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per thousand. Tables giving the death-rates and the causes of death at various age
periods in Shoreditch and its four registration sub-districts together with other
information bearing upon the subject are contained in the Appendix (see Tables IV.,
V. and VI.). The death-rate locally was highest in Shoreditch South and lowest in
Hoxton New Town. The death-rate in Shoreditch was markedly elevated during the
months of February and March, chiefly owing to the prevalence of small-pox, measles,
whooping cough, and respiratory diseases. During the latter half of February and the
first week of March the death-rate averaged over 31 per 1,000 inhabitants. The rate
was markedly below the average for the year during the months of May, June and
July, but August brought a rise, due to the prevalence of summer diarrhoea, which
lasted until the middle of September. This rise was not so marked as usual, however.
The death-rate was again considerably above the average in November, mainly the
result of diseases of the respiratory organs, and was again below the average during
the last month of the year.
The deaths of infants under the age of cne year numbered 704, of which 413 were
of males and 291 of females. They formed nearly 29 per cent. of the total number of
deaths for the year. The chief causes of death were:—Bronchitis, pneumonia,
prematurity and debility at birth, diarrhoea which was answerable for more than oneseventh
of the deaths of infants under one year, wasting and disorders of the digestive
organs probably in most instances the result of injudicious feeding, whooping cough
and measles. Accident or negligence resulted in 40 deaths, of which 38 were caused by
suffocation in bed. The in.fant mortality, that is the number of infants under one year
dying during the year per 1,000 births during the year, was 181. The infant mortality
for the Metropolis was 139. The infant mortality, although not so great as in the
previous year in Shoreditch, was nevertheless considerably above that of London,
a fact explicable to a large extent by the greater density of the population in
Shoreditch. The average number of persons living on each acre in Shoreditch is
approximately 180, whilst in London as a whole it is 60 or one third of what it is in
Shoreditch. Then again the mass of the inhabitants of Shoreditch belong to the working
classes, and when employment is slack, the pinch of poverty is felt in many
quarters, health suffers, and young infants succumb more rapidly in consequence.
The deaths of children aged between one and five years numbered 350. The
chief causes of death being measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, small-pox, diarrhoea,
various forms of tuberculosis, bronchitis, and pneumonia. Violence through accident
or negligence resulted in 12 deaths, eight of which were caused through burns or
scalds. Altogether 1054 or slightly over 43 per cent. of the total number of deaths
were of children under the age of five years.
Of children aged between five and fifteen years 89 died, the chief causes of death
being the various infectious diseases including 17 from small-pox, and diseases of the
respiratory organs.
Of persons aged from fifteen to twenty-five years there were 100 deaths, the
majority of which resulted from infectious diseases including nine from small-pox, and
24 from consumption of the lungs and diseases of the respiratory organs.