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25
DEATHS.
The number of deaths during the year belonging
to the Borough according to local records was 1,229,
but the Registrar General gives the figure as 1,232.
Whichever figure be correct, it gives an annual
crude death rate of 12.7 per 1,000 population
which when multiplied by the Registrar-General's
Comparability Factor is corrected to 14.3 and may
be compared with 12.5 for the County of London
and 12.1 for England and Wales as a whole.
I pointed out last year that the very favourable
climatic conditions and low death rate experienced
during 1935 were exceptional and that it would be
too optimistic to expect a similar result in the
following year. My caution has been justified in
the event. 1936 was emphatically not a good year
for weather and was characterised by epidemics
of influenza, measles and whooping cough with their
sequelae in bronchitis and pneumonia as well as by
substantial increases in the deaths from the main
causes like heart disease, cancer, tuberculosis, etc.
which were below their usual level in the previous
year.
Infantile mortality and the deaths from cancer,
street accidents and from tuberculosis and other
infectious diseases are subjects of comment in other
parts of this report.
The causes of death among the population of
Bethnal Green as returned by the Registrar General
are given in the accompanying table.