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19
The notifications of births received during the year numbered 3,892; which includes
119 still-births and 3,773 live births. The figure of live births notified represents 98.2 per
cent, of the births registered as having taken place in the Borough. This ratio affords an
indication as to the efficiency of notification.
Still-Births.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1926, which came into force on 1st July,
1927, requires the birth of any still born child to be registered.
The definition of still birth for the purpose of the Act is as follows : —
Still born or still birth shall apply to any child which has issued forth from its mother
after the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy, and which did not at any time after being
completely expelled from its mother, breathe or show any other sign of life.
For the purpose of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, a child which, whatever the
period of pregnancy, breathes or shows any other sign of life after complete expulsion from the
mother, is a live born child, and if it dies even within a brief period only after birth, both the
birth and the death must be registered.
The fact of still birth must be certified either by the Medical Practitioner or the Midwife
who was in attendance, or who has examined the child, or by declaration in a prescribed form if
no Medical Practitioner or Midwife was present. If, in any of the last mentioned cases,
information is given by the Registrar to the Local Authority, the Minister of Health has
intimated that the Medical Officer of Health shall arrange for enquiries to be made in order
that he may be satisfied that the child was really still born and that no suspicious
circumstances attach to the case.
A communication has been received from the Registrar-General to the effect that as
the operation of the Population (Statistics) Act, 1938, has necessitated a change in the Birth
and Still-bii th tabulation procedure, it is not now practicable to furnish separate records of
the inward and outwards transfers of still-births.

DEATHS.
The actual number of deaths registered as having taken place in the Borough during the
year was 2,501. This number is to be corrected by the exclusion of 1,067 deaths which
occurred in the Borough of persons who were not St. Pancras residents, and by the inclusion
of 629 deaths of residents which occurred outside the Borough.
The net number of St. Pancras deaths registered during the year was accordingly
2,063 ; equal to an annual death rate of 11.5 per 1000 of estimated population.
Details of the corresponding figures for previous years will be found in the table on
page 4.