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Effort of Medical Officer of Health.] 3
mean rate (24'10). Fewer births were recorded in 1894 (2,834), but the rate for that year (23.2) was
1.1 per 1,000 higher. Last year's birth.rate (22.13) was the lowest recorded in the eleven years, and
was 0.7 below that for 1899. In St. Mary, the births last year (2,479) were 30 below the average
(2,509), while the birth.rate (25.48), 2.61 below the mean rate (28.09), was the lowest rate
recorded in the eleven years 1890.1900. In South Paddington, 411 births were registered, being
39 below the decennial average (450). Fewer births were registered in 1898 (407) and in 1899 (385).
The total for 1894 was the same as that for last year. The birth.rate in this Sub.District was
12.31 per 1,000, 1.08 below the mean rate, and the third lowest rate for the eleven years.
The birth.rate for England and Wales was 28'9 per 1,000 persons last year, as compared with
a decennial mean of 30.1, last year's rate being the lowest for the eleven years. In London a rate
of 28.9 was recorded, being 0.6 less than the decennial mean (30.5), and 0.5 less than the rate
(29.4) for 1899.
Of the 2,890 children whose births were registered in the Parish last year, 138 (61 of boys and
77 of girls) were illegitimate. The proportion of illegitimate to legitimate births was 5.01 of the
former to 100 of the latter, a ratio which has been exceeded twice only during the eleven years
(1890.1900), viz., in 1890, when it was 5.51, and in 1894 when it stood at 5.22. The legitimate
birth.rate was 21.07 per 1,000 persons, 1.96 below the mean rate (23.03), and the illegitimate rate
1.05, or 0.02 below the mean (1.07). The complete returns for the past eleven years will be found
in Table 4.