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17
BIRTHS.
The number of births registered by the Edmonton Registrar, Mr. W. H.
Miller, was 2,098 (1,075 boys and 1,023 girls), which includes 24 births that
took place in the Edmonton Workhouse and 19 in the Maternity Home, born
of mothers belonging to Edmonton. The figures for 1919-18-17 were 1,321,
1,248 and 1,376. One hundred and ninety five births born of mothers who are
not Edmonton residents are excluded from our statistics, just as foreign deaths
are of these, 68 occurred in the Workhouse, besides 110 in the Maternity Home
and one in Epileptic Colony. The Registrar-General has again not reported
any births which took place when Edmonton mothers were residing temporarily
out of their district, but from other Medical Officers of Health I have received
notifications of 18 births—eleven boys and seven girls. Thus the nett total of
births was 1,921. Of these 1,921 births, 55 (2.9%) were declared illegitimate
this rate is 2.3% less than last year. The birth-rate per 1,000 inhabitants is
therefore 24.88, compared with 16.33 last year. My lowest record of births in
Edmonton for a lunar month was for the four weeks ended 19th April, 1919,
and numbered only 71.
Notification of Births Acts, 1907 and 1915.—During this year
2,134 births were entered in our register of these, 1,109 were males and 1,034
females and one sex undeclared 123 (5.8%) of the whole number were born
out of wedlock. Fifty-two children were declared "still-born." Mr. H. Weston,
Superintendent of the Cemetery, informs me that there were 55 children styled
"still-born" buried during 1920; for 1919-18-17 the figures were 39, 34 and 35.
For work done in visiting infants and their mothers, see section "The Women
Inspectors and their Work." In a previous paragraph it is noted that 2,098
births were registered during 1920. The figures of notification and registration
will, of course, never coincide, but they show that few, if any, births escape
notification in'accordance with the Act. Twenty-one pairs of twins arrived,
but no triplets.
The birth-rate (24.88) for 1920 is 8.55 more than last year, and is 0.52 lower
than 25.4, the birth-rate of England and Wales for 1920. The birth-rate for
the preceding ten years will be found in Column 5 of Table 1.
DEATHS.
The gross total of deaths registered in the district during the year was
1,087—537 males and 550 females; of these, 509 occurred among non-residents
at Edmonton Workhouse and North Middlesex Hospital, six at the Guardians'
Maternity Home in Bull Lane, and six at the Epileptic Colony, and four