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6
BIRTH-RATE.
During the year there were registered as belonging to
Harrow 289 births. Of these 144 were males and 145 females
(including one illegitimate male child and tour females).
The birth-rate for the district in 1923 was 14.7. In 1922 it
was 15.3. The average for the last five years is 14.7, a far
different birth-rate from former days, for reasons that are well
known. One is only glad to know that the compensation for
a low birth-rate is the greater care of the children that
are born.
DEATH-RATE.
One hundred and ninety-nine deaths were registered as
having occurred in the Harrow district, or were allotted to
Harrow. Of these 85 were males and 114 females. 35 persons
(14 males and 21 females) died over the age of 80 years. The
average death-rate for the last five years has been 9.2. The
death-rate for 1923 was 10.1. In 1922 it was 9.6.
Among the chief causes were:—
Cancer 35
Tuberculosis 26
Heart Disease 23
Arterio-Sclerosis 12
Cerebral Haemorrhage, etc. 12
Bronchitis 6
Other defined diseases 46
It is not easy to explain the higher mortality, viz., 26,
from Tuberculosis, especially as the district adjoining with a
similar population has only six for the same year. 34 cases
were notified, of which 31 were pulmonary. We know that
there is still much overcrowding and that there are still some
slum properties In addition to this, no doubt, many affected
people come to Harrow as to a health resort
There were 35 deaths from Cancer last year, one less than
in 1922. In recent reports I have referred to this disease
because of its prominence in our death-rate, but there is not
much new knowledge to record. All we know at present is
that Cancer is curable by operation in the early stage, and also
by X-rays and by radium if the growth is purely superficial.
We know also from statistics that, over the age of forty,
one woman in eight, and one man in fourteen, dies of certified
Cancer.