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193
proportionate excess of senile deaths, apart from any
actual differences of health. In the Camberwell
sub-district there is such an habitual excess of senile
deaths, owing to the presence of the Workhouse
there ; and in Dulwich there is a comparative failure
of infantile mortality, in consequence of its low birthrate.
Hence it would be unfair to attribute good
health to Dulwich on account of its small per-centage
of deaths due to children, or to Camberwell on account
of its large proportion of senile deaths. An interesting
result, however, is obtained by comparing for
each district the number of children born in the year
with the number of deaths occurring during the first
year of life. In Dulwich there were 5.2 such deaths
for 100 births; in Camberwell, 11.1; in Peckham,
14'3; and in St. George's, 11.9. It appears, therefore,
that of children born not half so manv died in
.
Dulwich as in each of the other districts, while in
Peckham the infantile mortality was nearly three
times as great as in Dulwich. This difference is
evidently due to the larger prevalence in the more
populous and poorer districts of deaths referrible to
the various infantile disorders, and to the less care
that is taken of the children of the poor during
sickness than of the children of the more wealthy.
There are not many items in the list of causes