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5
of health and, while it is true that such philosophical speculations
may lead one into fields far removed from the conventional
activities of the older public health they are, nevertheless,
an important part of the newer social medicine. It is
necessary to point this out before proceeding to examine
some of the statistical pointers to the health of the Borough.
The birth rate for 1954 was 13.51 per thousand of the
population compared with 14.63 per 1,000 in 1953 and represents
the lowest birth rate ever recorded in the Borough.
Thus the downward trend of the past four years has continued.
The standardised birth rate, which allows for comparison
with other parts of the country, is also 13.51 but the rate is well
below that for England and Wales which was 15.2. It looks
as if we may have to regard a low birth rate as a permanent
feature of our modern society. When this is coupled with a
low death rate and a greater expectation of life the result can
only be an ageing population with the many social and
industrial problems which that must bring.
The death rate for the Borough fell still further to 9.9
per thousand of the estimated home population compared
with 10.88 in 1953 and a rate of 11.3 per 1,000 for England and
Wales. The two main causes of death, as in recent years,
were diseases of the heart and blood vessels and cancer, the
latter including 13 deaths from cancer of the lung. The
prevention of cancer is one of the great public health tasks of
the future and may well be wrapped up, in part, with a Clean
Air policy, as foreshadowed by the Beaver Report. Since we
are mortal and must die of something the best we can hope
for is that life should come quietly and peacefully to an end
without the intervention of any preventable catastrophe
in which category at least some forms of cancer probably fall-
The infant mortality rate for 1954, that is the number of
children dying in the first year of life for every 1,000 live births,
was 19.32 per 1,000 against 32.79 per 1,000 in 1953. This
represents a new low record for the Borough the lowest rate
previously recorded being 22.8 per 1,000 in 1948. When one
considers that in 1908 the infant mortality rate was 80 per
thousand live births and in 1938 53.62 per thousand, the 1954
rate represents a very remarkable improvement. Only one
of the 12 infantile deaths recorded was due to a condition
which may be regarded as being preventable in the present
state of our knowledge and it can be said that the standard
of maternal care has been adequate. A warning must be