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6
There were 1480 births registered as having occurred in
the district. This number corresponds to a birth-rate of 26.4
per 1,000 inhabitants.
On Table 1 the birth-rates for the last 10 years are given,
and it will be seen, on reference to the Table, not only is the
birth-rate for 1909 the lowest on record, but that the number
of births registered in 1909 is lower than that of 1905, 1906,
1907 or 1908. Except that the actual number of births is
lower than in previous years, the experience of Acton is not
different to that of the whole of the kingdom.
The birth-rate is not usually considered within the realms
of public health; and when a spurious delicacy does not deter
one from an adequate discussion of it, it is the fashion
nowadays to lament the decline in national fertility. Although
the remedy is beyond the scope of a Sanitary Authority, it is
important to ascertain the source from which the population is
being recruited, and whether the recruits are likely to be fit or
unfit. We know that since 1877 the birth-rate in this
country has been steadily declining, and during the last 25
years the rate has undergone a decrease of nearly 20 per cent.
It is not self-evident that the fact of a declining birth-rate
is an occasion forgeet. It is too readily assumed that
decrease of the birth-rate in this country is intimately
connected with physical degeneracy, and this would be true if
the decline were noticed only among the healthy and the
thrifty. We are not concerned with the economical, political
and other considerations, but we may inquire into some of
the causes which are operative in bringing about a result as
to the main value of which we suspend judgment.
The Registrar-General has for several years in his Annual
Report given a table showing the movement of the birth-rate in
relation to the number of women living at procreative age
periods in England and Wales.
These results, as summarised
in the Annual Report of 1907, are for 1876-1905 as follows:—