View report page

65
213 were deaths of infants under 1 year, and were equivalent
to 18.5 per 1,000 of registered births (against 15.4 in
all London), and 19.5 per 1,000 of total deaths. 139 chilldren
died between 1 and 5 years of age, and were equivalent
to 32.2 per 1,000 of total deaths.
103 children died from zymotic causes, principally measles,
whooping-cough and diarrhoea, 77 from wasting diseases,
which include debility and premature birth, 40 were from
various forms of convulsive diseases, and 77 from bronchitis,
pneumonia, and other diseases of the respiratory organs.
9 children were overlaid in bed by their parents. The proportion
of such deaths throughout London during the year
is between 600 and 700, and of this total somewhat over
200 are furnished by the central districts alone. Dr. Danford
Thomas, the Coroner for Central Middlesex, gives as his
opinion " that the fatal result is commonly brought about
either to the child slipping under the bedclothes when the
mother's arm on which it lies becomes relaxed in sleep, or to
its being drawn too near and pressed against the breasts."
Some remarkable statistics relating to the suffocation of
infants in bed are published in the Registrar-General's last
annual report. "It appears that the number of such deaths
has been steadily increasing in recent years," and " It wa3
found that the proportion of deaths of infants from overlying
is more than twice as high on Saturday night as on any
other night of the week; the explanation of this fact is that
the amount of intoxication is greater on Saturday than on
any other day."
Senile Mortality.
There were 295 deaths recorded at 60 years of age
and upwards, against 277, 153 and 159 in the three
f