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Strangely enough, in spite of these vicissitudes the
general health of the community, as evidenced by the vital
statistics of the area remained good. The infant mortality
rate (i.e. the number of children dying in the first year of
life per 1,000 live births), a very sensitive index of social
conditions, was 29.5 per 1,000 live births in 1946, a very
favourable rate compared with previous years. At the outbreak
of the war the rate was 40.1 per 1,000. This rate has
continued to fall and in 1963 was 17.89 per 1,000 and, even
allowing for the inevitable fluctuations which are expected
when dealing with small numbers, it may be said with some
justification that there has been a downward trend since
the end of the war which is statistically significant. This has,
undoubtedly, been due to improved environmental conditions
including housing, an advance in child health services
including health education and the discovery of the chemotherapeutic
drugs as well as penicillin and the other antibiotics
which have greatly simplified the control of the
childhood infections.
The maternal mortality rate (the number of deaths of
mothers in childbirth per 1,000 total births) had shown a
similar decline. The rate in 1946 was 1.73 per 1,000 live and
still births (3 maternal deaths). It is pleasant to report that
there have been no maternal deaths due to childbirth, in
the Borough, for the past eight years. This improvement can
be related to improved obstetric services, better housing conditions
and, again, better chemical and antibiotic control of
the puerperal infections.
The birth rate in 1946 was 19.75 per 1,000 of the population
(18.81 and 21.06 in the previous two years) and fell
steadily until about 1956 when an upward trend became
noticeable. The rate for 1963 was 16.18 compared with 12.0
per 1,000 in 1952. The Department for Education and
Sciences, "Statistics of Education", 1963 (H.M.S.O.) show
that the post-war " bulge " now passing out of the secondary
schools is but the forerunner of bigger bulges to come which
are bound to have important social, industrial and educational
implications for the future.
The death rate, on the other hand, has remained almost
unchanged over the past 18 years and more. The fall in the
death rate in the country as a whole began around 1875
and was due to improvements in the adverse environmental
conditions which the process of urbanisation had brought
to bear on the community—not merely in regard to sanitation
but housing, overcrowding, nutrition, hours of work and
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