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15
Deaths in Public Institutions.
During the year 1912 the deaths of Battersea residents occurring
in public institutions numbered 795, as compared with 857
in 1911. Of this number 338 occurred within and 457 outside
the Borough. Three hundred and eighty occurred in workhouses
or union infirmaries, as against 415 in 1911 and 370 in 1910.
Infant Mortality.
Infant mortality has reference to the deaths of children under
one year of age, i.e., the proportion which the deaths of such
children in any given year bears to every thousand children born
in the same year. Infant mortality varies widely in different districts
and is regarded as a sensitive index of the sanitary condition
of a district. In recent years much attention has been devoted to
this subject by health authorities and others interested, and there
has followed in consequence a marked improvement in the vital
statistics of the whole country. There has up to 1911 been a
steady decline in infant mortality throughout England and Wales.
In 1911, owing to the very hot, dry and prolonged summer prevailing
during that year, there was a temporary set-back, an increase
of about 30 per cent, over the rate for 1910 having to be
recorded. That this increase in mortality was only of a temporary
character the returns for 1912 abundantly indicate, the infant
mortality rate for the year being the lowest ever previously
recorded.
Infant Mortality in Battersea in 1912.
During the year 1912 the deaths of 353 infants were registered
as belonging to Battersea. The total number of births registered
during the year was 4,255, a decrease of 126 births from those of
1911, giving an infant mortality-rate of 82 9 per 1,000 births.
This is the lowest infant mortality ever recorded in Battersea, and
constitutes a noteworthy and highly satisfactory feature of the
Annual Report. It is true that, to some extent at least, this decline
in the infant death-rate for 1912 was contributed to by the
climatic conditions prevailing during the summer of that year,
viz., low temperature and a heavy rainfall. There can be no
doubt, however, that this only partially explains the decline, and
that the measures which the Council have so energetically and consistently
carried out for combatting the high mortality which,
prior to 1902, was such an unsatisfactory feature of the Borough
statistics, have been responsible mainly for the present satisfactory
position. The efforts of the Council in this direction have been
greatly assisted by the Notification of Births Act, 1907, which, in
addition to securing early information of the occurrence of births,
empowered sanitary authorities to employ health visitors.