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birth and death rates for the borough should be multiplied by the
appropriate factor, and when so adjusted the results are comparable with
the crude rates for England and Wales or with the corresponding adjusted
rates for any other area.
The following table gives the adjusted Kensington birth and
death rates compared with the rates for London and for England and Wales
for the year 1958 s-
Kensington
adjusted
London
England and
Wales
No. of births per l,000 population 13.0 16.7 16.4
No. of deaths per l,000 population 10.1 11.8 11.7

It will be seen that the infant death rate for Kensington
showed a marked decrease compared with last year's rate. A similar
decrease occurred in 1956. Variations in the infant mortality rate are
often caused by perinatal mortality, i.e. deaths in the first week of
life, prematurity (see table below) and the statistical difficulties
arising from the small numbers involved. Just over two deaths suffice
to increase the rate by one.
Number of deaths of babies under one week of age
Age in days at death
Year 1 or under 2 3 4 5 6
Total
Total deaths
due to
prematurity
1955 41 3 3 1 2 1 51 32
1956 24 4 4 2 4 - 38 21
1957 37 5 7 2 1 - 52 35
1958 37 5 3 2 2 1 50 29
Maternal Death Rate. One death of a mother due to childbirth
was recorded in 1958, giving a maternal death rate per 1,000 live and
still births of 0.33. The maternal mortality rate for the County of
London was 0.60 and for England and Wales the figure was 0.43.)
Infectioue Diseases. There was no serious outbreak of
infectious disease in the borough during 1958° The total number of
notifications received was 1,400 in comparison with 1,781 in the
previous year. The decrease was almost entirely due to the fewer
number of cases of measles notified -654 in 1958 compared with 982
in 1957.
No case of diphtheria was notified in 1958. This is the
second consecutive year giving a nil returns; one case being notified
in 1956. Only ten cases of diphtheria have been notified in Kensington
in the last ten years, in four of which there was a "nil" return. In
the previous ten years (1939-48), 494 cases of diphtheria were notified,
the highest number in one year being 102.
Tuberculosis. The death rate from all forms of tuberculosis
per 100,000 population was 606 which is the lowest ever recorded in the