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infantile mortality. 47
The influence of the mortality rates of these insulæ on the rates for the Wards of which
the insulæ form parts, are shown in Table 36, which table should be read with the preceding.
Both in Maida Vale and in Queen's Park Wards, the mortality experienced in the insulae
raised the rate for the whole Ward; in Church Ward it had no effect; and in Westbourne
Ward it actually lowered it. The total mortality in the six insulae was equal to rate of 115
per 1,000, as compared with one of 88 in the remainder of the Borough. (See Table 37).
Whooping cough, congenital defects, atrophy and debility, and respiratory diseases were the
principal causes of the higher mortality in the insulae. The age-group rates were higher at
all ages in the insulas than in the rest of the Borough.
Diarrheal Diseases. The deaths certified during the year as having been due to
"diarrhoea" and "epidemic (zymotic) enteritis" numbered 52 or 20 less than the annual
average (72) during the five years 1905-09, the mortality being 0.34, as compared with a mean
rate of 0.47 during the same five years. The mean rate for the five years 1895-99 was 1.28,
while those for the first and last quinquennia (1891-95, 1906-10) of the twenty years for
which comparable statistics are available, were 0.82 and 0.34 respectively. According to
the figures published in the Registrar General's Quarterly Reports, the local rate (Table 10)
was 0.28 last year and the quinquennial mean rate 0.44, the rate for last year being equal to
that for the whole Metropolis, but higher than anv of the other rates included in the table.
The rates recorded last year in the Wards of the Borough are given below in comparison
with the mean rates for 1905-09. Neglecting Lancaster Gate, West Ward, where only one
death from diarrhoea occurred during the year, in Maida Vale Ward alone was a rate in
excess of the mean observed.
Queen's Park. Harrow Road. Maida Vale. Lancaster Gate, Hyde
Westbourne. Church. West. East. Park.
1910 0.18 0.29 0.53 0.38 0.56 0.12 — 0'14
1905-09 0.60 0.48 0.34 0.44 0.92 0.02 0.07 0-19
The figures and rates given above relate to the deaths from " diarrhoea " at all ages,
whereas the true interest in this cause of death lies in the mortality among very young
children (under two years of age). Further, in dealing with the mortality at those younger
ages it is advisable to include under the general head of "diarrhoeal deaths" those certified
as due to " enteritis," the seasonable distribution of deaths among young children from that
cause closely resembling that from the causes previously mentioned.
The total diarrhœal mortalities at ages under one year are given in the tabular statement
on page 48. In comparison with the mean rates, last year's rates show a substantial
reduction (43 per cent.) in the mortality among males and a smaller one (10 per cent.)
in that among females. Last year's rates were slightly higher than those recorded in
1909, the rate among males having been 12.82 in that year (15.04, 1910), that among
females 14.14 (17.96, 1910).
Usually the deaths from diarrhoeal diseases are markedly more numerous during the
third quarter of the year than in any other quarter, but in 1907 and again last year the
largest number of deaths took place in the fourth quarter. With a view to finding some
explanation for this unusual distribution, the deaths at ages under two years have been
specially taken out for each quarter of the years 1905 to 1910.