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The deaths of infants under the age of one year numbered 706, of which 380
were of males and 326 of females. They formed nearly 30 per cent. of the deaths during
the year. The proportion of infants under one year dying during the year to the
total number of births registered in the year was at the rate of 190 per 1,000. This
infant mortality is greatly in excess of that of the Metropolis, and is higher than that of
any of the other London Boroughs. The chief causes of the mortality amongst infants
in Shoreditch in 1904 were diarrhoea, enteritis, whooping cough, bronchitis, pneumonia,
and tuberculosis, which are all more or less infectious, and wasting, disorders of digestion,
prematurity and weakness at birth, and suffocation in bed, which largely result through
want of knowledge or lack of means or through carelessness on the part of those in charge
of infants in respect to their feeding and management, or through debilitating influences
which affect the mothers during pregnancy. The main conditions which result in
high infant mortality are poverty and overcrowding, with their attendant evils intemperance
in the parents, want of cleanliness in person and dwelling, insufficiency of fresh
air. and lack of proper precautions as to infant feeding. Debilitating influences, more or
less affect the health of persons of all ages, but the health of young infants suffers especially
and in many instances, although they manage to survive, they grow up to be but
stunted and feeble specimens of humanity. It would be a great step in the mitigation
of these evils if a knowledge of the essential principles of hygiene as affecting the person
and dwelling was more widely spread amongst the people. Hygiene ought to be
made a subject to receive special attention in all schools, and measures should be taken
to urge upon mothers the great importance of rearing infants naturally upon the breast.
Infants so reared have a much better chance of surviving the vicissitudes of the first year
of life than those fed artificially by hand.
The deaths of children aged between one and five years numbered 358, chiefly
attributable to measles, whooping cough, tuberculosis, pneumonia, bronchitis, and diarrhoea.
Violence resulted in 8 deaths, four of which were due to burns or scalds, and one
to homicide. Altogether 1,064, or a little over 44 per cent. of the total number of
deaths during the year were of children under the age of five years.
The deaths of children between the ages of five and fifteen numbered 72, and included
33 due to infectious disease—chiefly tuberculosis. Violence, through accident
or negligence, resulted in seven deaths. Of persons aged from fifteen to twenty-five
80 died, including 47 from infectious disease of which 33 were caused by consumption.
The deaths of persons aged from 25 to 35 years numbered 143, the chief causes
being consumption, which accounted for 58, heart disease, and diseases of the respiratory
organs. Alcoholism caused 3 deaths, Bright's disease 4 deaths, and violence 10 including
one homicidal and four suicidal.
Of persons aged between 35 and 45 years there were 175 deaths, of which 58 were
attributed to consumption, ,10 to alcoholism-, 7 to cancer, 11 to various nervous disorders,
6 to aneurism, 10 to heart disease, 12 to bronchitis, 19 to pneumonia, 7 to cirrhosis of
the liver, and 3 to Bright's disease. Violence resulted in 10 deaths, of which 2 were
suicidal.