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9
Deaths under one year of age.—In Table VI. the rate at which infants
died, calculated in relation to the number of corrected births, is set out
for the City and its Wards. In Tables III. and IV. the rates are
calculated 011 the uncorrected births, viz., only those registered in the
City for the City and its old divisions, as formerly allowance was not
made for births taking place outside the area of the division.
The uncorrected rate for the City was 122 deaths per 1,000 births,
as compared with 153, the average of the previous ten years. The
corrected rate was 116. The London rate for 1903 was 130, the
average being 157.
In each of the divisions of the City the rate was also much lower
than in any previous year. This was chiefly marked in the third
quarter, and due to the diminished number of deaths from diarrhoea.
The causes of death are shown in Table IX., measles, whooping cough,
pneumonia (probably after measles in many cases), diphtheria, tuberculosis,
diarrhoea, and improper feeding contributed largely to the
death rate. Of all the causes of death those affecting young children
are ones which belong to the preventible class, and with a rapidly
decreasing birth rate it behoves the nation to bestir itself to save such
children as are born to it.