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14
The remedy in a great measure is a matter of education. The
teaching of hygiene in the Public Elementary Schools will do much
in the future to diminish the rate of Infantile Mortality by instructing
the future mothers on the care, management and feeding of infants.
On reference to page 10, it will be seen that the death-rate from
Zymotic Diseases is tabulated so as to show the rate from those which
are notifiable, as well as non-notifiable Diseases. I have adopted this
method because the conclusion to be drawn from the total rate from
all Zymotic diseases may give rise to a wrong inference, since it
includes Diarrhoea, Measles, and Whooping Cough ; diseases which
are not dependent upon Sanitary Conditions, nor preventible under
existing Legislation to any great extent by the Sanitary Authority.
For instance, the total Zymotic death-rate for the year is 3'i per
1,000, which is an increase, of nearly i per r,ooo as compared with
1903, and o'3 above the average rate for the previous 11 years ; but this
has not the significance it appears to have, since the increase is seen to
be entirely due to Non-notifiable Zymotic Diseases, for which Whooping
Cough, Measles, and Diarrhoea were chiefly responsible.
The death-rate from the Scheduled Notifiable Diseases is less
than half that for 1903, and 06 below the average years given in the
table. How far many of the diseases included in this group are
dependent upon sanitary conditions is not definitely known, except
with regard to enteric fever, the rate of mortality from which is held
to be a test par excellence of sanitary conditions.
During the year there were no deaths recorded from this disease,
and only one during the past eleven years. The conclusion I arrived
at from a consideration of the vital statistics is that the Sanitary
condition of the district is of a high standard, so high, indeed, that
it annuls the adverse influence on the total mortality rate, due to
excessive infant deaths. Were it possible to bring this latter rate
within normal limits, the influence on the total rate would be such as
to render it lower than that of most districts of similar character and
population.