View report page

6
mortality from diarrhoea affected the curve of the death-rate but slightly. The
summer was cooler than usual, and this circumstance doubtless played an important
part in keeping down the death-rate during the summer months.
The deaths of infants under the age of one year numbered 451, 281 being of males
and 170 of females, the deaths amounting to 22.3 per cent. of the total number of
deaths at all ages as compared with 26.8 for 1911, 27.6 in 1910, 23 in 1909, and
25.4 in 1908. The number of infants under one year dying during 1912 was at the
rate of 128 per 1,000 births belonging to Shoreditch registered during the year.
This rate is by far the lowest recorded for over 40 years. The infantile mortality
during the year amongst males was 156, whilst amongst females it was only 98 per
1,000 births.
The chief causes of death amongst infants under the age of one year were atrophy
debility and marasmus, prematurity, diarrhoea and enteritis, pneumonia, suffocation
in bed, whooping cough, bronchitis, measles and tuberculosis. With regard
to these causes, atrophy debility and marasmus may be said to be largely the
result of improper or insufficient feeding, mostly due either to ignorance or want of
means. The premature births of infants depend upon adverse conditions affecting
the health of the mothers during pregnancy, such as insufficient food, alcoholism,
excessive work, besides certain constitutional maladies. Suffocation of infants in
bed is mainly due to want of forethought or negligence. The remainder are the
results of infections. It is only in a comparatively small proportion of cases of
these infectious diseases that isolation can be carried out, and the consequence is
that in districts like Shoreditch, densely populated with poor people, there is a
greater tendency for these diseases to spread than in more sparsely populated
districts, which is an important factor to be noted in considering the infantile
mortality of the Borough.
In table IV. (Appendix) is contained a statement showing the various causes
of death amongst infants under the age of one year, the ages in weeks and months
being given. The table also shows the nett deaths and births during the year
amongst legitimate and illegitimate infants. Comparing this table with the table
for 1911 the reduction in the infantile mortality for the year under consideration
would mainly seem to be the result of a greatly reduced mortality from diarrhoea
and enteritis, together with smaller numbers of deaths from pneumonia and
bronchitis.