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13
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The deaths under one year, which in 1897 were 609, had
been, in the preceding three years 636, 624 and 643, successively.
Of the 609 deaths, 98 (or 16.1 per cent.) were
of illegitimate children ; the ratio of deaths of illegitimate
children to births registered as illegitimate (194) being 505
per 1,000. Of the 609 deaths, 148 occurred within one month
after birth, including 80 in the first week, 36 in the second
week, 25 in the third week, and 7 in the fourth week. In the
second month of life there were 83 deaths ; in the third month
50 deaths; in the fourth month 58 deaths ; in the fifth month
51 deaths ; in the sixth month 45 deaths; in the seventh
month 42 deaths ; in the eighth month 33 deaths; in the
ninth month 33 deaths ; in the tenth month 29 deaths; in the
eleventh month 21 deaths; and in the twelfth month 16
deaths.
It is somewhat of an opprobrium to Kensington that the
rate of infantile mortality, calculated upon the basis of the
number of deaths under one year to 1,000 births registered, is
invariably above that of London as a whole. The year to
which this report relates was no exception to the rule, for
whilst the deaths under one year in London were at the rate of
159 per 1,000 births* the corresponding ratio in Kensington,
as a whole, was 166 ; the comparative numbers in 1896 having
been 161 and 176. The rate differed greatly in different
parts of the parish, the bad pre-eminence of which, in this
respect, is due to the excessive infantile mortality in certain
districts in North Kensington. The deaths of infants under
one year to births registered, in North Kensington,
462 in number, were equal to 179 per 1,000 births, the
corresponding ratio in South Kensington being 133 per 1,000,
the deaths numbering 147 only. Of the 609 deaths, 78
occurred in the Brompton sub-district, being equal to 142 per
1,000 births, and 531 in the Town sub-district, being equal to
*The London rate was 4 above the decennial average. The rate in the 32
great towns of England and Wales, London being excluded, was 189; in England
and Wales, as a whole, it was 156 only per 1,000.