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In the above table it will be seen that Park and Winstanley
Wards have the highest, and Broom wood Ward has the lowest
general death-rates. In fact all the lower Wards with the exception
of Shaftesbury, in which the death-rate is practically the
same as during 1908, show an increase in the rate, as compared
with the previous year, while on the other hand, the three upper
Wards exhibit a decrease.
The cause of the slight increase in the general death-rate in
Battersea during 1909, as compared with the previous year, is
undoubtedly due to the severity of the weather at the beginning
of the year. A glance at the table on page 14 will at once show
this. Thus in the first quarter of the year the number of deaths
was 30 per cent. in excess of the number during the last quarter,
and no less than 15 per cent. higher than the corresponding
quarter for 1908. Were it not for this, the death-rate for Battersea
for 1909 would have established another record. On the
whole the results exhibit the satisfactory conclusion that the
Borough has maintained the improvement which has been such
a marked characteristic of its mortality statistics during recent
years.
It is interesting to note the place that the Borough takes during
1909 in the Registrar-General's corrected returns amongst
the twenty-nine Metropolitan Boroughs. There are nineteen
Boroughs with a higher general death-rate, ten with a
higher zymotic death-rate, and twelve with a higher infantile
mortality rate. Taking the ten South Metropolitan
Boroughs, Lewisham has the lowest general death-rate,
viz., 10.3, and Bermondsey the highest, viz., 18.8 : Only four of
the ten southern Boroughs having a lower death-rate than
Battersea.