London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Paddington 1905
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]
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INFANTILE MORTALITY. 45
in getting out the rates given above. Not only have the deaths been corrected for
non-residents and outlying institutions, but similar corrections have also been applied to the
births. This rule will be followed in all future calculations of Ward rates.
TABLE 30.
Infantile Mortalities. Deaths and Births fully corrected.
| Births Registered. | Deaths under One Year. | Mortality. | Proportional Mortality. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M. | F. | P. | M. | F. | P. | M. | F. | P. | ||
| Queen's Park | 219 | 209 | 428 | 36 | 16 | 52 | 164 | 76 | 122 | 221 |
| Harrow Road | 413 | 405 | 818 | 48 | 46 | 94 | 116 | 113 | 115 | 209 |
| Maida Vale | 206 | 207 | 423 | 24 | 27 | 51 | 116 | 124 | 120 | 218 |
| Westbourne | 260 | 250 | 510 | 29 | 28 | 57 | 111 | 120 | 112 | 203 |
| Church | 398 | 362 | 760 | 60 | 51 | 111 | 151 | 141 | 146 | 265 |
| Lancaster Gate (West) | 36 | 36 | 72 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 83 | 28 | 55 | 100 |
| „ (East) | 49 | 42 | 91 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 41 | 71 | 55 | 100 |
| Hyde Park | 100 | 97 | 197 | 13 | 4 | 17 | 130 | 41 | 86 | 156 |
| Borough | 1,681 | 1,618 | 3,299 | 215 | 176 | 391 | 128 | 109 | 118 | 214 |
| Lancaster Gate (combd.) | 85 | 78 | 163 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 59 | 51 | 55 | 100 |
From a return for one year only no deductions can be safely drawn. It must suffice to
direct attention to the great disparity between the mortalities in the two Lancaster Gate
Wards (55) and Church Ward (146). Taking the former as a standard (100), the latter rate is
equivalent to 265 (see last column of Table 30). Such figures afford prima facie evidence of a
lamentable waste of infant life, and call for active measures of prevention.
Table 31 gives the sex-age distribution of the deaths in each Ward. Taking the two
Lancaster Gate Wards together (last line), a striking contrast is apparent if they be
compared with the numbers for the other Wards. Inasmuch as the number of children born
TABLE 31.
Deaths of Infants under One Year. 1905.
| Wards. | Males. | Females. | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dys. | Wks. | Months. | Dys. | Wks. | Months. | |||||||
| 0-7 | 1-4 | 1-3 | 3-6 | 6-9 | 9-12 | 0-7 | 1-4 | 1-3 | 3-6 | 6-9 | 9-12 | |
| Queen's Park | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Harrow Road | 9 | 5 | 15 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 14 | 5 | 11 | 5 |
| Maida Vale | 6 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| Westbourne | 5 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 6 |
| Church | 8 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 9 | 11 | 11 |
| Lancaster Gate (West) | 1 | ... | ... | ... | 2 | ... | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| „ (East) | ... | 1 | 1 | ... | ... | ... | 1 | 1 | ... | 1 | ... | ... |
| Hyde Park | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | ... | 1 | 1 | ... | 1 | ... | 1 |
| Borough | 36 | 24 | 50 | 39 | 35 | 31 | 30 | 26 | 26 | 28 | 35 | 31 |
| Lancaster Gate (combd.) | 1 | 1 | 1 | ... | 2 | ... | 2 | 1 | ... | 1 | ... | ... |