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1897] 24
Deaths registered in the Parish Register,
1891-6 = 35,255
Deaths after distribution of the London
deaths by Registrar General, 1891-6 = 35,696
Excess of distributed deaths = 441
Thus in the six years 1891-6, after the deaths of persons who died
in London Public Institutions had been distributed to their residential
districts, the deaths as recorded in the Islington parish registers were
inoreased by 441.
Under these circumstances it is not unreasonable to look on the
death-rates, as given in the Medical Officers' Reports from 1855 to 1892
inclusive, as inaccurate, and to conclude that the death-rates calculated
on the deaths registered by the District Registrars give a truer idea
of the mortality. Further, it should be stated, that the invariable over.
estimation of the populations renders any comparison between the
death-rates given by the Medical Officers of Health and those of to-day
out of the question.
In the succeeding table is shown the population for each year (actual
and as estimated by the Medical Officer of Health) and also the deaths
together with those registered by the Parish Registrars, given in their
reports by the Medical Officers, and as distributed by the Registrar
General. There, also, are exhibited the death-rates as calculated on the
actual population, as well as those given by the Medical Officers, together
with the death-rates calculated on the distributed death returns of the
Registrar General.
By the term "actual," which is used in column 1 in reference to
the population, is meant the populations as calculated by modern scientific
methods on the bases of the enumerations of the people which were
made at the beginning and end of each decade. The figures, therefore,
show the populations as nearly correct as human beings can devise.