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not, therefore, correspond to the death-rate, which is calculated
from death returns corrected for Public Institutions, i.e.,
by omitting the deaths of non-parishioners occurring in the
Workhouse and Infirmary, and adding all deaths of parishioners
occurring in outlying institutions, such as the Fever and
General Hospitals. For these figures see Table III. All the
other tables give the corrected figures.)
The highest number of deaths occurred in the 3rd and 4th
quarters of the year.
7. Meteorology.—The first or Winter quarter was mild and
favourable to health. The Summer quarter was warm and
dry, warmer even than 1898, causing, as usual, a large number
of deaths among infants from Diarrhoea. December was
characterised by a cold spell and by several fogs, and there
was an unusually large number of deaths in the last four
weeks of the year.
8. Infant Mortality.—The number of deaths under 1 year
per 1,000 births was 124, compared with 116 and 156 in the
two preceding years.
The average infantile mortality of the past five years was
132, and of the five years, 1885-89, only 117.
At first sight, this does not appear satisfactory, but, on
further examination, we find that the infantile mortality is
closely associated with the number of deaths from Diarrhoea,
and these again with the temperature of the Summer quarter,
which was much lower in the years 1885-89 than in 1895-99,
The increased infantile mortality in recent years, in Plumstead,
corresponds with a similar increase in the Metropolis.