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7
one may perhaps assume the minimum proportion of
three to one, which would give the recognisable
number of cases of Consumption in the Borough to be
about 120. Of course, of this number there would
be, or are, many who would not have to resort to the
provision at present made by the local authority. I
have referred at some length to this' important subject
to strengthen my views regarding compulsory
notification, and also to give me the opportunity of
stating that 1 am of opinion the establishment of a
County Sanatorium is advisable. At the present time
1 am officially not aware of a single case of Phthisis
in the Borough, with the exception of those at Mount
Vernon, to which institution we sent eight patients
last year, whose average stay was about fourteen
weeks. I may add that Table IV., previously alluded
to, affords detailed information of the " Causes and
Ages at Death " from all causes.
There is only one other subject to which I especially
wish to draw your attention, and that is the highly
important one of "Infantile Mortality" or the
deaths of children under one year of age, and it is
satisfactory to be able to refer to it favourably as
regards the past year. You are aware that for several
years there has been a very marked decline in the
mortality under this heading, until it has reached now
the lowest rate I have yet had to record. A great
reduction commenced in the year 1907, when it was
91.2 per thousand births registered against 129.8 in
the previous vear. It has, happily, continued to fall,
being 80.7 in 1908, 76 in 1909, and, for the past year,
onlv 65.2, a difference of 10.8 in its favour. The rate
for England and Wales was 106. This is a very satisfactory
rate indeed for our Borough, and the question
naturally arises as to the several causes which have
conduced to it. Generally stated, the climatic conditions
were favourable, and no serious amount of epidemic
disease prevailed, and when it did it was for
short periods, and comprised very limited outbreaks,
such as Measles, which usually presented a sporadic