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INFANT MORTALITY.
The Infantile Mortality recorded by the proportion of deaths
of children under one year of age to the number of births registered
was 138 per 1,000, there having been 387 such deaths, and 2,802
births during the year. The Infantile Mortality throughout
London equalled 139 per 1,000, the lowest rates being 87 in
Hampstead, 107 in St. Marylebone, 115 in Stoke Newington; the
highest rates being 155 in Bethnal Green and Bermondsey, 166 in
Southwark, and 174 in Shoreditch.
Locally, the variations were from 121 in East Greenwich, 134
in West Greenwich, 148 in Charlton, up to 219 per 1,000 in St.
Nicholas, from which it is evident that the death rate amongst
young children in St. Nicholas is very excessive, and would seem
to point to much neglect on the part of the parents in dealing with
their young children; this neglect being of such a grave character,
that in a large number of cases it must have hastened the death
of the children concerned.
The above remarks upon the local infantile death rates, which are
copied from my last Annual Report, have an accentuated importance
this year, for whilst the rate in St. Nicholas which occurred then
was 179 per 1,000, this year it has increased to 219 per 1,000, or
stands now at a figure 58 per cent, higher than that for the whole
Borough, or, in other words, any child born in the parish of St.
Nicholas under the present conditions has 50 per cent, less chance
of surviving its fust year of life, not to mention later years, than in
the remainder of the Borough.
A special Report upon this subject was presented by me
during the year, wherein I recommended that instruction should
be given in the homes of the children as to the proper care and