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4
Deaths.
The deaths registered were 466 in number (202
males and 264 females); this is exclusive of those
of non-residents, but inclusive, as far as can be
ascertained, of those residents who died outside
the district. This gives us a death rate of 10.6
per 1,000, or 1 in 93 of the estimated population.
This may he considered satisfactory, although I
am sanguine that under normal conditions of
the public health we may in future years hope
to have a reduced rate not only generally, but
especially under the heads of infantile and zymotic
mortality. The annual death rate from all
causes in England and Wales equalled 16.2 per
1.000 living; in the seventy-six great towns it
was 17.2, and in rural England and Wales 15.3.
A table is appended showing the distribution of
deaths in the different wards, and classified according
to age and causation.
Infantile Death Rate.
With regard to the infantile death rate, i.e.,
that of children under one year of age, it is gratifying
to report a considerable decrease. The
deaths under this head, calculated on the ratio of
the deaths under one year to the number of
births registered during the year, equals 105.3,
as compared with an infantile mortality for the
previous year of 136.8. I may add that this
mortality for the whole of England and Wales
was 146 per 1,000 registered births.
Old Age.
Of the total number of deaths (466), 148 were
those of persons aged 65 years and upwards.
Zymotic Death Rate.
With regard to the deaths from the seven chief
epidemic diseases—erroneously termed the zymotic
death rate—it will be seen from the perusal
of the accompanying table to equal in its
entirety 1.5 per 1,000 persons living, the total
number of such deaths being 69, and of this number
no fewer than 53 were due to diarrhoea. Excluding
this latter disorder from calculation, the
mortality rate would only have been .36 per 1,000,
the remaining 16 deaths being apportioned as
fc1 lows:—Scarlatina, 4; enteric fever, 1; diphtheria,
1; measles, 7; and whooping cough, 3.
For England and Wales the rate was 1.94. There
was a considerable outbreak of diarrhoea during
the spell of very hot weather we experienced last
summer, but the attacks were by no means confined
to young children, as several persons of ad\avced
age suffered from the same cause.