London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
City of Westminster 1908
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
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22
56.6 per cent, of the deaths under 1 year of age occurred before the
infants were three months old, 35.8 per cent, before the end of the first
month of life, and 22 per cent, soon after birth. As many births are
not registered within three months, the opportunity of assisting
the mother does not occur. This difficulty will be removed in some
measure by the notification of births, but there are still a number of
children who come into the City soon after birth, of whom we may have
no knowledge until death or an infectious illness occurs.
The causes of death in each year are given below, together with the relative proportion each group bears to the whole of the infant deaths:—
| 1905. | 1906. | 1907. | 1908. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Percent, of total deaths. | No. | Per cent, of total deaths. | No. | Per cent, of total deaths. | No. | Per cent, of total deaths. | |
| Common infectious diseases | 37 | 11.2 | 12 | 3.7 | 17 | 5.5 | 17 | 5.8 |
| Diarrhoeal diseases | 46 | 13.9 | 76 | 23.5 | 30 | 9.9 | 35 | 11.9 |
| Premature births aud injury, &c., at birth | 84 | 25.5 | 72 | 22.5 | 96 | 31.6 | 93 | 31.7 |
| Did not thrive — wasting — want of milk—rickets | 49 | 14.8 | 50 | 15.4 | 43 | 14.0 | 52 | 17.7 |
| Tuberculous diseases | 17 | 5.1 | 18 | 5.5 | 15 | 4.9 | 14 | 4.7 |
| Erysipelas and other septic diseases | - | - | 10 | 3.0 | 9 | 2.9 | 3 | 1.0 |
| Syphilis | 15 | 4.5 | 7 | 2.1 | 12 | 3.9 | 7 | 2.3 |
| Meningitis, convulsions | 11 | 3.3 | 13 | 4.0 | 11 | 3.6 | 8 | 2.7 |
| Bronchitis and pneumonia | 45 | 13.6 | 44 | 13.6 | 56 | 18.4 | 52 | 17.7 |
| Suffocation—overlying, &c. | 5 | 1.5 | 6 | 1.8 | 6 | 1.9 | 6 | 2.0 |
| Other causes | 20 | 6.0 | 15 | 4.6 | 4 | 1.3 | 6 | 2.0 |
| 329 | 100 | 323 | 100 | 303 | 100 | 293 | 100 | |
It is extremely difficult, even with careful enquiry, to differentiate
the correct cause of death; thus, in a case where death is certified as
being due to marasmus, or wasting, it may be due to some inhereut
defect in the child, preventing the digestion of food, or it may be a
result of unsuitable or improper feeding. This latter may be due to
the poverty, or insufficiency, or other unsuitable quality of the mother's
milk, or to food unsuited for the age of the infant. A number of
children born prematurely succumb later in life when illness occurs.
Deaths from tuberculosis and from syphilis are probably greater in
number than is shown by the figures in the Tables.
The question of proper feeding enters into every enquiry in connection
with the death of an infant; thus, many pneumonia deaths are
the result of malnutrition. Of 33 deaths from diarrhceal complaints,
3 infants only were breast-fed entirely.