View report page

the parish are fairly accurate; and these were the only
returns on which for many years we had to rely. But
during all that time deaths occurring in Hospitals and Institutions
were returned as occurring in the parishes in which
these places were located, thereby aggravating the apparent
unhealthiness of such parishes, and by so much improving
the apparent healthiness of other parishes whose sick and
injured died therein. For some years now such deaths have
been referred to the several parishes from whence the
patients came, and have been included in their mortuary
returns. This has of course been a great improvement.
But even so, there are many persons who die, not in
hospitals or institutions, but when on visits, or at friends'
or employers' houses, and away from home; and are
naturally returned for the parishes in which they die.
Then again the relative numbers of persons living at different
ages in different localities exert a very remarkable
influence over the respective mortalities of these localities.
It might be assumed at first sight that all districts were
equal in this respect, and that hence such a suggested
difficulty had no real existence and was of no practical
importance. This however is not so. As a general rule
marriages take place much earlier, and the birth-rate is
much larger, in poor than in well-to-do districts. Thus in
Dulwich the birth-rate this year was 9 per 1,000 of the
population, in Peckham it was 31.5, and in St. George's
34.2 So it has been substantially from time immemorial.
Hence it is obvious that the proportion of young children
in Dulwich is far smaller than that in other districts named,
and I may add in Camberwell. Now the mortality among
children under five is always far heavier than that among