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75
This table shows that a heavy infantile mortality prevails
over the Central Districts of the Metropolis (which includes
St. Giles) ; it occurs chiefly amongst the children of
the poor, and is mainly due to bad feeding and neglect.
In this District 144 infants died under one year of age,
and 103 between 1 and 5 years, making a total of 247
children's deaths under 5 years of age.
This number was less than in the previous year.
The mortality of infants under 1 was in the proportion
of 134 deaths to 1,000 registered births, and 193 per 1,000
of total deaths.
On referring to table 3, appendix, it will be seen that
the diseases which caused the greatest fatality at this period
of life were: measles 15, whooping-cough 26, diphtheria 9,
diarrhoea 9, different forms of scrofula 34, premature birth,
&c., 26, convulsions 10, bronchitis and pneumonia 56,
debility, inanition, &c., 30, and suffocation in bed with
parents 6.
Regarding "Suffocation of Infants,"—Dr. Danford
Thomas, the Coroner for Central Middlesex, stated " that
he had held 300 inquests annually on children who were
killed by sleeping with their parents. There were over
1,000 children suffocated in London alone. He had, since
he held office, to receive verdicts of accidental suffocation
between 3,000 and 4,000 times. If parents would only
consider a little they would see that it was a highly
dangerous thing to have their infants to sleep in bed with
them, for they ran many risks of getting suffocated. They
were likely to get down in the bed, and even a sheet was
quite sufficient to cause suffocation. It would be better for
the infants that they should sleep in a cot."