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up of houses and the fixing of the permitted number of occupiers
should be carried out immediately. Approximately 8,000 dwellings
have been measured, that is, those in which there was doubt as to
whether or not overcrowding existed, but the obviously overcrowded
dwellings and those not overcrowded at the time of the enumeration
remain to be measured.
The past year has shown the lowest infantile mortality rate
yet recorded in the Borough. The death rate figures are also
eminently satisfactory and a comparative table, showing the
position of Hackney as regards England and Wales, the County of
London and the London Boroughs, can be seen on page 13.
Before long the housing schemes of the County Council will
mature and families will be brought into the Borough from slum
areas in other districts. Many of these families can quite fairly
be described as never having had a chance in life, and the addition
of a very considerable population made up of such families makes
it probable that, following the completion of these housing schemes,
the vital statistics of the Borough may compare unfavourably with
previous years in spite of improved couditions and extension of the
health services. Arrangements, however, are being made as fast
as municipal procedure will permit to extend the health services,
particularly the maternity and child welfare service, to deal with
the influx of population resulting from the very large re-housing
schemes of the County Council within the Borough.
During the year discussions took place with the local organisations
of medical practitioners and it is hoped that facilities for the
prevention of diphtheria infection will be available for all Hackney
children by means of an arrangement between the family doctors
and the Borough Council. The Council's Diphtheria Prevention
Clinic has recently been working to its fullest capacity. To quote
from the June, 1936, issue of "Mother and Child," the official organ
of the National Council for Maternity and Child Welfare :
"Logic is the last influence to mould public opinion in this
country, and so the general attitude towards diphtheria
mortality is perhaps not surprising. And yet how much more
tragic, from the numerical point of view, is the diphtheria
situation than the maternal mortality situation. During 1934,
2,748 women died as a result of pregnancy and child-bearing,
and the fractional rise in the maternal mortality rate provoked
a storm of comment. But in the same year 4,085 children died
from diphtheria, a disease proved to be preventable. Yet there
was no outcry from the public. It is perhaps mere chance,
but it is a tragic chance, that the fickle sentiment of the public