View report page

It will be seen from the table that nearly one-third of the deaths of children under one year of
age occur during the first month of life, and that the numbers of deaths in each successive month
decrease until the ninth month is reached, when there is an increase due in all probability to the change
from natural to artificial food. This fact is well brought out by the following life table, which is based
upon the figures shown in the table preceding. It will be seen from this life table that the probability
of an infant living one month increases with each month of age until the ninth month is reached when
the probability is less than that obtaining for the eighth month of life. The experience of further years
is necessary to ascertain whether this is a constant feature of the figures of London infant mortality,
but it is interesting to note that a similar life-table published in the last annual report, which was
based upon the figures of the year 1902 presented by Dr. Tatham to tha Inter-depatrtmental
Committee on Physical Deterioration, manifested a similar fall in the probability of living one
month during the ninth month of life. That life-table, however, also showed a fall in the probability
of living during the seventh month of life, which is not manifested in the table relating to the
year 1905.

For the purpose of enabling comparison to be made of the age-distribution of the deaths under
one year of age in the several sanitary areas of London, the following table has been prepared:—