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23
Here it is seen that the mortality in Islington, with its population
distributed as it is, is less than if it were distributed in either of the
three other ways that are mentioned, for it is found that if it were
cast as that of England and Wales it would have resulted in 6,698
deaths, as that of the Urban Districts in 6,431 deaths, and as that of
the Rural Districts in 7,375 deaths, instead of those which have resulted,
namely 6,391 deaths. The net gain in lives to Islington in 1893 was
307 when compared with England and Wales, 40 with the Urban
Districts, and 984 with the Rural Districts, as the respective standards.
The fact is that the population is least, relatively to the districts
under comparison, at those ages when the death rates (vide Table XVIII.,
column 10) are highest, and greatest when the death rates are least.
Our population is so distributed that it contains a greater proportion of
persons at those age periods when life is most valuable, when men and
women, having been educated, are learning some trade, business, or
profession, or, having learned them, have fully entered on the battle of
life, become parents, and also attained to their fullest development,
physically and intellectually, and to their greatest value commercially.
The next question is, is the mortality at the different age periods,
or at any age period, excessive? In order that this query may be
answered I have prepared another Table (XX.) which is of very considerable
interest, and well worth careful study. In this Table I give
in columns 3, 5 and 7, the death rates for Islington at the several age
periods in 1893, the death rates of Dr. Farr's Healthy Districts
and the death rates in England and Wales in the decade 1871-80*,
while in columns 4, 6 and 8, I give the number of deaths that were
registered in the Parish in 1893, and those that would have resulted in
it if the death rates had been the same as in the healthy districts and
as in England and Wales.
It should be stated that in Dr. Farr's group of 53 healthy districts
the mean mortality was 16 94 per 1,000, and that it. consisted of all those
districts whose annual death rate had not reached 17.0. Of these
districts he writes that they "have a salubrious soil, and supply the
inhabitants with waters generally free from organic impurities. The
people are by no means wealthy; the great mass of them are labourers
and work people on low wages whose families get few luxuries and very
rarely taste animal food. Their cottages are clean, but are sometimes
*Those for 1881-90 have not been yet published by the Registrar-General.