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35 [1910
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
Islington has good reason to rejoice at the low mortality among its
infants which obtained during the year, for only 777 died out of
the 8,201 bom during the year, which is to say that the infantile
mortality rate was 95 per 1,000 births. This is by far the lowest proportion
hitherto chronicled in the borough, or at all events, since the compulsory registration
of births and deaths came into force, as may be seen by a reference
to Table I. in the Appendix, which gives the infantile deaths and mortality rates
since 1841.
The infantile mortality rate of 95 per 1,000 is 8 below that of the preceding
year, and 29 below that of the ten years 1900-1909, while it is 48 below
the mean rate of the years 1841 to 1909. During this long period of sixty-nine
years, 490,339 children were born, of whom 70,148 died before they had
reached the age of one year, so that the proportion of deaths per 1,000 births
was 143.
Deaths under Proportion of deaths
Period. Births. 1 year. per 1,000 births.
1841-1909 490,339 70,148 143.
These figures indicate what a heavy toll has been laid on infant life in
Islington, which is only one district of our great metropolis. They are so
enormous that it is difficult to grasp them; and yet as they occurred from year
to year no very special heed was taken of them; in fact, nobody seemed to
care about them, and, therefore, little or nothing was done to prevent them.
Happily of late there has been a tendency for the mortality to decrease, for
it will be seen in the Table already mentioned that since 1899, when it was
11>0 per 1,000 births, there has been a steady fall in it, so that five years
later (1904) it was 128, and at the end of another quinquennium (1909) 103,
while it is now only 95.
Compared with other places, Islington never exhibited a very high deathrate
among its infants, although so long ago as 1866 it reached the figure of 169
per 1,000 births, which is the highest rate ever chronicled here. That was
forty-five years ago, and yet last year, a very favourable one for infants, owing
to the meteorological conditions which prevailed, at least five of the
Smaller Towns and one of the Greater Towns showed nearly as high a
mortality.
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