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a diminution of 2.43 per 1,00 per annum living, or, in actual,
numbers, 5,740 deaths less during the last ten years than would
have occurred during the previous ten years. Taking the
minimum capitalized value of human life in the United Kingdom,
man, woman, and child, at £159 per head ( Vital Statistics.
Dr. Farr, page 61;, then, from an economical point of view, the
monetary saving of life alone in St, Pancras equals £912,660 in
ten years.
To attempt to place an economic value upon the amount of
sickness saved is more difficult; but it is approximately true
that for every person dying annually at least two persons are
constantly sick throughout the year, and the maintenance and
attendance of the sick probably cost half the produce of their
labour in health. ( Vital Statistics, Dr. Farr, page 498.) The
ratio of the actual numbers of the sick to the dying is very much
greater; but the duration of the temporary periods of sickness
in the aggregate amount to 57 persons per 1,000 per annum of
the population of England constantly sick during the year
(Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics, page 41.2) when an average
death-rate of 22.0 per 1,000 prevailed, and these numbers represent
an annual ratio of 2.5 persons constantly sick to one death.
Taking Dr. Fair's lower figures, which are well within the
mark, then for every death per 1,000 per annum the value of
two year's sickness is saved, or on the number of lives saved in
the decennium there will be 11,480 years of sickness less.
Again, taking the mean duration of life as 43.56 years (MulhalVs
Dictionary of Statistics, page 288), which is high for St. Pancras,
and therefore reduces the economic saving lower than probable,
then 11,480 years of constant sickness will represent the value
of 263 lives, which is equal to £ 11,817; and if the cost of
maintenance and attendance be half the produce of labour per
head which the £159 estimate of Dr. Farr represents, then the
total amount saved in sickness will be half as much again, or
£62,725 in the ten years, making a total saving in death and
sickness of £975,385. If calculated with less allowance for
error, and with collateral expenses included, the economic savingeffected
by sanitation during the last ten years in St. Pancras
would amount to close upon a million of money.
AGES AT DEATH.
The corrected number of deaths registered under one year of
age amounted to 1,158, equal to 153.8 per 1,000 of registered
births, or 1.2 above the average of the preceding ten years, and
equal to 241.5 per 1,000 of the corrected total of deaths from all
causes, or 3.9 below the decennial average.