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life (mainly tuberculous and respiratory), and are living to
die of the wear and tear of life, which necessarily kill sooner
or later, in old age. These facts disprove the assertion that
a diminished infantile mortality only means the survival of
delicate children to fall an easy prey to the diseases of
childhood and early manhood. On the contrary it appears
to mean a more vigorous and enduring manhood and
womanhood.
14a. The chart on the opposite page shows graphically
how the birth and death rates have varied in the past 19
years. The death-rate and infantile death-rate usually rise
and fall together, but the birth-rate follows quite a different
course, showing that the fall in the infantile death-rate can
only be but slightly, if at all, the result of the fall in the
birth-rate.
15. Tables 6 and 7, kindly supplied by the RegistrarGeneral,
give a summary of the Vital Statistics of the
County and Metropolitan Boroughs in the five years 19059,
and in 1910. Only four Boroughs had a lower death-rate
than Woolwich, viz., Hampstead, Lewisham, Fulham, and
Wandsworth. (N.B.—Owing to the Registrar-General taking
a higher population the birth and death rates come slightly
lower than those given above for Woolwich).
16. Lives Saved. In the last two years, I have estimated
that 479 and 383 lives respectively were saved owing
to the reduction of the death-rate. The average death-rate
in the years 1896-1905 was 15*4. Such a rate in 1910
would have meant the death of 1,978 persons instead of 1,410
who actually died. There was thus a saving of 568 lives
in 1910. But this is not the whole of the benefit con-