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20
certain other facts relative to "inherited diathisis," which will
be dealt with later, lend credence to the belief that biological
factors outside human agency are helping us rather better than
we know how to help ourselves.
The Registrar-General in his last report has traced a marked
association between rate of real wages and the sex ratio at birth.
He shows that as the rate rises, the proportion of boys predominate.
I have shown elsewhere, that the sex ratio at birth is
dependent on the death-rate before birth, which in its turn is dependent
on the health of the mother.
An increase in the pre-natal death-rate, dependent on defective
maternal nutrition, leads to an apparent increase in the number
of female children born, because the number of males dying
before birth is relatively increased. Hence factors leading to the
improvement of the health of the mother not only lower the deathrate
from Phthisis, but also increases the number of boys born.
The point is of interest, because it shows that under absolutely
similar conditions the death-rate of the male is higher than thp
female, and hence the male must be the more specialised and highly
organised of the two sexes.
There is nothing at any rate in these figures which can be
said to be consequent on the public activities for the control of
this disease. It has been suggested that the increase in tuberculosis
experienced in this area during the last 25 years is due to
immigration from East London, and is dependent on the desire
of those families, which are re-acting badlv, to live in a more open
neighbourhood, where rents and living are relatively cheap and
transport charges are not excessive. Banking seems to fulfil
these desiderata. Actual inquiry as to place and former residence
lends support to this view. As to whether this cause
explains the whole of the rise observed cannot be definitely
decided.