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3
POPULATION.
In the following pages, two figures representing population are employed,
viz. : 92,796, used in connection with the calculation of all rates, except the birthrate,
for which in accordance with the instructions of the Registrar-General, the figure
103,441 is used.
BIRTHS.
Registration.—Births registered numbered 1,506 (Boys, 784: Girls, 722).
The birth rate was 14.5 per 1,000.
Notifications of births received, including 3,065 belonging to other districts,
numbered 4,571, the chief sources being: Parents, 123: Doctors, 259; Midwives,
627; and from Hospitals, 2,325 (Queen Charlotte's, 1,951: Middlesex, 374). In
1,143 cases, the birth occurred at home. Still births notified, numbered 179.
DEATHS AND DEATH-RATES.
The total deaths of Marylebone persons whether occurring within or outside the
boundaries, amounted to 1,580 (males, 783: females, 797).
The death-rate for the Borough was 17.0 and for the registration sub-districts:
All Souls, 11.9: St. Mary, 16'4: Christ Church, 21.4: St. John, 17'4.
Causes of and Ages at Death.—Table III of the Local Government Board
series (p. 23) contains an analysis of the deaths in relation to cause and age. It shows
that of the total 1,580, 11.5 per cent. were of infants under 1; 12'0 per cent. of
persons between 25 and 45; 26'3 per cent. of persons between 45 and 65, while
35.2 per cent. were aged over 65.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The number of babies under 1 year of age who died during 1917 was 182; in
the same period the number of births was 1,506; the infantile mortality rate was
therefore 120.9, as against 103.6 in 1916.
Apart from "Prematurity," (including "congenital malformation," ''premature
birth," "atrophy," and "debility and marasmus,") which caused 59 deaths, and, as
usual, heads the list, the outstanding causes were diarrhoea and enteritis (20 deaths),
measles (16), pneumonia (25) and bronchitis (9). Speaking broadly, the responsibility
for the increase in the rate of infantile mortality, and the failure of the number of
deaths to fall in correspondence with the reduction in the number of births, is to be
traced to the distinctly severe epidemic of measles which occurred in the earlier part
of the year.
It is true that the actual number of deaths certified to be due to this cause was
only 16, but in 1916 the deaths only numbered 2. Moreover, the 16 includes only
those deaths that occurred during the actual course of the disease, and does not take
into account those, the result of complications, occurring later. The majority of
these are found in the figures relating to pneumonia and bronchitis; the former, it
will be noted, caused 25 deaths, and the latter 9. The corresponding figures for
1916 were 1 and 2.
Having regard to the fact that a great deal of work was done in relation to
infantile mortality prevention, and the Council was urged to make, or assist in the
making of further extensions in this field of work, the figures given above when they