View report page

25
It is necessary to study these two tables in more detail if we
would obtain a general view of the problem as it is presented
in Finsbury. For this purpose the following table has been
drawn up, in which is stated in the first column the number of
deaths between the time of birth and the end of the third month
(that is, the first three months or trimester of life); in the second
column the number of deaths in the second trimester; and in the
third column the number of deaths in the last two trimesters of
the first year of life. This classification is adopted in accordance
with the practice of the Registrar-General.
Certified Cause of Death.
Months
0-3
Months
3-6
Months
6-12
Totals.
Diarrhœa 12 20 10 42
Prematurity 60 1 0 61
Marasmus and Debility 21 7 6 12
Atrophy and Developmental
Disease 26 5 1 32
127
Bronchitis 13 10 13 36
Pneumonia 13 9 27 49
85
Convulsions 8 3 3 14
Suffocation 22 3 1 26
Measles 0 1 11 12
Whooping Cough 3 2 11 16
28
Tuberculosis 0 3 3 6
Meningitis 1 3 6 10
Miscellaneous 15 2 13 30
Totals 194 69 105 368
In this return we see the chief causes of the deaths of infants
in Finsbury, and the age incidence of mortality for each disease.
More than half the total deaths occur in the first trimester, and
are due largely to Immaturity. For convenience I have
added together the diseases of each group, as classified by the
Registrar-General, with the result that we find that three diseases
only are chiefly responsible for our infant mortality in 1907,
viz.:—
Immaturity 127
Lung Disease 85
Fpidemic Diarrhœa 42
Total 254