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18
This parish at that time consisted of a congeries of small
villages, between which extended market gardens ; the inhabitants
and dependents of some few dozens of large houses, the residences
chiefly of merchants, with the workers at the market gardens,
constituting the principal population. It will be observed that the
population was then but 15,069, and at the census of 1861, had but
reached the number of 19,582. The birth rate was then a little
higher than now. The death rate, however, although the population
was very sparse, was much higher than at present. It has
been laid down as an axiom that mortality increases in direct proportion
to the density of population, and it is the aim of modern
sanitation to limit or prevent such increase. That the same parish,
of course with the same superficial area, should, with a ten-fold
population have a reduced instead of an augmented death rate,
shews that the authority having charge of the sanitation, which
includes the health condition and duration of lives of the
inhabitants has performed its public duties in an exemplary
manner.
Tables VI., VII., VIII., and IX., with addendum, contain
particulars of the mortality respectively of East Battersea, West
Battersea, and in the Union Infirmary, giving separately
parishioners and non-parishioners, and in the addendum of the
other public institutions situated within the parish. These tables
have been used from 1856, and are continued for purposes of
comparison with former years as well as being the basis upon
which all the other mortality tables are founded.