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DISTRICT RATES OF MORTALITY.
In the preceding paragraph the death-rate in the several
sanitary districts is shown to have varied considerably. The
rate in the parish, as a whole, being 16 4 per 1,000 persons
living, it appears that the rate in the three sanitary districts
composed in South Kensington, and in the North-East
district in North Kensington, was below the average; whilst
the rate in the other three districts in North Kensington was
above the average, viz., in the North district 19.4 per 1,000; in
the North-West district, A, 20 3 per 1,000, and in the North
Westdistrict,B,33.3 per 1,000. This last-named district, contain
ing a population of nearly 10,000, includes that portion of the
parish, described as" A West-end Avernus," which acquired
considerable notoriety in 1893, the miserable condition of its
inhabitants having formed the subject of articles in one of the
leading morning newspapers. The vital and mortal statistics
of the district are very unsatisfactory: the death-rate in 1895
33.3 per 1,000) was more than double the rate in the
remainder of the parish 14.8 per 1,000); the birth-rate (37.6
per 1,000) was 0 3 per 1,000 higher than that of London, as a
whole, and 16 4 per 1,000 higher than that of the remainder
of the parish; its zymotic death-rate (5"7 per 1,000) was
excessive, being three and a half times as great as that of the
rest of the parish (1"6 per 1,000); whilst the waste of infant
life was also excessive, the deaths under one year (168) being
equivalent to 286 per 1,000 births registered, the infantile
deaths in the remainder of the parish being in the proportion
of 150 per 1,000 births. These figures show to what a large
extent the statistics of this unhappy district (which contains
less than a tenth of the population) spoil those of the parish
generally. It would be interesting, did time permit, to
ascertain the rate of mortality in the several streets : this,
however, would involve a special census, which cannot be
undertaken at the present time; but possibly the required
data may be forthcoming, at no distant date, as a result of the
census of 1896. Meantime, lam able to furnish some partial