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ages of twenty-five and sixty-five, and 441 of parsons aged upwards
of sixty-five.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The total number of deaths of infants under one year of age
was 472, the rate of infantile mortality, that is to say the proportion
of deaths of infants under one year of age to every 1,000 children
born during the year was 144, compared with an average of 160
during the past ten years.
The infantile mortality rate in London for the year was 130, and
the average rate for the past ten years 151; in England and Wales
the rate was 133 for the year, the average rate for the previous ten
years being 150 per 1,000 births. By far the largest number of the
deaths is due to disorders of digestion (diarrhoea and enteritis)
respiratory diseases (bronchitis and pneumonia), atrophy, premature
birth, and the ordinary infectious diseases, measles, whooping
cough, etc.
The deaths from diarrhoea alone numbered 119, as against 66
for the previous year; whooping cough 36, compared with 10 for the
last year; measles 12 against 5 the year before.
It will be seen from Table No. 5 that the number of infants who
die in the first week after birth is much larger than the number who
die in the second week after birth. So also the number who die in
the second week is larger than the number who die during the third
week, and so on in inverse proportion progressively.
According to English law no cognisance is taken of the birth of
a child before it is six weeks old, when civil registration has to take
place; in Scotland the period is three weeks.
The opinion expressed—by resolution - at the Conference on
Infantile Mortality, was that all births should be notified to the
Medical Officer of Health within 48 hours; and as I stated in my last
year's report, the Town Hall should be the place for registration.