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30
It is significant that more than half the deaths from
heart disease occurred after the age of 65. In many of
these cases the heart disease was probably only part of a
more or less general degenerative process incidental to old
age.
Of the cases of heart disease occurring in early or middle
life probably the most important cause is acute rheumatism.
One of the contributory causes of acute rheumatism is
damp dwellings. Therefore the sanitary supervision of
dwellings may be said to be a measure of prevention directed
against heart disease.
Again it is held by some that an unhealthy condition of
the nose and throat is an important cause of rheumatism
both acute and chronic and I think that there is a great deal
to be said for this view.
Accordingly, there is good reason to believe that the
treatment of adenoids and enlarged tonsils provided by the
school medical service is also a preventive of heart disease.
This is a very good example of the way in which the
various branches of the Council's health work are linked together.
Child Welfare work and School Medical work are
no less a part of the system of Preventive medicine than are
Sanitary inspection and the isolation of cases of infectious
disease. Each is working in its own way towards the same
end and all are parts of one system.
It also affords an indication that the immediate results
obtained from Public Health work are by no means the whole
of the benefit conferred on the community. The full effect
must be looked for many years after the work is carried out.
Cancer comes next in the list wth 59 deaths as against
66 in 1922. 7 of these deaths occurred under the age of 45,
27 between the ages of 45 and 65 and 25 over the age of 65.
Progress is undoubtedly being made in the study of this
disease, which encourages the hope that its causes will be
discovered and possibly the way to its prevention indicated.
Pulmonary Tuberculosis caused 30 deaths. This is
3 more than in 1922, but on the whole the death-rate from