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14
Infantile Mortality.
The deaths of children under one year of age in the Administrative County of London during
1908 (53 weeks) numbered 13,943, being in the proportion of 113 per 1,000 births.
The rate in successive periods has been as follows:—

The accompanying diagram (IV.) shows the infantile mortality in each year since 1857 in relation
to the mean infantile mortality of the period 1858-1908, and also the infantile mortality in each year
after exclusion of the deaths from premature birth, which would in all probability be affected in greater
degree than the deaths under any other heading by the more complete registration of recent years. It
is thus seen that the rates of 1908 are the lowest recorded in this period.
Diagram V. shows the seasonal mortality among children under one year from diarrhoea and
respiratory diseases in relation to seasonal variations of temperature.
The following table enables comparison to be made of the infantile mortality in London and
other large English towns.

London had therefore in the period 1898-1907 a lower infantile mortality than any of these
towns except Bristol, and has the lowest figure for the year 1908.
The rates are uncorrected (except in the case of London) for births and deaths in institutions.
The uncorrected London rate for 1908 was 115.
The following table shows the deaths of infants under one year of age and the number of
these deaths per 1,000 births in each of the sanitary areas of the County of London for the period
1903-7 and for the year 1908:—

* The registration of births was not made compulsory until the beginning of 1875, before that year many births
were probably unregistered. 1 See footnote (1) page 8. 2 See footnote (1) page 6.