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belonging to the district is therefore 704, which corresponds to a
death-rate of 10.2 per 1,000 inhabitants. In last year's report, it
was stated that the Registrar General supplies each district with a
comparability factor for adjusting the local death-rate to make it
comparable with other districts. This comparability factor is based
upon the age distribution and sex incidence of the district at the
Census of 1931. The comparability factor for Acton is 1.08. The
standardised death-rate for Acton would be 11.01 per 1,000 inhabitants.
The death-rate for England and Wales for 1935 was
11.7 per 1,000; the crude death-rate for London Administrative
County 13.3; for the 121 County Boroughs and Great Towns with
over 50,000 inhabitants 11.8; and for the 140 Smaller Towns with
a population between 25,000 and 50,000 inhabitants 11.2 per 1,000
inhabitants.
Although the death-rate was not a record low one, and the
reasons for this have been discussed in a preceding paragraph, it
is correct to state that 1935 was, in many respects, one of the healthiest
years on record; during 1935 we were probably freer from physical
disease than in any previous year for which we have records.
Some of the causes for this freedom from illnesses which are particularly
fatal were not due to any human thought or action. Although
we have learnt to control many of the diseases which occur
in epidemics, the so-called infectious diseases, there are others
which still make their appearance with a regular periodicity and
others which appear at irregular intervals. For instance, measles
still appears regularly even other year, but 1935 as far as Acton
was concerned was an interepidemic year, and we had no deaths
from the disease. Influenza also took but a small toll. We do not
know the conditions under which influenza appears in epidemic
form, but during a severe winter a larger number of deaths is ascribed
to influenza. The early part of 1935 was mild and the climatic
conditions in the latter part of the year were of a mild character
almost up to Christmas. These were the conditions which may be
said to be accidental in their nature, but there are grounds for stating
that there is a general improvement in freedom from disease,
and if there had not been a re-distribution in the age incidence
of the population, record low death-rates would have been observed
in the last few years. If the causes of death be examined, it will
be noticed that those which loom large are those which are associated
with advancing years, such as cancer, cerebral haemorrhage,
old age, heart disease in people over 65 years of age. 357, or more
than one-half of the total deaths, were of people over 65 years of
age. Not only is the age at death being raised, but even the process
of decay can be delayed so that life can be enjoyed for a longer
period. But it is not at the later ages alone that the improvement