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3
show; a fact of some importance to bear in mind, in taking a survey
of the health of the District.
But it is with the deaths exclusively I have to solicit your
especial attention. Of these 559 are in Limehouse, 436 in Ratcliff,
181 in Shadwell, and 160 in Wapping. In stating this, as it is not
commonly known, it may be as well to remark that in the Stepney
Union there are 3 workhouses set apart, respectively, for the men,
the women and the children. There are 114 of the deaths in these
institutions, namely: 54 for Ratcliff, 14 for Limeliouse, and 66 for
Wapping. To make a correct estimate, then, of the relative numbers
it will be necessary to deduct them from the aggregate, and duly
apportion them according to their separate parishes.
The deaths then will stand thus: Limeliouse 609, Ratcliff 423,
Shadwell 201, Wapping 103. This will make the death-rate per
cent in—
The District 2.40
Shadwell 2.28
Limehouse 2.33
Ratcliff 2.51
Wapping 2.62
The death-rate for London in 1860 was 2.193, and for the
Eastern District, the highest with the exception of the south, it was
2 321. It will thus be seen that the Limehouse District, in common
with its neighbours in the east, stands in an inferior relative condition
to the wealthier of the Western District; the death-rate per cent. of
which was 2.132. The density of population enters largely into
the question, and would at once account for the disparity in the
mortuary returns, if I compared this District with that of St. James's,
or St. George's, Hanover Square, where the population is about 70
per acre instead of, as it is here, 118.
But density, though an important element, is not always the
principal, as will be seen in arranging a sanatory estimate. There
are in—
Ratcliff, 148 persons per acre,
Shadwell, 116 „ „
Limeliouse 108 „ „
Wapping 95 „ „