Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony on the public health ... / Cape of Good Hope.
- Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). Department of Public Health.
- Date:
- [1908]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health for the Colony on the public health ... / Cape of Good Hope. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Table 9.—Showing for'the Colony Proper, the Urban and Rural Deaths registered during the years 1906, 1907 and 1908, with Race and Sex distinction. Year. European. Coloured. Total. Urban. Rural. Urban. Rural. Urban. Rural. m. ; f. P' M. F. P. M. F. P. M. F. P. * M. F. P. M. F. P. 1906 1907 1908 2,242 1,749 2,0661,615 1,9431.596 3,991 3,681 3.539 1,175 1,227 1,179 1,088 1,064 971 2,263 2,-291 2,150 6,524 5,753 5,243 5,31611,840 5,070 10,823 4,825,10,068 | |' 5,122 5,036 10,158 5,741 5,592 11,333 5,629 5,577 11,206 1 1 8,766 7,065 7,819, 6,685 7,186 6,421 15,831 14,504 13,607 6,297 6,124 12,421 6,968 6,656 13,624 6,808 6,548 13,356 To one who is interested in Vital Statistics it is nothing short of exasperating to possess carefully prepared returns of Births and Deaths and to be able to make no practical use of them, owing to the absence of proper information as regards population. For example, we are quite unable to account for such important facts as the following, which may be due to decrease of population, or may be due to improved health following improved sanitation, or may be due to other entirely unsuspected causes. In 1903, the number of Births among Euro¬ peans in Cape Town and the Peninsula Municipalities numbered 2,727, in 1908 they numbered 2,505, but in the same years the number of deaths among Euro¬ peans was 1,563 and 1,026, respectively. If we explain these diminutions as due to a decrease of>European population, especially of unmarried males, how then shall we account for the fact that in the same Municipalities, in the year 1903, there were 3,532 Coloured Births and in the year 1908, 3,599 ; while of Deaths there were, in 1903, 2,799 and in 1908 only 1,840. Here the Births have actually slightly in¬ creased while the Deaths have decreased out of all proportion to the decrease among Europeans. Again, at Port Elizabeth, in 1903, there were 669 Births among Europeans and in 1908, 709 ; whereas in the same years there were, respectively, 337 and 280 Deaths among Europeans. Among the Coloured, there were 861 Births in 1903 and only 593 in 1908, with 645 Deaths in the first-named year and only 415 in the latter year. But both of these drops among Coloured may be accounted for bjr the fact that in the interval the Natives have been largely moved out of the Municipal Locations to beyond the borders of the Municipality to Korsten and New Brighton. In Kimberley and Beaconsfield, over the same period, there were, in 1903, '540 Births among Europeans and in 1908, 701 ; whereas of Deaths there were in the same years 262 and 238, respectively. Among Natives and Coloured, there were in 1903, 601 Births and 1,363 Deaths, and in 1908, 706 Births and 737 Deaths, the Births having increased by about 17 per cent, and the Deaths decreased by about 45 per cent. Probably the explanation of the large decrease in the Coloured mortality may be found in the large number of unmarried Native labourers who have left the district. But then what explanation will account for the very large increase in the number of Births both' among Europeans and Natives ? On the other hand, if we select some of the inland towns where the prevailing depression has not been so acutely felt, these nearly all shew a more or less station¬ ary number of Births to a very decided fall in the number of Deaths, both among Europeans and Coloured. If, for example, we take the towns of Graaff Reinet, Oudtshoorn, Grahamstown and Aliwal North, we find that between 1903 and 1908 the European Births have increased from 557 to 631, while the European Deaths have dropped from 316 to 211. In the same years, although the Coloured Births decreased from 1,016 to 843, the Deaths underwent much greater diminution from ] ,014 to 692. Clearly there must have been some powerful influences at work here. There is no reason to believe that any considerable decrease of population has taken place in these four towns during the last six years ; nor would a decrease of population be consistent with the increase in the Births among Europeans. On the other hand, if the increase in these Births is to be accounted for by an in¬ crease in the population, this would make the decrease in the Deaths still more difficult to explain, and if we explain the decrease in Deaths by the generally improved sanitation or unusually healthy seasons, this would still leave the increase in the Births unaccounted for. I have gone into these comparisons somewhat fully because they illustrate the need for frequent Census enumerations of the population, with race, age and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31482041_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
