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belonging to the respective sanitary districts. These are the
result of a complete distribution of deaths occurring in the
public institutions of London among the various sanitary
districts in which the patients had previously resided. The
lowest death-rates were as follows: In Lewisham, 14.7 per 1000
inhabitants; in Kensington, 14-8; in Hampstead, 14.9; in St.
George's, Hanover Square, 15.0; in Camberwell, 15.8; in
Battersea, 16.3; in Hackney, 16.4; in Plumstead, 16.7; in
Islington, 17.8. In this list for 1890, Hackney is 7th, instead
of being as last year 4th. The highest death-rates include
London City, 22.3; Whitechapel, 22.9; St. Giles' and Stepney,
231 ; St. Saviour, Southwark and Fulham, 23.3; St. George's,
Southwark, 23.6; Holborn, 25.5; and St. George's in the East,
26.5. As regards deaths from infectious diseases, Hackney was
5th on the list, and of the number of deaths of children under
one year to each 1000 children born, Hackney was 3rd with
143, Plumstead being first with 129, some of the districts
(parishes) giving very high numbers, viz., 181 for St. George's,
East; 183 for St. James', Westminster; and 199 for the
Strand District.
As compared with the Public Health Statistics of the large
English towns, Hackney occupies a very favourable position, as
not one of the twenty-eight English towns in 1890 was returned
in the same journal as having so low a rate. The lowest was
Nottingham with 16.5; Brighton, 17.8; Leicester, 17.9; and
Derby with 18.5 per 1000 population. As regards the mortality
amongst new-born children, the only one of the twenty-eight
towns below Hackney was Portsmouth with 135. In Brighton
it was 164, against 132 in Hackney.
By Table III. we learn that the increase in the number of
deaths and of the death-rate arises chiefly from the prevalence and
fatality of the zymotic (infectious) class of diseases, as there
were 2.75 deaths per 1000 population, against only 1.63 in 1889,
and 2.26 in 1888. The mortality from inflammatory diseases of
the air passages was 3.29 per 1000, against 2.60 in 1889; indeed
there was an excess in the death-rates of all these groups of
diseases in 1890 as compared with 1889, except convulsive