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37
The social position of the deceased persons may be thus stated:—
Of the families of the nobility or gentry, 7; of the professional and
merchant classes, 4; of the middle or trading classes, including shopmen,
clerks, &c., 25; of the industrial and labouring classes, 56.
In the 10 years preceding 1856, the average number of registered
deaths in this parish was 89, which, if raised for increase of population,
becomes 97. The number of persons then who died during the past year
being 92, it follows that there were less deaths by 5 than would have
taken place had the average rate of mortality still prevailed. This statistical
result indicates a slight improvement in the public health of the subdistrict.
According to the report of the Registrar General for 1850 (a
year I have fixed upon for the purposes of comparison, by reason of its
having been one highly favourable to health), 93 deaths took place in
Putney, or one more than occurred in 1856, notwithstanding the increase
of population of a five year's interval. In 1850 the births numbered 163,
giving an excess over deaths of 70. In 1856 the excess of births over
deaths was 82, the former numbering 174.
A result very favourable to this sub-district will also be shewn by comparing
the mortality of Putney during 1856 with that of the entire
Wandsworth District in the same period. The population of the entire
district at the census of 1851, was 50,764; that of Putney, including
Roehampton, at the same census, was 5,280. The deaths registered in
1856, in the entire district, numbered 1,125, but in Putney, as I before
stated, the mortality of the year was 92. It is clear, therefore, that if
the ratio of mortality of the two be compared, a considerable difference
will be shewn in favour of the latter, the proportion being in the one case
(in round numbers), 22 in 1,000 persons living at the time of the census
of 1851, and in the other only 17 in 1,000. A similar comparison made
between the whole of the metropolis within the bills of mortality and the
parish of Putney, gives the still greater difference in the ratio per 1,000
as indicated by the difference between 24 and 17.*
On referring back to the brief summary of mortality given at the commencement
of this section of my report, it will be seen that the diseases
termed zymotic proved fatal in this parish in comparatively few instances
in 1856, 13 deaths being the number registered from six of the principal
maladies of this class during the year (vide Table 2 Appendix). It should
be remarked that the majority of these deaths, or 7 out of the 13, resulted
from hooping-cough alone, that disease having been epidemic for several
months in almost all the sub-districts. In reviewing the mortality returns
of the Registrar-General, having especial reference to zymotic diseases, I
am enabled to place on record the very gratifying fact that this sub-district
has of late enjoyed a singular freedom from epidemic influences, and that
not one fatal case of small-pox, measles, or scarlatina was registered during
* The results of this calculation would be somewhat different if the numbers of deaths
in each instance were raised in proportion to the assumed increase of population since
the census of 1851. In the first comparison, for example, the ratio of deaths would be
about 19 in 1,000 upon the present assumed population of the entire Wandsworth
District, and 16 in 1,000 upon the present assumed population of Putney, making a
difference of 3 in 1,000 in favour of the latter. Upon a similar correction being made in
the other comparison, there would, 1 calculate, be still about the same difference of 7 in
1,000 in favour of Putney.