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23
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The deaths under one year, which in 1896 were 656 (or
643 after correction for the 53rd week), had been, in the
preceding three years, 625, 636, and 624, successively. Of the
656 deaths in 1896, 81 (or 12 3 per cent.) were of illegitimate
children ; the ratio of deaths of illegitimate children to births
registered as illegitimate (221) being 366 per 1,000. Of the
656 deaths, 159 occurred within one month after birth,including
89 in the first week, 31 in the second week, 20 in the third
week, and 19 in the fourth week. In the second month of life
there were 63 deaths; in the third month 61 deaths; in the
fourth month 50 deaths ; in the fifth month 51 deaths; in the
sixth month 46 deaths; in the seventh month 41 deaths; in
the eighth month 30 deaths; in the ninth month 49 deaths;
in the tenth month 22 deaths; in the eleventh month 46
deaths; and in the twelfth month 38 deaths.
It is 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 always
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 161 per
1,000 births, the corresponding ratio in Kensington, as a whole,
was 176.* But, as we shall see, 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 the whole of North Kensington
509 in number, were equal to 207 per 1,000 births, the
corresponding ratio in South Kensington being 131 per 1,000,
the deaths numbering 147 only. Of the 656 deaths, 78 occurred
in the Brompton sub-district, being equal to 127 per 1,000
births, and 578 in the Town sub-district, being equal to 186
* The London rate was 6 above the decennial average. The rate in the 33
great towns of England and Wales was 167 per 1,000.