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4
from, all parts of London make it obvious
that so long as building areas are available
in suitable portions of our district the ratio
of increase of our population is not likely
to receive a marked check. The conclusion
1 have come to, after careful consideration,
is that for the purposes of this report our
population calculated at the middle of last
year, should be estimated at 49,588 and,
therefore, on that number, the death and
birth rates are based.
Deaths.
The deaths registered in the borough during
1907 were 507, but in addition the number
of eighty-nine residents, whose deaths
occurred outside the confines of our district
have to be included, making up an
actual total of 596, (males 276, females 320).
The death rate on this estimated population
of 49,588 is equal to 12.01 per thousand,
or one in eighty-three of the population,
being .79 less than the previous year. The
average death rate for the past ten years
is 11.06 per thousand. The general death
rate for England and Wales equalled 15.0
per thousand living, and table four shows
the distribution of deaths in the wards of the
boroughl classified' according to age and
causation.
Infantile Mortality.
Probably greater satisfaction can be expressed
in connection with this subject than
with any other in this report. It will be in
your recollection that last year we had to
deplore a very large and regrettable death
rate among infants under one year of age,
which arose, to a great extent, from fatal
attacks of "epidemic summer diarrhoea."
These deaths numbered 152, whereas last
year they happily dropped to 112, of which
nineteen only were due to diarrhoea and
allied disorders, and the total of children
dying under five years of age was 170. This
gives an infantile death rate of 91.2 per
thousand, compared with 129.8 in the previous
year, an important reduction in this
rate of 38.6 per thousand. The infantile
mortality for England and Wales was 118 per
thousand. I attribute this result to several
causes not the least of which were the
favourable climatic conditions prevalent