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6
and Diseases of the Chest. The death rate in Brompton was
extraordinarly low. Sanitarians regard an annual death rate of
17 per 1,000 persons living as pretty near perfection : and in a list
of 50 large town districts, given by the Registrar General in his
Annual Summary for 1871, only one (Cheltenham) had a death
rate so low as 17 (actually 17.4). The next nearest to it are Dover
and Chatham, (19.5 and 19.6) while such places as Brighton,
Bath, &c., respectively show a death rate in every case over 20
per 1,000. But the Brompton district, with a population of nearly
30,000, stands far ahead even of Cheltenham, its death rate
being, as stated, only 14.7 per 1,000.
The death-rate in the Parish generally was 2.3 per 1000 below
the corrected rate for 1870, and 6.3 below that in all London
which was 24.7 per 1000. For the sake of comparison I subjoin
the death rates in the several divisions of the Metropolis, as given
by the Registrar General in his Annual Summary:—

But although the general death rate was unusually low, in some
localities it was very high; whether unusually high I am not able
to state, having had no previous opportunity of making a similar
investigation. For a knowledge of the population of the several
streets, &c., referred to below, I am indebted to the Census Department
of the Registrar General's Office. Impressed with the
importance of ascertaining the spots where deaths were more than
usually numerous in proportion to population, I endeavoured to
ascertain the number of persons living in each street in the Parish,
but the state of the business in the Census Office rendered this impossible,
though information with respect to specially named streets
was readily accorded. My attention was particularly directed to
Yeoman's Row, Brompton, to Jenning's Buildings, Kensington,
and to the neighbourhood of the Potteries, Notting Hill. In a
few streets in the latter vicinity, having a population of 4,283, no
fewer than 148 deaths occurred = 34 per 1000. Of 258 persons
who died in the district in question 79 were under one year of
age, and 79 between one and five. The deaths under one, and
between one and five, therefore, were respectively 30-5 per cent,
of the deaths at all ages ; the deaths at all ages under five, 61 per
cent. In the Parish generally, the deaths under one were 25*6
per cent., and the deaths at all ages under five, 43.4 per cent.
How favourably the mortality in Jenning's Buildings and in
Yeoman's Row compares with the above figures will be seen by
referring to the subjoined Table:—