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66
This method of giving the mortality from any given
disease as a percentage of the total deaths is fallacious,
dealing as it does with two variable factors. It is preferable,
therefore, to state the mortalities of different diseases or
groups of diseases as percentages, or per 1,000 of the persons
living, i.e., of the population enumerated or estimated for
the time being; or in the case of deaths under one year,
these may be (as I have shewn) expressed in terms of the
total number of births. This latter method I have also
adopted with reference to deaths from (1) suffocation
whilst in bed with parents, and (2) premature births—such
deaths being generally in infants under one year of age
{see Table T.). In this way a more trustworthy comparison
can be made between the different incidences of diseases in
the various Registration Sub-districts of Lambeth, and a
careful study of the following Table T is interesting.