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9
To prevent undue congratulation upon the lowness of the
death-rate of 1894 in the District as a whole, and in some of the
parishes, it is also necessary to point out that a death-rate under
10 or 12, cannot be regarded as a true measure of the longevity
of the inhabitants. A rate of 10 per 1000, in a series of years,
would mean that every child born reaches the age of 100, or that
the average age at death is 100; and a rate of 12 per 1000
would mean an average age at death of over 80.

Mortality at Different Ages.
Infantile mortality.—The number of infants under one year
of age who died in 1894 was 71. The infantile death rate, or
proportion of deaths of infants under one year to registered
births, was 97 in a thousand, and lower than in any year since
1884, except in 1890, when the rate was 92 in a thousand. The
average annual death-rate of infants during the 10 preceding
years was 114 per 1000 births. The rate in 1893 was 142.
The infantile death-rate for England and Wales in 1894
was 137 in a thousand, being 10 below the average.
The low infantile death-rate of 1894 was due mainly to the
reduction in the mortality from diarrhoea, which, in turn, was
due to the unusually cool summer which characterised that year.
It was also partly due to a considerable diminution in the deaths
from whooping cough.
The infantile mortality in each parish is shown in Table D.