HH62/1/DUNBAR/81

Transcription

[Page] 80

namely, of the ratio of deaths under one year of age, to the total
births occurring during the year; and for convenience this is
usually stated as the "Deaths under one year, per 1000 births."
Table XVIII. gives the facts.

TABLE XVIII.
COUNTY OF DUNBARTON.

[Table inserted]

In all Scotland, during the same period, the average rate was
113 in the Small Town Districts and 90 in Mainland Rural
Districts. So that the low all-age rate which prevails in the
Small Town Districts of the county is hardly at all shared in by
infants, while in the Rural Districts infants have a mortality higher
by 20 per cent. than prevails in Scotland as a whole in the cor-
responding group of the population.

Death-rates in 1891. - We come finally to the mortality
during the past year, and here I am able to depart from the
"Small Town" and "Rural" subdivisions, and to revert to the
Districts as formed under the Local Government Act. In Scot-
land there is not as in England any law compelling local registrars
to furnish to the Sanitary Department statistics of the mortality

[Page] 81

of the various Districts. But in Dunbartonshire the registrars
have been good enough to agree to do so, on the payment of a
small fee by the District Committees, and it is from the returns so
received that I am able to calculate the death-rates for the year.
Tables XIX. and XXI. (which correspond to Table I., as issued
by the Board of Supervision) give a statement of the births and
deaths; and Tables XX. and XXII. (which correspond to the
Board's Table II.) give a statement of rates founded on the
statistics of Tables XIX. and XXI.
The figures in these tables do not, however, tally exactly with
those furnished to me by the local registrars. In the parish of
Kirkintilloch the population of Woodilee Asylum (amounting to
600) and all the deaths occurring therein have been excluded - the
reason being that the inmates of the Asylum belong to the Barony
Parish, and that the deaths ought to go to swell those of Lanark-
shire. On the other hand, I have obtained, through the courtesy
of those in charge, a statement of the deaths that occurred in the
Larbert Asylum and in the Dunbarton Combination Poorhouse,
and have distributed these throughout the Districts according to
the usual residences.

Western District. - The total death-rate here is 18·7; the zymotic
death-rate, 2·25; and the phthisis death-rate, 1·87. The lowest
total rate (13·01) occurred in the Cardross Registration District,
and the highest (21·36) in the Renton District, these two being
subdivisions of the parish of Cardross. Next to Renton comes
Arrochar, with a 20·82 rate. Of the 31 deaths that produce this
rate, 18 occurred among the railway labourers, and eight of these
were due to cold and exposure, drowning, &c. The highest
zymotic rate (3·47) was in Renton, and the next (3·34), strange
to say, in the rural parish of Kilmaronock. But in a small popu-
lation like that of Kilmaronock a single death more or less
makes a great difference in the zymotic rate. No deaths occurred
from phthisis in Cardross, while the highest rates were in Bonhill,
Roseneath, and Renton.

Eastern District. - The death-rate was 20.·8 per 1000 per annum,
this being made up of rates of 17·4 in East Kilpatrick, 21·2 in
West Kilpatrick, 22·7 in Kirkintilloch, and 23·1 in Cumbernauld
The zymotic death-rate was 3·38 - a high mortality. The lowest

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