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38 MORTALITY OF CHILDHOOD.
MORTALITY OF CHILDHOOD.
This section of the report will deal with the mortality among children at ages under
five years.
Infantile Mortality.—The deaths of 374 infants under one year of age were registered
within the Borough during the past year (53 weeks), equal to crude mortality of 118 per 1,000*
births (uncorrected*), the lowest rate on record. In 1907 the mortality was 128, and the
mean rate for the ten years, 1898-1907, 144. (Table I., Appendix A.) In the subjoined
statement the crude rates for the four quarters of the past year are compared with the
corresponding rates for the previous quinquennium.
Crude Infantile Mortality.
Quarters 1. 2. 3. 4. Year.
1908 134 90 119 131 118
1903-07 132 108 158 137 134
After correcting the deaths for non-residents and for out-lying deaths, a total of 348 is
obtained, 6 fewer than that for 1907 (52 weeks). Calculating the rate on the uncorrected
births, the usual practice, the infantile mortality last year was 110, 5 per 1,000 less than in
1907 (115), and 8 less than the mean rate for 1903-07 (118). The mean rate for the five
years 1893-97, was no less than 150. The rates just given may be used for comparison with
the experience of other districts. (See Table 10.) The rates for the Metropolis (112) and
Kensington (126) were only two which exceeded the local rate for last year. In every area
last year's rate was less than the mean, the greatest difference (a decrease of 22 per 1,000)
being recorded in Marylebone.
In studying the mortality experience in the different divisions of the Borough (since 1905)
it is customary to use rates based on the corrected deaths and births. The fully corrected
rates for the whole Borough during the past four years have been—1905, 118; 1906, 107;
1907, 110; and 1908, 105. The 348 deaths at ages under one year, recorded last year, comprised
198 of males and 150 of females, the mortalities being 118 for males and 92 for females,
both "minimal records. (See Table 27.) In three Wards, viz., Westbourne (108), Church (138)
and Hyde Park (122), the rates exceeded that for the Borough (105). The lowest rates were
those of the two Lancaster Gate Wards, viz., 29 in the Western and 61 in the Eastern. The
total mortality for the two Wards was 45 per 1,000, and if that rate be taken as a standard
(expressed as "100") the "index numbers" for the separate Wards and the Borough given in
Table 27, show the extent to which the actual rates differed from the standard. Those
"index numbers" ranged from 64 for Lancaster Gate, West, Ward to 306 for Church Ward.
In judging the value of the index numbers it has to be borne in mind that the standard is
based on very small numbers, viz., 133 births and 6 deaths. A difference of 2 deaths (say,
one in each Ward) would increase the mortality selected as the standard by onethird,
from 45 to 60. A surer guide would be a standard based on an average experience of
five or more years, but the necessary data are not yet available.
* The uncorrected births represent the births registered within the Borough ; the corrected births, the total
arrived at by deducting those children who were born in the Borough to non-resident parents and adding the
births of children bom in out-lying districts to residents of the Borough.