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16
The causes of the 113 infant deaths are shown in detail in the
appendix, pages 136-8. The number of infant deaths in each
quarter of the year is shown in the table on page 13.
Deaths of Illegitimate Infants.
The death-rate amongst illegitimate children during 1938 was
102.27 per 1,000 births, as compared with 69.77 in 1937, 57.5 in
1936, 160.9 in 1935, and 134.8 in 1934. The corresponding deathrate
of legitimate children in 1938 was 51.33, the ratio of mortality
rate of illegitimate infants to that of legitimate being 199 to 100.
For the 20 years 1919-38 this ratio was 209 to 100.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS.
Battersea is in the main a working-class Borough, and though
there are two or three large factories within its borders, the majority
of the inhabitants travel to other areas for their daily work. Some
indications of the economic conditions prevailing in the Borough
are to be found in the following figures :—

There were, in addition, a small number of persons who
received medical relief only.
The first of the above tables shows an increase of 38, and the
second a decline of 2 per cent. for the year 1938 compared with 1937.
I am indebted to the Chief Officers of the London County
Council for the second of the above tables, and for those on the next
two pages relating to the inspection of elementary school children.
On the average 285 children per month received free dinners
in the elementary schools, and 975 per month received free milk,
apart from the numbers who obtained cheap milk under the scheme
of the Milk Marketing Board. These two figures taken together
represent an increase of 9½ per cent. on those for 1937.
Other facts bearing on the social and economic conditions of the
inhabitants of the Borough may be inferred from various paragraphs
in this report, e.g., page 29 dealing with the supply of milk by the
Council, and pages 117, &c., as to factories, &c., and the numbers
employed therein.