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with the Registrar-General on the matter, pointing out the
anomaly produced by allocating these deaths to Finchley
instead of to the area in which the infants were born. The
reply of the Registrar-General, which is set out below,
makes the position quite clear.
"Sir,
I am directed by the Registrar-General to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 30th ultimo and to say
that while he is fully aware of the distortion of Infant
Mortality rates brought about by the existence in a particular
area of a home for children such as the Nazareth
House in your area the difficulties in the way of any
attempt to assign the deaths elsewhere necessitated the
rule as to the assignment of such deaths to the area of
actual residence at the time of death. Not the least of the
difficulties is, of course, the practical impossibility in the
case of most of such institutions of ascertaining the actual
place of birth.
He will, however, in future Statistical Reviews mark
the Infant Mortality for Finchley M.B. with an asterisk
and insert a footnote explaining the extent of the distortion
due to the existence of Nazareth House in the area.
I am,
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
(Signed) H. G. Dowden."
In 1933 there were 27 deaths of infants under one year
of age, and no less than 9 of these belonged to Nazareth
House, while 18 actually belonged to the district.
The true infantile mortality rate for Finchley is 26.8
per 1,000 births, which is easily the lowest ever recorded,
the next lowest being 32.4 in 1927.
If the Nazareth House deaths are included the rate is
increased to 40.2.
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