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8
The deaths in London numbered 83,936, with a consequent
Metropolitan death rate of 18.6 per thousand. The deaths
registered in Battersea numbered 2,762, the mortality (uncorrected)
being equal to 16.0 per thousand or 2.6 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,
16.0 per thousand per annum, is, with the exception of 1888, 1889,
1894 and last year, the lowest in the past forty-three years, when
these statistics commenced, as shewn in Table V.
An epidemic wave of zymotic disease has been experienced in
the Metropolis during the last few years, causing an increase of
notifications over preceding years. The number of notifications
received by me for the last six years is given below:—
Year.
1898 1,975
1897 2,569
1896 1,929
1895 1,657
1894 1,845
1893 2,798
Of the 1,975 notifications received in 1898, seventy-nine were
duplicates, and notifications were withdrawn in nine instances,
leaving a net total of 1,887 cases of infectious disease.