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24
SUMMARY OF VITAL AND MORTAL
STATISTICS, KENSINGTON.
In the table at page 25 the principal vital and mortal
statistics of the year have been arranged in four-weekly
periods corresponding to the dates of the monthly reports, the
maxima and minima being indicated by distinctive type.
We have already seen that the birth-rate in 1899 was
20.8 per 1,009, as compared with the decennial average 22.0,
and that the death-rate, 17.5 per 1,000, was 1.2 per 1,000
above the rate in 1898 (16.3) and 0.9 above the decennial
average (16.6). There were, as nsual, considerable fluctuations
in the rate at different periods of the year; the rate ranging
between the minimum (11.9) in the sixth four-weekly period
ended June 17th, and the maximum (25.0) in the thirteenth fourweekly
period ended December 30th. The rate was in seven
four-weekly periods below, and in six above the average. The
deaths in the first half-period of the year (1,466) were fewer
by 89 than those in the second half-period (1,555); the deathrate
in the two half-periods being 17.0, and 18.0, per 1,000
respectively. There was a marked difference in the number
of deaths from the principal diseases of the zymotic class
in the two half-periods, the number in the first six months
having been 88 only, as compared with 171 in the latter half
of the year. The 259 deaths from these causes were 88 fewer
than the number in 1898, and 89 below the corrected decennial
average (348). The deaths from the diseases of the respiratory
organs (672) were 101 in excess of the number in 1898 (571).
The deaths from phthisis were 221, from diseases of the heart
232, and from tubercular diseases in children under five
years of age, 70.
The mean temperature of the air at Greenwich during the
year was, approximately, 50°.6 degrees Fahr.; the means of
the four quarters successively being 41.8, 52.8, 63.0, and 44.7.