View report page

8
then again, in contradistinction, there is a more defective ventilation;
there is probably, therefore, more zymotic disease, especially fever. The
poison, the result of animal effluvia, under certain conditions takes one
direction in the West, while, under modifications, it assumes another in
the East.
The Eastern Districts, then, have much to bring about in the way
of sanitary reform, ere they can expect on a level with the
more favoured, if ever, of the North and the West. If at all a redeeming
feature in the estimate, it is a fact beyond controversy that the East
can, nevertheless, point to the two Districts in the West, abutting on
the regions of fashion, the great centre of civilization, whence migrate
to the East the missions of benevolence, and to "London over the
border," and see that destroyer of mankind, consumption, in greater
excess, while the poor "Rachaels weeping for their children" still find
46 and 41 out of every 100 deaths under 5 years of age, within call of
that excellent society, "the Ladies' Sanitary Association."
Having attended to other localities, in order more clearly may
seen our real position, I have now to return to Limehouse, that it may
be noticed how far the various parishes of the District agree among
themselves. I have said that the increase of births over deaths in the
year is 389, which, added to 589 on that priding, gives nett increase
of 972, since the census of 1861—which, duly distributed, places the
population in
Limehouse. Ratcliff. Shadwell. Wapping.
27,453 17,123 8,038 3,987
The birth-rate of London is 3.37 per cent.- that of Limehouse is
3.29; so that if we were to estimate the prosperity of the District by
this criterion, it would afford no mean comparison with the rest of the
Metropolis.
The Registrar-General counts more on the list of marriages, and,
no doubt, in large numbers, this is the correct mode of testing the
social progress of a people ; but here it would have led me into nothing
but error. For instance—in glancing over the Registry, I found something
like two marriages at Wapping, in the quarter; four at Shadwell
Church, a slight increase at St. James's, Ratcliff; oven Limehouse,
the leading parish, stood very low in the matrimonial scale, and had but
a second-rate reputation. There is here, as elsewhere, a fashion in