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17
Causes of Death.—These will be found in Table II.,
pages 13 and 14.
Infantile Mortality.—Of 1,783 deaths of persons
of all ages 173, or 9.7 per cent., were deaths of infants
under one year.
The infantile mortality rate for the year, 64 per
thousand registered births, was a marked improvement
over the figure for 1925, which was 76 per thousand
births, and was equal to the rate for 1923, which
was the lowest ever recorded for the Borough. The
rate for Fulham was much below the rates for England
and Wales and for the Great and Small towns in
England. The infantile mortality rate for England
and Wales was 70, for the 105 County Boroughs and
Great Towns 73, and for the 158 Small Towns 67.
The rate for Fulham is equal to that for London as
a whole, and in comparison with other Metropolitan
Boroughs Fulham ties with Chelsea and Wandsworth
for twelfth place. Table III records the number of
deaths of infants at successive age periods under one
year, both for Fulham, as a whole, and for each ward
separately. It will be seen that the principal causes
of death were as follows:—
Premature birth 43 deaths in 1926 compared with 37 in 1925.
Diarrhceal diseases
(diarrhoea and
enteritis) 28 „ „ „ 36 „
Pneumonia 21 „ „ „ 33 „
Atrophy, debility
and marasmus 15 „ „ „ 9 „
Bronchitis 9 „ „ „ 12 „
Measles 9 „ „ „ nil. „
Seventy-four deaths of infants under four weeks
occurred in 1926, which was the same number as in
1925. The fact that such a large proportion of the
deaths occur in very young infants shows the importance
of ante-natal care.
The diminution of 38 in the number of infantile
deaths in 1926 compared with 1925 was due to fewer
deaths at age periods from one to twelve months
from whooping cough (15 less), pneumonia (12 less)