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5
BIRTHS.
the Registrar-General, in order to afford a comparison with the rates of adjacent districts
covering a series of years. It will be noted that the rate for the Borough (19.07) was exceeded
only by the rates for the whole County (24.57) and for Willesden (23.50).

Illegitimacy.—There were 134 births of illegitimate children registered in the Borough,
71 of whom were males and 63 females. Such births formed 4.9 per cent. of the total births
registered, as compared with 5.5 in 1913 and 5.7 in 1912. The births of illegitimate children
in the Workhouse numbered 48 (77.4 per cent. of all births in that Institution, the corresponding
figure for 1913 being 64.5, and for 1912, 70.3), those of males amounting to 25 and of females 23.
Twenty-one of the 134 children were born to non-resident mothers, 11 being born in the
Workhouse. The transfers numbered 68 (30 of males and 38 of females), so that the corrected
total of such births was 181 (86 of males and 95 of females), equal to 6.2 per cent. of the
corrected total of births, exactly the same proportion as in the two preceding years. The
numbers of such births allocated to the Wards are given in Table 2, together with the proportions
(per cent.) to total births. The highest proportion in any Ward recorded last year was
12.4 per cent. (Hyde Park), and the lowest 3.4 per cent. (Harrow Road).
Notification of Births.—The Notification of Births Act, 1907, was adopted by the Council in
1908. During the past year 2,916 notifications were received, of which 170 related to births
already notified, so that the nett number notified was 2,746, 38 more than the number
registered within the Borough. Midwives notified 1,101 births (37.75 per cent.), medical
practitioners, 984 (33.74 per cent.), parents, 522 (17.90 per cent.), and other persons, 309
(10.59 per cent.). The statement given below shows the changes which have taken place in
the proportions notified by medical practitioners, &c.

The following statement shows the distribution of notifications according to the addresses
at which the births were said to have taken place, the total notifications allocated to each
Ward being compared with the births registered locally and allocated to the Wards according
to the home addresses of the parents. The figure for Westbourne Ward includes 81 notifications
of births which took place in the Workhouse Lying-in Ward, and one in the Lock Hospital.
Thirty-four births were notified from nursing homes in the Borough.