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60
Age at death
42.8 per cent. of the total deaths occurred
at various ages below 20 years, 24.5 per cent. being
under 1 year, and 12.8 per cent. between 1 and 5. In
the preceding year 53 per cent. of the total deaths occurred
at ages below 20, 33 per cent. under 1 year, and
14.3 per cent. below 1 and 5 years.
The proportion of deaths under 1 year to total deaths
obviously will vary with the birth-rate. The larger the
number of children of this age, and the greater the
incidence of the causes of infantile mortality. It is
therefore desirable to check the previous percentage of
deaths under 1 year, by ascertaining the proportion of
deaths of infants in the first year of life to registered
births during the year, known as the Infantile death-rate.
In Clapham this was 120 per thousand births, as compared
with 160 in the preceding year, and with 148 for
the whole Metropolis during 1885. The diminution in
infantile mortality was largely due to the smaller mortality
from zymotic diseases at this age, 21 as compared with
39 in the previous year.
Scnile Mortality.
The deaths of persons over 60 years formed
29 per cent. of the total deaths, as compared with 23.6
per cent. in the previous year. 29.4 per cent. of the
total deaths occurred between 20 and 60 years of age, as
compared with 23.5 per cent. in the previous year.
These statements of the relative percentages of deaths
at different groups of ages, can only be regarded as satisfactory
so long as it is assumed that the relative proportion
of people living at each age remains stationary from
year to year. An increase of the relative number at any
age, as by migration or an altered birth-rate, would
increase the number of persons subject to the causes of
death at the age in question, and so would increase the