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(2)
the Epsom Union Workhouse and 5 at the Brookwood Asylum. This gives a total of
172 deaths of inhabitants, of which 80 were males and 92 females, and a death-rate
of 10.0 per thousand of the estimated population as compared with 8.9 during the
previous year, and an average of 11.3 during the 10 preceding years. The death-rate
in England and Wales during 1906 was 15.4, and of the 142 smaller towns 14.4.
4. Infant Mortality.— The deaths of 45 children under the age of one year
were registered, and the infant mortality as measured by the proportion of deaths of
children under that age to the number of births registered during the year was 10.3
per cent, as compared with 8.6 during the previous year, and an average of 10.9
during the preceding 10 years. The infant mortality in the whole of England and
Wales during the year was 13.3, and in the 142 smaller towns 13.8.

The South portion of the district is mainly residential in character, whilst the
others respectively include a larger proportion of the labouring classes amongst their
population, and were a further division made in the latter districts it would show a
still greater comparative incidence of infantile deaths in the localities where the
poorer and least thrifty of their inhabitants dwell.
The principal causes of death amongst infants as shown in Table V., at the end
of this report, were Diarrhoea (17), so called wasting diseases (14), Whooping Cough
(4), and Tubercular Diseases (2). The greater number of deaths from Diarrhoea is
mainly responsible for the higher mortality amongst infants during the year and
also accounts for the noticeable increment during the months of August and
September. Summer Diarrhoea is essentially a microbial disease and deaths
occurring therefrom are largely preventible by proper hygienic precautions in the
immediate surroundings of the infant, and in the materials used in the preparation of
its food. Many of the deaths attributed to the so-called wasting diseases might also be
influenced by the proper care of the mother during pregnancy and of the infant in
its earliest life.
Although the general rate of infantile mortality in Sutton is very favourable
when compared with that of the country generally it is evident from the above notes
that even here we have a loss of child-life especially amongst the lower classes which
might to a great extent be avoided.
The continued high infant mortality throughout the country generally was
considered of such extreme importance to the community that a National Conference
of sanitary authorities was held in June to consider the matter. Amongst the urgent
recommendations of the Conference were
(a) "The Inculcation amongst all classes upper as well as lower of a much
higher sense of child bearing and of the preciousness of human life before and
after birth."