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deducting these and adding five which were transferred from
Lambeth, Stepney, and Marylebone, it will be seen that the
number of strictly Greenwich births for 1908 is 2,590, of
which 1,324 were males, and 1,266 females.
This corrected figure gives a birth rate of 23.36 per 1,000
of the population, being the lowest on record, and 3.33
below the average for the last seven years, 1901 to 1907, the
period since the formation of the Metropolitan Borough.
Amongst the total number of births registered in the Borough
there were 91 in which the name of the father was not registered
and therefore not given in the return; accordingly these births
may be presumed to be of an illegitimate character, 54 of such
births were registered in the East Greenwich district, which
includes the Infirmary of the Greenwich Union.
In 25 cases the mother was ordinarily a resident in the
Borough of Deptford, and accordingly this number of births
have been transferred to that Borough, in one case the mother
ordinarily resided in the Borough of Bromley and that birth
similarly has been transferred to Bromley.
The remaining 65 were similarly allocated to the districts in
this Borough in which the mother ordinarily resided, making 28
of such births belonging to East Greenwich, 19 to West
Greenwich, 9 to St. Nicholas, and 9 to Charlton.
The birth rate for the County of London equals 25.2 per
1,000 of the population, and was the lowest rate recorded. It
varied from 14.9 in the City of London and Hampstead,
16.7 in the City of Westminster, 19.6 in Holborn, and 19.7 in
Stoke Newington, up to 31.1 in Finsbury, 31.5 in Poplar, 32.0 in
Shoreditch, 32.1 in Stepney, 32.5 in Bermondsey, and 32.6 in
Bethnal Green.
Towards the end of the year the question of the adoption
of the Notification of Births Act was again considered at some