[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Poplar District - Bow District & Parish of St. Mary Stratford-le-Bow]].

  • Poplar (London, England). Board of Works.
Date:
[1897]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Poplar District - Bow District & Parish of St. Mary Stratford-le-Bow]]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    10 INFANT MORTALITY. Neither is it necessary to again refer in detail to the important question raised by the continued high rate of infant mortality, a rate which is common to most districts in London, Bow in cluded. This year, the deaths of infants under one year amounted to 250, as compared with a total number of deaths of 855. According to the annual table published by the Lancet the deaths of infants under one year in London amounted to 160 to every thousand births, the proportion in the Eastern districts being—Shoreditch 180, Bethnal Green 170, Whitechapel 141, St. George's 154, Limehouse 176, Mile End Old Town 157 and Poplar 176. In the Bow district the number per thousand was 170. If, however, we include the number of children who died between one year and five years, the total is brought for the year in Bow to 421, or nearly half the total number of deaths from all causes. These figures incidentally reveal a condition of things upon which I animadverted in my last annual report, and when we have this annual loss of life concretely illustrated in this manner, the need for more stringent laws to protect infant and child life is manifest. In the House of Lords, Earl Denbigh has re-introduced his Infant Life Protection Bill, which last year met with such opposition from various insurance companies and friendly societies. In several important respects, the measure has been modified, but its object, that of preventing suffering and saving life, is the same. All those who have any knowledge of this dark side of life must wish this measure a successful passage through the two Houses of Parliament. Those who are brought into daily contact with the working classes, not only in the East of London but elsewhere, do not need the education provided by occasional shocking revelations in baby farming cases to understand how cheaply infant life is held by many, and how utterly unsuited a considerable percentage of men and women are to take upon themselves the responsibilities of parentage. OFFICIAL TABLES. The following tables are prepared in accordance with the directions of the Local Government Board, and they give amongst other information the details of the various diseases that have occurred during the year, the mortality from all causes at different ages, the infectious diseases notified, and the total deaths from all causes: —
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