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
Islington 1857
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington, Parish of St Mary]
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DEATHS UNDER 5 YEARS OF AGE.
| Males. | Per Cent. of all Male Deaths. | Females. | Per Cent. of all Female Deaths. | Total. | Per Cent. of all Deaths. | Per 1000 of Male Population 1851 under 5 years. | Per 1000 of Female Population 1851 under 5 vears. | Per 1000 ot Population of both sexes 1851 under 5 years. | Per l000 of assmd. Population of both sexes under 6 years, 1857.1 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole Parish | 587 | 51.2 | 5.21 | 41.1 | 1108 | 45.9 | 95.9 | 85.8 | 90.8 | 60.2 | |||||||||
| West Sub-district | 295 | 48.4 | 273 | 397 | 568 | 43.8 | 95.9 | 89.2 | 92.5 | 59.1 | |||||||||
| East Sub-district | 292 | 54.4 | 248 | 42.8 | 540 | 48.4 | 95.9 | 82.3 | 89.1 | 61.4 | |||||||||
| Deaths Under 1 year of age. | Deaths under 3 months of age. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Males. | Per 100 of Male Births. | Females. | Per 100 of Female Births. | Total. | Per 100 of all Births. | Males. | Per Cent. of Male Deaths under 1 year. | Female, | Per Cent. of Female Deaths under 1 year. | Total. | Per Cent. of all Deaths under 1 year. | ||||||||
| Whole Parish | 362 | 15.1 | 280 | 12.7 | 642 | 13.9 | 160 | 44.1 | 118 | 42.1 | 278 | 43.3 | |||||||
| West Sub-district | 180 | 14.8 | 151 | 12.9 | 331 | 13.8 | 77 | 41.7 | 66 | 43.7 | 143 | 43.2 | |||||||
| East Sub-district | 182 | 15.4 | 129 | 12.5 | 311 | 14.0 | 83 | 45.6 | 52 | 40.3 | 135 | 43.4 | |||||||
| DEATHS UNDER 5 YEARS OF AGE. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Males. | Per Cent. of all Male Deaths. | Females. | Per Cent. of all Female Deaths. | Total. | Per Cent. of all Deaths. | Per 1000 of Male Population 1851 under 5 years. | Per 1000 of Female Population 1851 under 5 vears. | Per 1000 ot Population of both sexes 1851 under 5 years. | Per l000 of assmd. Population of both sexes under 6 years, 1857.1 | ||||||||||
| Whole Parish | 587 | 51.2 | 5.21 | 41.1 | 1108 | 45.9 | 95.9 | 85.8 | 90.8 | 60.2 | |||||||||
| West Sub-district | 295 | 48.4 | 273 | 397 | 568 | 43.8 | 95.9 | 89.2 | 92.5 | 59.1 | |||||||||
| East Sub-district | 292 | 54.4 | 248 | 42.8 | 540 | 48.4 | 95.9 | 82.3 | 89.1 | 61.4 | |||||||||
| Deaths Under 1 year of age. | Deaths under 3 months of age. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Males. | Per 100 of Male Births. | Females. | Per 100 of Female Births. | Total. | Per 100 of all Births. | Males. | Per Cent. of Male Deaths under 1 year. | Female, | Per Cent. of Female Deaths under 1 year. | Total. | Per Cent. of all Deaths under 1 year. | ||||||||
| Whole Parish | 362 | 15.1 | 280 | 12.7 | 642 | 13.9 | 160 | 44.1 | 118 | 42.1 | 278 | 43.3 | |||||||
| West Sub-district | 180 | 14.8 | 151 | 12.9 | 331 | 13.8 | 77 | 41.7 | 66 | 43.7 | 143 | 43.2 | |||||||
| East Sub-district | 182 | 15.4 | 129 | 12.5 | 311 | 14.0 | 83 | 45.6 | 52 | 40.3 | 135 | 43.4 | |||||||
The results of this mode of viewing the infant mortality of the year may thus be
Bummed up:—
1.° Nearly half the deaths that occurred in the parish, among persons of all ages up
to above 90 years, took place amongst those who had not reached 5 years of life.
2.° Whereas the death-rate at all ages was 17.7 per 1,000 of the living, the deathrate
of children under 5 years was as high as 60 per 1,000.
3.° Of all the infants born during the year, 139 per 1,000 died, and of these nearly
half within three months of their birth.
4.° This infant mortality was slightly higher in the East than in the West
sub-district.
5.° The male children (as is constantly observed) died in a larger proportion than
the female children ; this difference in the mortality of the sexes being most
marked in that division of the parish (the Eastern) in which the infant mortality
was highest.
Some of you who have not been in the habit of studying the returns issued by the
Registrar-General, may be unprepared for such results, or may have imagined that
the infant mortality you have read of, must have been confined to less healthy
localities than Islington. But here it is at your own threshold; each death
representing the hovering between life and death of many more children, of whom
some, at that very time, receive the sentence which dooms them, after a sickly
existence, to become early prey to the maladies which await them in advancing
life. Does it not become us to think of all this, and to ask how it is
that so many who must be believed to be born, that they may become useful to
their generation, are thus lost to that object for which they appear in the world?
It is irrelevant to reply as some do when such facts are urged upon them, that the
race is improved by the death of the weakly ones. What makes them weakly? Do
*Of course these numbers are only ventured as an approximation to the truth, being computed
on the assumption that our population under five years of age bears the same proportion to those living
at all ages as in 1851.