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already explained in previous reports that the registered mortality
cannot be accepted as a trustworthy datum for the determination of
the death-rate proper to this parish, in consequence of the disturbing
influences of the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum and the Union
Workhouse.* The inmates in the former institution are derived
(with a fractional exception) from without the parish, undergo no
natural increase, are subject, as in all such institutions, to a high
mortality, and furnish on an average upwards of one-third of all
deaths registered; while the deaths of Wandsworth parishioners
which take place in the workhouse unduly diminish, to a certain
extent, the mortuary register. To estimate the death-rate justly,
therefore, it has been necessary to exclude the population of the
Asylum with its mortality from the calculation, and to add to it the
deaths of the Wandsworth parishioners occurring in the workhouse.
The deaths occurring in the Asylum, which have averaged annually
107, or, as has been stated, upwards of one-third of all deaths
registered, numbered last year, in consequence of correspondingly
fewer admissions, 57 only. It is this circumstance which accounts
for the unusual lowness of the mortality registered, and furnishes
another very cogent reason for excluding the mortuary statistics of
that institution from the means used in determining the natural
death-rate of this parish. The deaths of Wandsworth parishioners
which took place during the year in the workhouse numbered 20.
The death-rate of this parish during the past year, deduced from
the death register, after due correction has been made in accordance
with the foregoing considerations, was 1683 per 1,000, or about
1 in every 58 persons living. This rate is below the average of the
preceding ten years by 1 per 1,000.
BIRTH-RATE—RATE OF NATURAL INCREASE.
The total number of births registered during the past year was
400—191 males and 209 females. The average number during the
preceding ten years was 336. The birth-rate for the past year was
32.21 per 1,000 of the population. There was one birth among
about every 18 females of all ages. The rate of natural increase
was 15.38 per 1,000, the average of the past years, 1856-60, having
been 14.35 per 1,000.
• The Workhouse is situated in Battersea, consequently the deaths of Wandsworth
inhabitants occurring there, are registered in the parish of Battersea.