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to summer or autumnal diarrhœa, and that zymotic diseases
are so largely fatal. No doubt, too, the occupations of the
residents in many cases exert an adverse influence over
their health; not in all cases because their occupations are
in themselves insalubrious, but often because persons in
order to obtain a livelihood persist in going on with their
work at times when they are ill and unfit to do it. Again,
it must be borne in mind that, conversely to what occurs in
places like Dulwich, adults in the prime of life remove
largely to other districts, and thus tend to diminish the area
Over which the annual deaths are distributed. No doubt
unhealthy conditions, such as (not only overcrowding and
its consequences, but also) too close packing in rooms, bad
ventilation, imperfect drainage, and the like, are more
likely to prevail and bear fruit in such districts as St.
George's. Further, I must point out that lam very doubtful
of the correctness of my estimate of the population of
St. George's. Assuming the population to have progressed
at the same rate since 1891, as was its progress between
1881 and 1891, the figures are no doubt fairly correct; but
I am inclined to think that the increase has been a good deal
greater than I have assumed ; and I am led to form this
opinion not only by the increase of the birth-rate and deathrate
relatively to those of Peckham, but also by the increase
during late years of blocks of tenement houses. If this be
so, it is very probable that the actual death-rate of St.
George's is no greater than that of Peckham.
I have no doubt, for the foregoing reasons, that St.
George's relatively to Dulwich is an unhealthy district.
But I have also no doubt that its relatively high death-rate
is not a fair measure of its unhealthiness, and that the true