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11
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
while for England and Walts this rate was 25.6 per 1,000, compared
with 26.5 in 1908, and 27.82 the decennial average.
With regard to this rate, although, as the Registrar General
states in his Report for 1908, the crude birth-rate, i.e., the ratio of
births to population at all ages, is valuable for comparing the
rates from year to year, or for ascertaining the rate of natural
increase, yet it is not of great value for any inquiry into the significance
of the variations which occur over a period of years, on
account of the changing constitution of the population, or for
comparing the rate in different communities, on account of the
differences in age and sex distribution.
It is necessary therefore to calculate the proportion of births
to the number of possible mothers, or the total number of females
living in the Borough at ages 15 to 45 years.
In the year 1901 this rate was 88.6 per 1,000, in 1907, 74, in
1908, 73, and in 1909, only 69.4; while for England and Wales the
rates were, in 1901, 114.2, and in 1908, 106.1.
The legitimate birth-rate, calculated on the married female
population was in 1901, 215 per 1,000, in 1908, 174, and in 1909,
165; while for England and Wales it was, in 1901, 234.2, and in
1908, 217.6.
The low rates in this Borough are due to the greater proportion
of females, both married and unmarried, at ages 15-45,
compared with the whole of England and Wales, and also to the
lower birth-rate.
Although these rates are, owing to the lapse of time since the
last Census, only approximately correct, yet there is no doubt that
a very serious reduction has taken place in the birth-rate during
the last 10 years.
184 births occurred in the Workhouse during the year and one
in the Middlesex County Asylum. Of the births in the Workhouse
12 belonged to Clapham, eight to Putney, 21 to Streatham, nine
to Tooting, 57 to Wandsworth, 67 to Battersea, and 10 to other
places,