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91
The figures show for Shoreditch a general death-rate nearly 35 per cent. higher
than that of the Metropolis, whilst the death-rate due to the principal zymotic
diseases, namely, smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping-cough,
enteric fever and diarrhoea was, in Shoreditch, 66 per cent. higher than the average
for London.
If the infantile mortalities for the 5 years ending 1911 are compared we find
that for every thousand infants born in Shoreditch 14.9 have died during the first
year of life, whilst the average for London has only been 113; that is, the infantile
mortality in the Borough has averaged nearly 32 per cent. higher than that of
London.
To reduce the mortality rates in the Borough to the average for the Metropolis,
which most certainly should be aimed at, must necessarily involve an increase in
the work of sanitary inspection, and this means an increase in the existing staff of
Sanitary Inspectors.
Now, if the number of Sanitary Inspectors employed in Shoreditch be compared
with the number employed in London, it will be seen that the Borough is markedly
below the average for London in this respect. The following are the latest figures
available upon the point and relate to the year 1911:—

The above figures show that there are 4,912 persons more to each Sanitary
Inspector in Shoreditch than the average per Sanitary Inspector in the Metropolis,
an excess which amounts to nearly 36 per cent.
Taking the sanitary districts adjoining Shoreditch, leaving out the City of
London, Bethnal Green has one Sanitary Inspector for 12,828 persons, Hackney
one for 13,093, Islington one for 14,8S3, Finsbury one for 9,775 and Stepney one
for 15.557. The average for these 5, which may be said to be mainly working-class
districts, is one Sanitary Inspector for 13,227 inhabitants, which is somewhat above
the average for London Comparing Shoreditch with these 5 districts, each
Sanitary Inspector in the Borough has 5,350 persons in excess of this average.