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26
There are some more subtle influences at work than good food—
fresh air, and absence of fatigue, overwork and worry.
Under the headings of Injury at Birth, Atelectasis, Prematurity and
Debility, 88 children died within the first year of life, the majority of
these within the first three months.
It is a strange contrast that of 509 children born in Hoe Street
Ward, 27 of them failed to live as compared with 15 of the 657 born in
St. James Street Ward. In Hale End, on the contrary, only 3 children
in every 200 born failed to live as compared with 10 in Hoe Street and
less than 4 in Higham Hill.
The very large number of premature births in the Hoe Street as
compared with the other Wards is very noticeable.
The Table on page 20 shows that the birth-rate in this Ward is only
20 as compared with 25 in St. James Street, and the inference may be
drawn that limitation of family is practised among the well-to-do rather
than by the poor.
The tendency has been noticed for years. It is not good for the race
and leads to its deterioration.
Its explanation is, I think, largely the outcome of selfishness, and the
unwillingness of the present-day women to accept the worries and
drudgeries inseparable from large families.
SENILE MORTALITY.
Of the total deaths recorded in the District, 395, or 30 per cent. of
them, were of persons aged 65 and upwards, compared with a previous
average of 24.
Of the 395 seniles, 118 were over 75 years of age, 20 over 85, and nine
over 90 at the time of death.
A much larger number of residents reached extreme old age in
Hoe Street and Hale End Wards compared with the others; St. James
Street and High Street had fewest.
Apart from Old Age, the chief causes of death in the latest stages of
life were Diseases of the Respiratory System, Heart Disease and
Cancer.