View report page

8
The death-rate for England and Wales as a whole during
1907 was 15.0 while in the 76 great towns it was 15.4.
However favourable the general death-rate may be it is
always advisable to dissect it into its component parts as far as
possible, for it is only by so doing that one can ascertain in
what direction to move with a view to its further reduction.
The three main divisions which have been previously
recorded are those in Table I, given herewith, in which some
very slight alterations have been made.
The zymotic death-rate, which includes the deaths from
certain selected preventible diseases, is at once seen to be
distinctly favourable (0 94 per thousand), for the death-rate in
England and Wales during 1907, due to the same group of
diseases, is given as 1.26 and the corresponding rate for the 76
large towns is 1.54. The zymotic death-rate has been the result
principally of whooping-cough and autumnal diarrhoea.
Influenza was responsible for 27 deaths, and more than
half of these were those of persons of advanced age—65 years
and upwards.
phthisis claimed a toll of 179 deaths, more than threequarters
of these occurring at that period of life which is most
valuable alike to the individual and the State.
The deaths from Alcoholism are of course very much
understated. Alcohol induces death more or less immediately in
scores of cases where its effects are not recognised, let alone
formally recorded. If truth were allowed to stand out naked
and alone, alcoholism as a cause of death would displace many
so-called deaths from bronchitis, heart disease, kidney disease
and the like ; whilst if its contribution to the fatality of other
diseases (and particularly the acute and exhausting diseases of
the pneumonic and enteric fever types) could be properly
apportioned it would be found to be quite an appreciable one.
The low tubercular death rate (1.79 per thousand), and that
from diseases of the respiratory organs (2'02 per thousand) are
both matters for congratulation. Cancer and other malignant
diseases, however, have been responsible for no fewer than 146
deaths. Of this total 84 have occurred, as indeed is usual, at
ages from 25 to 65 years—the working period of life—while 61
were in persons over the age of 65 years.
Heart diseases have been the cause of 190 deaths, and here
again almost the whole of the mortality has occurred at late age
period.
No other item in the death account appears to call for
special comment.