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REPORT TO THE SUB-COMMITTEE
on
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
Gentlemen,
I beg to present the following Report as a result of my
enquiries into the causes, &c., of Infantile Mortality.
In 1898, the number of deaths of infants under 1 year of
age was 388. This corresponds to 208 deaths for every 1,000
births. This means that for every 10 children born during the
year only 8 lived 12 months. From enquiries made, I find that
there are only two districts in London that have a higher
infantile mortality, viz., Holborn, with 221 deaths for 1,000 births,
and St. Saviour, Southwark, with 211.
Of the Eastern Districts, 3 have almost as high a rate of
infantile mortality as the Limehouse District. These districts
are Shoreditch, with 196 per 1,000 births, St. George's-in-theEast
with 195, and Poplar with 191.
The infantile mortality for the whole of London is high,
and last year was 166 per 1,000 births.
I have made enquiries into the causes of death of not only
infants under a year old, but those that died under the age of
18 months, and in one of the Tables I have given you the result
of those investigations. I ought to explain that these do not
include the deaths of infants from notifiable Infectious Diseases,
nor of those that died within a few hours of birth, due to being
born prematurely or to Congenital Defects.