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from the seven principal zymotic diseases being 86 fewer than in
1880, and 94 below the corrected decennial average. As usual, the
deaths in the Brompton sub-district were relatively fewer in proportion
to population than in the Town sub-district, but the
decrease of 86 below the number in 1880 belongs entirely to the
Town sub-district. The deaths were equal to 140 per 1,000
deaths from all causes (decennial average 157), and to a rate of
2'3 per 1,000 persons living, as against 3.6 per 1,000, the rate
in all London; the decennial average being 2.9 per 1,000 in
Kensington, and 3.8 per 1,000 in London. By way of comparison
it may be mentioned that in all England and Wales the deaths
from these zymotic diseases were only 118 in each thousand deaths;
and the rate was 2.24 per 1,000 persons living, in 1881, the
decennial average being 3.3 per 1,000.
In the Metropolis, as a whole, of each 1,000 deaths, 172 were
assigned to one or other of the principal zymotic diseases; this
proportion, however, whilst being slightly above the average for the
decennium (169), was much lower than the proportion in any of
the three previous decennia. This fact, and the fact that the
general mortality in the decennium 1871—80 was the "lowest on
record," were cited by the Registrar-General, in his Annual
Summary for 1880, as evidence that "the sanitary efforts of recent
years have not been unfruitful." Speaking of London as a
whole, the Registrar General observes in his annual summary
that in 1881 the death rate from the principal diseases
of the zymotic class, "collectively was 3.64 per 1,000 persons
living, which was below the average of previous years, and this
though the ratio from three of the diseases, viz., diphtheria,
measles, and small pox was above their respective averages."
In the 19 large Towns grouped by the Registrar General with
the Metropolis, the rate was 3.1 per 1,000, ranging from 1.5 and
1.7 in Plymouth and Norwich, to 4.0 in Nottingham, 4.2 in
Leicester, 4.5 in Liverpool, and 6.4 in Hull. (The deaths from
small-pox in these 19 Towns were 92, in London 2,371.) The
rate in the 50 large Towns coming next in order of importance,
after the 19, averaged 2.3 per 1,000; (the rate in Kensington
also), the highest rate (5.1 per 1,000) being recorded at Merthyr
Tydfil.