London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Bethnal Green 1909
Report on the sanitary condition and vital statistics during the year 1909 together with the report of the Chief Sanitary Inspector
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In the list below the principal causes of infantile deaths are tabulated so as to shew the mortality attributable to each, compared with the total number of births:—
| Premature birth and congenital defects | 120 | equals | 29.2 | per 1000 | births |
| Diarrhoeal Diseases | 108 | ,, | 26.9 | ,, | ,, |
| Respiratory Diseases | 99 | ,, | 24.1 | ,, | ,, |
| Wasting Diseases | 52 | ,, | 12.6 | ,, | ,, |
| Common Infectious Diseases | 35 | ,, | 8.5 | ,, | ,, |
| Tubercular Diseases | 27 | ,, | 6.6 | ,, | ,, |
| Suffocation | 25 | ,, | 6.1 | ,, | ,, |
| Convulsive Diseases | 25 | ,, | 6.1 | ,, | ,, |
As is usually the case, deaths from premature birth
and congenital defects head the list, and 22.5 per cent,
of the total infantile mortality is due to these antenatal
causes. I was at one time of opinion that the
employment in factories of prospective mothers was
responsible for the conditions which result in the birth
of premature or deformed children, but investigation
and experience do not confirm this view; unsuitable
home-work, domestic or otherwise, and the carrying
of heavy loads to and from warehouses by pregnant
women are much more probable causes.*
Diarrhœal diseases come next in order of fatality
with 108 deaths, a proportion of 20.2 on the whole
number, seventy-three of these deaths were due to
acute or infective diarrhœa and thirty-five to subacute
* Report made to Chief Inspector of Factories re Employment of Married Women,
Appendix Page 71.