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4
In this connection I would like to draw attention to my suggestions
under the headings of Ward and Infantile Mortality.
The year under review has been remarkable for the low birth, death
and infantile mortality rates, and for an unprecedented freedom from
the dangerous infectious diseases.
The general death-rate for the year has been the lowest recorded and
compares most favourably with other towns, and the country as a whole.
It is less by 4 per 1,000 than that of England and Wales, lower than
that of the "Smaller Towns," whose death rates were less by 1.5 than
that of the 77 "Great Towns " among which we are classed.
Compared with neighbouring districts of a similar character, we
occupy an enviable position as may be seen from the comparative table
on page 18.
Our Zymotic death-rate, or that resulting from deaths caused by
Measles, Scarlatina, Diphtheria, Whooping Cough, Typhoid and
Diarrhoea, was "74 a figure never before reached, less than half that of
the preceding five years, and about one-third that prevailing from 1900
to 1904.
Under every heading of the Zymotics, our death-rate was as low as
in 1909—an exceptionally favourable year—and lower than the corresponding
rates for England and Wales and the 77 " Great Towns."
Although Zymotic deaths are largely preventable, little credit is taken
for our lessened mortality from Diarrhcea, Measles and Whooping
Cough. Diarrhceal deaths largely depend upon summer-heat over
which we claim no power, and Measles and Whooping Cough tend to
occur in epidemic cycles, and so far no serious sustained efforts have
been expended in their control.
The lessened and comparatively small number of deaths from
Scarlatina and Typhoid are worthy of note, and may be accepted as the
result of the work carried out by others in searching out, and tracing
the life history of these diseases, and showing that their incidence was
independent of the mischances affecting drains and their surroundings,
but the old time belief is still prevalent and the greater need for care of
the personal unit is but slowly leavening the public conscience.
The deaths from Diphtheria were the same as in 1909, and 33 per
per cent. less than those in the most favourable of the preceding years.
Its death-rate has shown a steady and continuous improvement since
1900 when it stood at .86, the rate for 1910 was T per 1,000 of the
estimated population.