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In 1913 the deaths were—in Clerkenwell 217, in St. Luke 126,
and in St. Sepulchre 5 deaths.
General Observations.—The causes of infantile mortality in
Finsbury are various, but may, in the main, be attributed to
social and economic conditions. The problem is one that is intimately
associated with questions of women's labour, rent, wages,
expenditure and housing-—in short, with poverty and its usual
concomitants.
The reduction of infant mortality in Finsbury will not be
accomplished save to a very slight degree by public health
measures or by keener sanitary administration. The issue lies far
deeper. In Finsbury, one-twelfth of the whole population lives
four or more in one room. Nearly 6,000 families live and sleep
in 6,000 rooms. Finsbury is the most crowded borough in
London. The proportion of one-roomed tenements in Finsbury
is 279 per 1,000—higher than, the corresponding figure for
Stepney, Bermondsey, Shoreditch, Poplar or Bethnal Green. Out
of every 1,000 inhabitants in Finsbury nearly 400 live more than
2 in one room. The deaths that occurred in 1913 and the
families affected were specially investigated. Thirty per cent. of
the parents lived and slept in one room per family, 46 per cent.