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3
POPULATION.
In the following pages, two figures representing population are employed,
viz.: 98,573, used in connection with the calculation of all rates, except the birthrate,
for which in accordance with the instructions of the Registrar-General, the figure
107,249 is used.
BIRTHS.
Registration.—Births registered, numbered 1,814 (Boys, 915 : Girls, 899).
The birth rate was 16'8 per 1,000.
Notifications of births received, including 2,027 belonging to other districts,
numbered 3,891, the chief sources being: Parents, 218: Doctors, 296; Midwives,
819; and from Hospitals, 2,755 (Queen Charlotte's, 2,240: Middlesex, 387). In
1,357 cases, the birth occurred at home. Still births notified, numbered 172.
DEATHS AND DEATH-RATES.
After making allowance for deaths occurring outside the Borough boundaries
and excluding those which, though registered here, belonged to other districts, the
total deaths amounted to 1,588 (males, 791 : females, 797).
The death-rate for the Borough was 16'03 and for the registration sub-districts:
All Souls, 13'7 : St. Mary, 14'9: Christ Church, 18'8: St. John, 16'5.
Causes of and Ages at Death.—Table III of the Local Government Board
series (p. 23) contains an analysis of the deaths in relation to cause and age. It
shows that of the total 1,588, 11.1 per cent, were of infants under 1; 12.2 per cent,
of persons between 25 and 45; 26.7 per cent, of persons between 45 and 65, while
38.5 per cent, were aged over 65.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The number of babies under 1 year of age who died during 1916, was 188 : in
the same period the number ot births was 1814 ; the infantile mortality rate was
therefore, 103.6. It is regrettable that this figure is higher than that for 1915 (96.1)
by 7.5 per 1,000, particularly as in 1916 far greater efforts and advances were made
in connection with infantile mortality prevention, than in any year since the work
was really seriously commenced.
The table on page 5, in which the deaths are analysed, shows that over one-third
(65) of the total were due to causes generally classified under the head of " Prematurity."
The causes included in this group are "congenital malformation," " premature birth,"
"atrophy," "debility and marasmus" {i.e. wasting), all of them, obviously, difficult
to control. In 1916, they were the chief causes contributing to the increase in the
total number of infant deaths and of the infantile mortality rate. In 1915 the total
figure for prematurity was 51, i.e., 14 below that for 1916, the figures for other
outstanding causes of death, viz., diarrhcea and enteritis, and respiratory diseases,
being, the former 11 (31 against 20) above and the latter 8 below (28 against 36.)
Why there should be so marked a difference in the prematurity figures is difficult
to say. The readiest explanation is, of course, that the trying circumstances and
conditions arising out of the War had most to do with it and having regard to the
commonly recognized influence of the mental state on the mother in the period
preceding the birth of the child, it may well be so. In any case, and this is the chief