View report page

27
The following- table shows the number of deaths that took place amongst
infants under 1 year and adults of 65 years and upwards in each of the four
quarters of 1929.

Causes of and ages at Death.—General information with regard to the deaths
which occurred in the Borough during the year, mainly as to causes and the ages
at whicn death took place, is given in Table III of the Ministry of Health series at
page 67.
This same table gives the number of deaths from various specified causes which
occurred in institutions, in hospitals, nursing homes, etc. In each of the groups all
deaths, whether of residents or non-residents, are included, which accounts for the
fact that the total comes up to 928.
Fuller information than is possible in the table is given in the following pages,
in which also the figures relating both to causes of death and the ages at which these
causes were operative are analysed.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The infantile mortality rate of any district is the number of deaths of infants
under one year of age per 1,000 of the births which occurred in the same year.
The number of babies under one year who died in St. Marylebone in 1929 was
95, and the number of births in that year 1,233. The infantile mortality rate is
therefore 77, which is lower by 2 points than the rate for 1928 (79). The lowest
rate on record for the Borough is 59, which was reached in 1927.
The course which the rate has taken is graphically shown in the chart on
page 30.
The means adopted in the Borough with a view to bringing about a reduction
in infantile mortality and generally improving the life and health chances of
infants and children are described in a separate section of this report—Maternity
and Child Welfare. This part being merely statistical, it is not proposed at this
point to do more than give some sort of analysis of the figures relating to deaths
amongst infants.
Causes.—A Table (Ministry of Health Table I.) will be found on page 29,
in which, in addition to the causes of death, is shown the distribution of the
deaths according to age and locality.
So far as age and causation are concerned, conditions vary little year by
year. In 1929, as in other years, the greatest number of deaths occurred in the
early weeks of life. Of the babies, 35 were less than one month old when they
died, and 59 less than three months. The figures for 1928 were 35 and 53.
The outstanding causes of death and the proportions traceable to them were
those usually noted. Prematurity (numbers 12, 13 and 14 in the table), which as
usual heads the list, caused 25 deaths, eight less than in the year 1928. Diarrhœa