View report page

20
Table 10 shows the total deaths in 12 classes registered in
each quarter, from which it will be seen that deaths from
diseases of the respiratory organs, and the heart and bloodvessels,
were the highest during the first and fourth quarters of
the year.
Infant Mortality.—The Infant mortality rate represents
the proportion of deaths occurring among children under one
year of age to the total number of births registered during the
same period.
Of the 1,513 corrected total deaths recorded in the
Borough, 328 or 21.7 per cent. of the total deaths were under one
year of age. The total births were 3,563, therefore the infant
mortality rate was 92 per thousand births, compared with 122 for
1902. The Infant mortality during 1903 for England and Wales
was 132, 76 Great Towns 144, and the County of London 130.
The infant mortality rate is a valuable index of the
sanitary condition of a district.
Compared with other Metropolitan districts, Lewisham
is in a most satisfactory position. The rate referred to is the
lowest in the ten South Metropolitan Boroughs, and of the total
29 Metropolitan Sanitary Districts only one, Hampstead, has a
lower rate, viz., 88. (See Table 12).
In the three Divisions of the Borough the infant mortality
rates were Lee 76, Lewisham 103, and Sydenham and Forest
Hill 80 per 1,000 births.
An examination of the causes of death among infants
under one shows that the following diseases were the most
fatal:—Epidemic Diarrhoea and Enteritis, Bronchitis and Pneumonia,
Convulsions, Enteritis, Gastro-Enteritis and other
Digestive diseases, and Premature Birth. (See Tables 6 and 14).