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There is also an increase in the number of deaths from
Pulmonary Tuberculosis, but the number of deaths from this
disease was abnormally low in 1925.
Heart disease still looms as an important cause of death,
and though the number was slightly lower than that of 1925,
Cancer and Heart Disease are the two diseases which account
for the highest number of deaths.
Deaths in Public Institutions.
One of the most marked changes taking place in the social
life not only in this district but also in most districts of Greater
London is the increasing use made of the facilities for Institutional
treatment. Most of. the new houses which have recently been
occupied have only the bare accommodation for the family, and
when a case of serious illness occurs in the house, there is not
sufficient accommodation for the efficient nursing of the patient.'
In very many instances, the patient has to be treated either in
a Hospital or a Nursing Home. Last year 260 deaths, or nearly
40 per cent of the total deaths, occurred in public institutions.
In addition 18 deaths occurred in nursing homes.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
60 deaths occurred of children under one year of age.
The infantile mortality is usually calculated as a proportion of
the deaths of babies to the total births, and is stated as the
number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1000 births
which occurred in the same year. The number of births in 1926
was 1098 and the infantile mortality was therefore 55 per 1000
births.
This is the lowest infantile mortality recorded in the
district; the next lowest being that of 1924, when it was 56 per
1000 births.
The infantile mortality in the different wards was as
follows :—
North-East. North-West. South-East. South-West.
66 15 72 54
So far as causation is concerned conditions vary very little
in ordinary years. The chief causes were Premature Birth and
Pneumonia with 16 deaths and 12 deaths respectively. In a very
hot summer deaths from diarrhœl diseases may figure largely
in the returns, but usually this cause has been brought very