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19
STATISTICS OF CHILDHOOD.
the proportion was 42.4 per cent. The proportion of male deaths last year in institutions was 46.3
per cent., the average (1917.21) being 45.4, and that of females 43.1, average 39.8.
The institutional deaths were distributed among the various classes of institutions in the following
proportions (percentages): Hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, 1.9; Poor Law Institutions,
28.0; Lunatic Asylums, 3.1; Voluntary Hospitals (General), 8.8 and Special (including
Sanatoria) ,2.8. The average proportions during 1917-21 were 1. 9, 24. 4, 4.1, 8 .9 and 2.4 respectively.
In addition to the numbers given above 68 deaths took place during the year in private Nursing
Homes in the Borough, 30 of the deceased persons being non.residents. In 1912 the deaths in these
Homes numbered 25, including 15 of non.residents, and during 1917.21 the annual average was 56,
with 32 non.residents. Among the inward transferred deaths there were 41 in Nursing Homes,
making a total of 79 deaths of residents in these places, or 4.1 per cent.—over and above the 44.7
per cent. in the institutions previously mentioned. Nearly 49 per cent. (48.8) of the residents who
died during 1922 were treated during their last illnesses away from their homes.
IX. STATISTICS OF CHILDHOOD (0.5 Years).
(See Tables I., II. and XIII.)
Mortality at Ages 0.1 Year.—The deaths at ages under one year registered within the Borough
during the year numbered 224—equivalent to a mortality rate of 88 per 1,000 births registered in
the Borough. In 1921 that rate was 115, and in 1920, 87. The mean rate during 1909.13 was 124,
that recorded during 1917.21 being 118. The rate observed during 1922 was 29 . less than
the mean for 1909-13.
The finally corrected total of deaths during the first year of life in 1922 was 189—100 of males
and 89 of females—and the mortality 69 per 1,000 births, the rate in 1921 having been 92, and in 1920
78. For the years 1909-13 the mean rate was 106, and that for 1917.21, 98, last year's rate being 35
per cent. below the former quinquennial mean and 30 per cent. less than the latter. Those reductions
represent a saving of 100 infants' lives on the basis of the mean for 1909.13 and 79 on that of 1917.21.
The 189 deaths comprised 158 of legitimate children and 31 of illegitimate, the corresponding
rates being 62 and 145 per 1,000 births of each category. The mortality rates among males were:
Legitimates, 65; illegitimates, 144; and those among females: Legitimates, 59; illegitimates, 147.
The mean rates during 1909-13 among legitimate children were: Persons, 96; males, 108; and
females, 84, the rates recorded last year showing percentage decreases of : Persons, 35; males, 40;
and females, 30. The mean rates (same period) among illegitimate children were : Persons, 266 ;
males, 269 ; and females, 263. Last year's figures showed falls of 45 per cent. in the case of the combined
sexes, 46 . in that of males and 44 . in that of females.
The foregoing comparisons indicate that while the disparity between the mortality rates among
legitimate and illegitimate children remains as great as ever, there was, last year, a greatly reduced
mortality in each group, and that the reduction was somewhat greater in the case of illegitimate
children than in that of the legitimate. The reduction was also greater in the mortality among males
than in that among females.
The mortality rates (total) recorded in the Wards are shown in Table II. When compared with
the mean rates for 1909-3 and 1917-1 in Lancaster Gate, West, Ward alone is an increased rate recorded—the
increase amounting to 15 . of the mean for the former period and 82 of that for
the latter. The smallest reduction (18 per cent.) below the mean for 1909-3 is found in Lancaster
Gate, East, Ward, and the largest (53 per cent.) in Hyde Park. The reductions to be noted in the
other Wards can be regarded as satisfactory.
Analysing the deaths of infants of each sex by ages it appears that at ages 0.3 months the mortality
rate (per 1,000 births) among males was 31 . less than the mean rate for 1909.13, and that
among females, 18. Parenthetically it may be observed that at ages under one day the mortality last
year was for each sex 12 . less than the mean. At ages 3.6 months, last year's mortality
among males was 61 . less than the mean, and that among females, 44. In the next group
(6-9 months) the reductions (per cent. of the mean) were: Males, 51; and females, 21; and in the
last (9-12 months), 21 and 64.
Comparing the mortalities due to the groups of diseases shown in Table XIII., with the means
for 1909.13, the following reductions have to be noted: Group I., males 53 per cent., females 67 ;
II., males 42, females 79 ; III., males 78, females (increase) 7 ; IV., males 40, females 17 ; V., males
34, female 1 ; Other Causes, males 21, females 5.
Special Areas.—In these the only one with a higher infantile mortality was " Alfred Road " area,
where the rate last year was 147 per 1,000 births, or 13 in excess of the rate recorded in 1921 (134).
In this Area the infantile mortality has increased almost continuously since 1909, and the Area is by
that fact distinguished from all the others. In the " Clarendon Street " Area, hitherto regarded as the