Abstract
THE report of the Ministry of Health for the year ended March 31, 1947 (Cmd. 7441, pp. 1–204. London : H.M. Stationery Office, 1948. 3s. 6d. net), records, in general, another favourable bill of health. In spite of the continuance of rationing and other controls, and of the various additional ingredients of that too-familiar conception ‘austerity', the vital statistics and other features of this report suggest that austerity is not really doing the population of Britain very much harm. In the period covered by the report the birth-rate rose to 19·1 per thousand of the population, a figure which is the highest recorded since 1923 ; and the infant mortality-rate fell to 43, which is a new low record. Maternal mortality also fell to a record low level of 1·43 per thousand total births, and death-rates at ages of less than fifteen years from measles, scarlet fever, rheumatic fever and heart disease were all the lowest ever reported. The death-rate was 12·0, which is the lowest since the previous best (11·6) in 1938.
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LAPAGE, G. Health of the People of Britain. Nature 162, 586–587 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162586a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162586a0