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MORTALITY
General Mortality and Death Rate.
The nett number of deaths accredited to the district was 942,
1 less than in 1958.
This gives a crude death rate of 13.30 per 1,000 of the population
and a corrected death rate of 10.9 (the rate for 1958 being
13.30).
From the table which sets out the causes of death for 1959
(page 16) it will once again be seen that diseases of the heart and
circulation made up by far the greatest single cause of death.
This is in keeping with the national situation, and is a most disturbing
feature of modern life. The causes of coronary occlusion—
the disease with which we are particularly concerned—are complex
and not yet fully understood. It was formerly thought that the
stresses and strains associated with life today were the main factors.
Nowadays, although these factors are still believed to play a significant
part, the role of essential fatty acids in producing atherometa
or plaques in the tiny coronary arteries which feed the heart are
also considered to have great significance. Much work is being
done in this field, in order to establish more clearly the precise
causes of coronary disease and the steps which can be taken to
reduce the appalling loss of life which occurs in middle and late
middle age, especially among males. Once again, deaths from
cancer of the lung and cancer of the bronchus have increased,
another factor which gives rise to much anxiety. So much has
been said and written on this subject that it would appear unnecessary
to dwell on the factors which may be contributing to this
unhappy rise. One certainly cannot say that there are any specific
factors existing in Southgate which encourage coronary thrombosis
or lung cancer. But as I said in the Annual Report for 1958, it is
quite clear that health education has an important part to play in
providing advice and guidance which will help to reduce the two
most serious types of fatality which our generation has to face.
Infant Mortality.
There were 13 deaths of infants under 1 year of age, which
gives an infant death rate of 15.3 per 1,000 live births, as compared
with 17 deaths and a rate of 21.0 in the preceding year.
Among the 13 infants who died in Southgate during 1959
before they had reached the age of twelve months, 11 were under
the age of one month. Of these, 10 failed to survive one week.
Although these figures are considerably better than they were not
so many years ago, we must strive, are indeed striving to
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