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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health,—1893. 7

It will be seen that although the birth-rate is a fraction lower than that of the
preceding year, it is nevertheless considerably above that for the whole of
London. The diminished rate of increase of population in the three sub-districts of
the Parish of St. George's is, therefore, not attributable to a falling off in the
number of persons born into the parish. As already hinted, it is in the main to be
looked for in a relatively high death-rate. A reference to the section on the mortality
of infants and children will reveal the startling fact that nearly one half of the total
deaths in St. George's, Southwark, takes place under five years of age.
The fact is notable that the birth-rate in St. George's is higher than in London
and in the thirty-three large English towns, and again, in the relatively poorer subdistricts
of the Borough Road and Kent Road than in the London Road. In both
cases it may, I think, be explained by the fact that the limitation of families is
carried into effect by the better to do classes rather than by the poor.
This important problem will have to be faced some day.
Deaths and Death-Rate for 1893.
1395 deaths were registered in the parish during the fifty-two weeks ending
December 31st, 1893, giving an average of 27 per week. Of this total 130 were
deaths of non-parishioners in hospitals and asylums within the district; 392 of
parishioners who died in outside public institutions and extra-metropolitan asylums.
There were, therefore, 1675 deaths among your parishioners, equivalent to an average
mortality of 27-6 per 1,000. The death-rate for all London in the same year was
21-3 per 1,000, which is in itself, according to many authorities four more per 1,000
than should occur from " the mortality incident to human nature." In St. George's,
then, the "death-toll," as it has been aptly called, claims 6-3 persons out of every
1,000 in excess of an already excessive rate. On the latter estimate there have been
no less than 378 unnecessary deaths in St. George's, Southwark, during the year 1893.
In the 41 Metropolitan sanitary districts the lowest death-rates were 12.9 in
Hampstead, 14.6 in Lewisham (excluding Penge), 15.2 in Wandsworth, 16.1 in
St. George, Hanover square, 16 4 in Plumstead, and 17.6 in Kensington. The
highest rates, on the other hand, were 27 6 in St. George, Southwark, 28.2 in Limehouse,
30.0 in Strand, 30.8 in St. Luke's, and a similar figure in St. George in the
East.
The facts of your death-rate are briefly as follows:—