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13
Infantile Mortality, or the proportion of deaths
under one year of age to registered births, is an important
factor in vital statistics. The deaths under one year, which
in the three preceding years had been 656, 609, and 655,
respectively, were 642 in 1899, being equivalent to 179 per
1,000 births. Of these deaths 88 were of illegitimate children;
the ratio of deaths of illegitimate children to births registered
as illegitimate (191) being 461 per 1,000. Of the 642 deaths,
151 occurred within one month after birth, including 90 in
the first week of life, 19 in the second week, 23 in the third
week, and 19 in the fourth week. In the second month of
life there were 62 deaths, in the third month 65, in the fourth
month 69, in the fifth month 40, in the sixth month 44, in the
seventh month 49, in the eighth month 42, in the ninth month
32, in the tenth month 37, in the eleventh month 27, whilst
in the twelfth month 24 deaths took place. The parochial
rate of infantile mortality was, as usual, higher than that in the
metropolis, being 179 per 1,000 births against 167 in London,
as a whole. "This proportion," the Registrar-General states,
"corresponded with that in 1898, and exceeds the proportion
in any other year since 1871: it was also higher by 10 per
1000 than the average in the preceding ten years." In England
and Wales the rate was 163, which is 12 per 1,000 above the
mean proportion in the ten years 1889-98. In the Town subdistrict,
which includes the infirmary, the deaths under one (574)
were equivalent to 188 per 1,000 births, those in Brompton
(68) to 125 per 1,000. The deaths in North Kensington were
496, or 196 per 1,000; the deaths in South Kensington were
146, or 138 per 1,000. In the several sanitary districts the
rate was as follows :—
North 193 deaths, or 181 per 1,000 registered births.
North-east 113 deaths, or 196 per 1,000 registered births.
North-west 162 deaths, or 255 per 1,000 registered births.
Central 70 deaths, or 133 per 1,000 registered births
South-east 40 deaths, or 106 per 1,000 registered births.
South-west 64 deaths, or 157 per 1,000 registered births.