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85
[1898
The Registrar General in his Annual Summary for 1898 writes that
"the infantile mortality, measured by the proportion of deaths under one
year to births registered was equal to 178 per 1,000 in the thirty-three
great towns, and was 11 per 1,000 above the average proportion in the
ten preceding years. During the year 1898 the lowest proportions in
the thirty-three towns were 150 in Croydon, 153 in Huddersfield, 156
in Portsmouth, and 158 in Cardiff; the highest proportions were 206 in
Blackburn, 208 in Gateshead, 212 in Salford and 225 in Preston."
It may be accepted that although the local infantile mortality rate
was 13 in the 1,000 births more than the usual average, yet in other
places the excess over the average rate was also great and in some
places excessive. Thus in Birmingham it was 11, in London 12, in
Manchester 12, in Wolverhampton 12, in Salford 14, in Bradford 14, in
Sheffield 15, in West Ham 16, in Norwich 17, in Derby 17, in Bristol
20, in Birkenhead 20, in Croydon 22, in Newcastle 23, in Swansea 27, in
Sunderland 33, in Brighton 33, and in Gateshead 42, above the average
of the preceding ten years.
The cause of the excess rates was chiefly due to the large
number of deaths from diarrhoea in the third quarter, and to some
extent to measles, which was the case in at least six of the abovementioned
towns.

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