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13
Compared with 1910 there is a higher death rate in all
Wards, but the most marked increase occurred in the South
West Ward.
The diseases which showed an excessive incidence on the
South West Ward were:—Measles, 32 deaths out of a total
of 44 in the district, Tubercular diseases, 30 out of total of
64, 20 out of 58 deaths, Pneumonia 19 out of 31, BronchoPneumonia
13 out of 22, Diarrhœal diseases 50 out of 98.
In former reports it has been shown that as poverty
deepens, the death-rate rises at every age group. The diseases
which respond most clearly to differences of social position
are in childhood those in which the fatality depends most
intimately on good nourishment and instructed care, and
particularly diseases of the digestive and respiratory systems; in
later years it is lung disease which responds clearly and
unmistakeably to poverty. It is, however, tubercular diseases
which show the sharpest reaction and the wildest differences-
On table V it will be seen that in children, Measles,
Pneumonia, and Diarrhoea were most fatal in the South West
Ward. In later years Consumption is the disease which is
abnormally fatal in the Ward. Prom a purely sanitary point
of view, one of the factors which is most constantly associated
with poverty is the inheritance of unwholesome dwellings, the
common lodging house and collections of unsavoury refuse.
As the result of inspection &c., great improvement has
taken place, but there is still much room for advance.