London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Finsbury 1907
Report on the public health of Finsbury 1907 including annual report on factories and workshops
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26
That is to say that 69 per cent. (68 in 1906) of the total infant
deaths are attributable to these three conditions, and 34 per cent.
of the total deaths are due to immaturity. Under this term is
included prematurity (children born before their time), developmental
or congenital diseases, atrophy, and marasmus, or wasting
—all that group of conditions which means that the child has been
born prematurely, or so weakly as to be unfit to survive a separate
existence from its mother. It is indeed less a question of actual
disease than of mere unfitness to live. Eighty per cent. of these
deaths occur very soon after birth.
That this result is not exceptional is obvious from the following table, which shows the infant deaths from Immaturity in Finsbury since 1901.
| 1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | Total. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premature Birth | 65 | 79 | 70 | 63 | 65 | 52 | 61 | 455 |
| Other immature conditions. (Atrophy, Congenital. &c.) | 97 | 90 | 86 | 89 | 67 | 90 | 66 | 585 |
| Total Deaths from Immaturity | 162 | 169 | 156 | 152 | 132 | 142 | 127 | 1040 |
| Total Infant Deaths | 533 | 558 | 503 | 522 | 429 | 474 | 368 | 3387 |
| Percentage of Imma-turity Deaths on Total Infant Deaths | 30.4 | 30.3 | 31.0 | 29.1 | 30.7 | 29.9 | 34.5 | 30.7 |
Unfortunately we have no figures for Finsbury anterior to 1901,
as these sort of figures were not thought of sufficient importance
to preserve. As far as the Finsbury figures go back (to 1901),
it appears that there has not been any marked increase in this
cause of death within that short period. But I have elsewhere
shown* that in England and Wales since 1866 and in London
since 1845 there has been a marked increase, in London amounting
to 71 per cent, in the number of deaths attributed to Immaturity.
Allowing for discrepancies due to medical certification,
it cannot be doubted that there has been, during the last halfcentury,
a steady increase in the number of children born unfit
to maintain mere physical existence.
* Infant Mortality, pp. 54-60.