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1897] 22
Reports. Thus in 1864, Dr. Ballard after having calculated that to the
deaths registered in the Parish minus the deaths of non-parishioners,
there should be added 234 as "being the share of deaths in various
Metropolitan Institutions which would fall to us, were those deaths
apportioned out to the metropolitan districts in the proportion of their
numerical strength." Then he goes on to add, "I am bound to say that
although I take credit for so large a number, and have annually done
so in accordance with this rule of apportionment, there is reason to
believe that I am treating our Parish unjustly. From a return made
last year to the House of Commons, it would appear that during the
10 years 1851-60, the annual correction necessary on this account was
only an addition of 20 for about each 2,000 deaths. The true
corrections I presume, would be about the same now."٭
In 1871, Dr. Corfield, who was then Medical Officer of Health,
wrote, "we must, however, add a certain number as our share of the
deaths taking place in Public Institutions in London, other than those
included in our mortality tables; if we calculate this upon the
population, a method which is perhaps as unfavourable a one as
could be taken, we find it to be 297, a higher number than usual."
In his report for 1874, my predecessor, Dr. Tidy, said, in speaking
of the 4,680 deaths registered in the Parish, "these are exclusive of
those of non-residents in the various Hospitals, which I have not
considered it needful to take into calculation, our data for their
estimation being so imperfect that any attempt to do so is very little
better than a guess."† Nevertheless, it is most difficult to understand
why, from 1885 downwards, he continued to omit the correction,
although the materials for it had been supplied weekly by the RegistrarGreneral,
who continues to supply them to the present time.
٭ At this time, however, he was overstating the population by over 4,000 in 1862 to
15,000 in 1868.
† In this decade the population was overstated by 2,000 in 1874, increasing to nearly
10,000 in 1880.