
5-14 84 90
15-24 77 83
25-44 79 78
45-64 45 61
65 and over 7 28
At all ages throughout the period under review death rates for males are higher
than for females, which accounts for the higher expectation of life in women, and the
differential reduction in the death rate at ages 45-64 years now results in the death
rate for men at these ages being twice that for women. Except for ages 65 and over
men aged 45-64 have shown the least improvement during the period under review.
Reduction of the death rate over 65 years is, of course, not a matter of prevention
(since all must ultimately die) but of delay, thereby giving added years over the biblical
span of three score and ten and in this respect women aged 65 now have an expectation
of life of 15 years compared with 12 years for men : at the turn of the century the
corresponding expectations were for women 11 years and for men 10 years.
The rate of decline in the death rate has been comparatively steady throughout the
period in older age groups, but for those under 45 the rate of decline has quickened in
the last ten years.
There are certain abnormal fluctuations requiring explanation. In both war periods
there were violent fluctuations, more so in the second world war than the first, and in
both these periods rates for men aged 15 to 44 have been discontinued because of the
large scale withdrawal of men from the civilian population for military service ; the
female rates for these ages in the second world war are probably slightly overstated
for similar reasons. The death rates cannot be regarded as exact in certain years because
of estimations which had to be made of the populations at risk in the several sex and
age groups. For the decade 1900 to 1910 the census figures for 1901 and 1911 have been
used and interpolations made for intermediate years. Rates for 1915-30 and 1939-49
are based on civilian deaths and civilian populations with considerable estimations of
the populations at risk in the war years. For the remaining years populations used are
those supplied by the Registrar-General known as 'total' populations until 1938 and
as ' home ' populations from 1950 onwards. The rates are least reliable in the middle of
the period 1901-1911 and in the war and post-war periods 1915-1920 and 1939-1949.
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