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14
The recorded death rates for the preceding 10 years will be found
in Co). 13, Table 1, Page 49.
It is gratifying to note that the death rate for 1905 in Edmonton
is the lowest of which I can find any record and is 2.5 per 1,000
below the average of the 10 preceding years.
Notwithstanding the fact that the age and sex distribution of our
population is favourable to a low death rate, it must be borne in
mind that, in a community of the size and social constitution of
Edmonton, specific circumstances influencing the health of the
inhabitants are likely to produce a more marked variation in the
death rate than would be the case in a larger and more mixed
population. This is exemplified in the death rate (15.8) recorded in
1904 which was unfavourably affected in this way by the large
number of infant deaths, caused chiefly by summer diarrhoea, and
the great increase in the mortality from pulmonary diseases which
characterised that year. The meteorological conditions of 1904
were, doubtless, favourable to these illnesses, but the general
ignorance and lack of care in the matter of infant rearing that
characterise the class to which the vast majority of our inhabitants
belong, accounted mainly for this undue prevalence of infantile
sickness, whilst the poverty and want that prevailed throughout the
severe winter of 1904 undoubtedly helped to swell the mortality
from chest troubles in that year.
During 1905 the conditions have been much more favourable.
The winter was one of the mildest that have been experienced for
many years, unemployment existed to a much less extent than was
the case in 1904 and better means for meeting it were available. In
the summer months, too, the weather was favourable to a diminished
mortality from diarrhoeal diseases, but much credit is, I think, also
due for the marked improvement under this head, to the unremitting
efforts that have been made during the past two years to guide the
mothers of newly born children to the knowledge that is necessary
for the protection of their infants from this and other dangers to
which they are peculiarly liable.