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group of Metropolitan Boroughs; in Westminster these diseases were
below the usual amount. Deaths from whooping cough and measles
were also more numerous in London.
The death-rate in England and Wales was 15 per 1,000, being 0.4 below
the rate in 1906, and constitutes the lowest annual rate ever recorded.
Infant mortality was 118 per 1,000 registered births, being 14 below
the rate in 1906, and 27 below the average of the previous ten years.
The death-rate in London was 14.6 per 1,000 inhabitants, the
average of the previous five years having been 15.7. This decrease
has been practically continuous for a long period of years, thus in the
ten years 1861-70 it was 24.4, in 1891-1900 it had fallen to 19.6, but
the infant mortality in London remained at about 160 per 1,000 births
for the forty years before 1901. During the six years 1901-1906 it has
fallen, and was only 116 in 1907.
In Westminster the general death-rate works out at 12.9 per 1,000
inhabitants, the average rate for the six preceding years having been
14.1. The infant mortality was 110 per 1,000 on the registered births, as
compared with 123 during the years 1901-6. The corrected rate is 103,
the corrected average of the previous five years having been 115.
The most interesting event of the year from a public health point
of view was the passing in the Education Act of a provision for the
medical inspection of children in public elementary schools. The
Board of Education state, in a Memorandum they have issued, that for
some years past evidence has been accumulating that there exists in