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6
The deaths in London numbered 80,943, with a consequent
Metropolitan death rate of 18.2 per thousand. The deaths
registered in Battersea numbered 2,620, the mortality (uncorrected)
being equal to 15.5 per thousand or 2.7 per thousand below that
for London.
It will be observed that the birth and other rates approximate
very closely to those of the Metropolis at large, of which indeed
Battersea is now becoming an integral part, losing much of its
suburban character and acquiring that of a town district.
That the death rate has not increased is evidence of care in
sanitary administration which has always distinguished this
parish and the tendency to equalization and constant lowering of
the mortality over the whole Metropolis is probably in great part
due to the fact that the methods adopted for many years past in
this parish have now met with almost universal adoption over the
rest of the Metropolis. The death rate for the year under report,
r5'5 Per thousand per annum, is, with the exception of 1894 when
it was 15.4, the lowest in the past forty-two years, when these
statistics commenced.
An epidemic wave of zymotic disease was experienced in the
Metropolis during 1897, causing an increase of notifications over
the three preceding years and almost equalling that of 1893.
The number of notifications received by me for the last five years
is given below:—
Year. Number of Zymotics notified
1897 2,569
1896 1,929
1895 1,657
1894 1,845
1893 2,798
It has been shewn above that the total number of deaths in
Battersea during 1897 was two thousand six hundred and twenty