View report page

21
These were abandoned, however, to allow the workers to give attention to other
matters which seemed to call for it more urgently.
DEATHS IN RELATION TO DISEASE.
A list of the causes of deaths, with the ages at which they occurred, will be
found in Table III. of the Local Government Board series on page 92. Table III. (a),
on page 93, shows the distribution of deaths according to cause in the various
registration sub-districts.
The following are some notes with regard to certain of the causes which
contributed most largely to the death rate.
DIARRHCEAL DISEASES.
The total number of deaths registered as due to diarrhoea and enteritis (inflammation
of the bowels), was 36, equal to 18.6 of the total deaths and 0.31 per 1,000 of the
population.
As a general rule, the majority of deaths from this cause occur amongst infants,
and in 1914 this was the case also, no fewer than 30 of the 36 being children under
1 year of age.
In 1913 the deaths from diarrhoeal diseases numbered 33, and of this number 21
were babies. In 1914, therefore, there was not only an increase in the total, but
an increase in the number amongst babies.
The reasons for this increase have been more or less indicated in the section
dealing particularly with infantile mortality.
Deaths from diarrhoeal diseases always vary most markedly with the weather
conditions, being higher when the summer is warm and dry, lower when it is cold and wet.
The latter part of the summer of 1914 was one very favourable to the occurrence
of diarrhoeal diseases, amongst infants especially, and the main part of the increase is
traceable to this cause.
Diarrhoeal diseases vary very greatly in extent with the sanitary conditions of
a district, and are always taken, more or less, as an index in this connection.
The number of cases, even though it is larger than in 1913, cannot be taken as
an indication that there has been any failure on the part of the Council to maintain a
high standard of sanitation. The figure is not indeed a high one at all, and though
some disappointment may be felt that the fall noted in 1913 was not continued, it is
safe to say that it was not contributed to at all by any neglect or failure on the part
of the Council.
The efforts that they have put forth not only in relation to sanitation but in other
directions, e.g., in the spreading of information amongst the inhabitants, have produced
wonderful results in connection with this group of diseases as with others. In these
efforts, particularly the last named, the Council have received the greatest assistance
from the St. Marylebone Health Society, and part of the credit for the results obtained
must undoubtedly be given to this body,