London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Battersea 1907

Report on the health of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea for the year 1907

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marasmus, atrophy, debility, &c.). In other words, these 192
children came into the world so heavily handicapped that they
were unable to accommodate themselves to their new environment.

These are :—

East Battersea99
North-West Battersea68
South-West Battersea25
The Borough192

The two first-named sub-districts contain between them 75
per cent. of the total population of the Borough. In both these
there is a large amount of poverty. On the other hand,
South-West Battersea is inhabited by, on the whole, a
more prosperous class. This is even more strikingly evidenced
by comparing the infantile mortality in the wards. Winstanley
Ward is probably the poorest and most squalid district in the
Borough. There the infantile mortality rate during 1907 reached
the high figure of 158.5 per 1,000. Bolingbroke Ward is situate
in the most prosperous part of the Borough, and in this area the
rate was only 51.2 per 1,000. In Winstanley Ward the population,
estimated to the middle of 1907, is roughly one-ninth of
the total population of the Borough, and the number of deaths
of infants under one year of age in that Ward was 104, i.e., 20
per cent. of the total number of infant deaths occurring in the
Borough during the year.
It is impossible, therefore, to avoid the conclusion that the
physical condition of the mother, influenced adversely as it must
necessarily be, under such circumstances, by poverty and lack of
suitable and sufficient nourishment, reacts disastrously upon the
infant.
These are :—
East Battersea
99
North-West Battersea
68
South-West Battersea
25
The Borough
192