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5
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Borough of Hornsey.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
1 have the honour to submit my Annual Report for the
year ending December 31st, 1941.
The birth rate was 12 86 per 1,000 of population, practically
the same as in the previous year. The death rate was 13 95,
as against the unusually high figure of 1516 in 1940.
Infant Mortality (63.2).
Fifty infants died in 1941 before reaching the age of 1 year.
The live births numbered 791. The infant mortality rate is
therefore 63. One must go back to the last war to find so high
a figure. The fall in infant mortality which has occurred in
the last quarter of a century, and most notably in the dozen
years before the present war, reached its lowest point in 1939.
when it was 27.25. In 1940 it rose to 49, and in 1941 there is
this further striking increase to 63.
The causes of these infant deaths and the exact ages at
which they occurred are set out in detail in the table on Infant
Mortality. The most important facts which this analysis
reveals are—
(1) Thirty of the fifty infant deaths occurred in the first
month of life; 25 of them occurred in the first week.
(2) Thirty-three deaths resulted from conditions associated
with the period of gestation and the process of
parturition.
(3) Of the causes of deaths of infants from infection after
birth, pneumonia (10 deaths) claimed more victims
than all the other infections together.
The high proportion of the infant deaths occurring in the
first month, due to congenital conditions and the hazards of
childbirth, is an indication of the strain which the conditions
of 1940-1941 placed on expectant and nursing mothers. This
appears to be true, whether they chose to have their babies