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23
[1909
distribution of the ages and sexes in the two populations, which of course affects
the death-rate, a correction must be made before an accurate comparison can
be arrived at, and then it is found that the death-rate in the borough becomes
14.5, so that the local mortality-rate is exactly the same as that of the country.
This is satisfactory, particularly when it is recol'.ected that the crowded conditions
which occur in Islington do not occur in the country as a whole. In
the 76 Great Towns, the corrected death-rate was 15.5 per 1000, or 1.0 more
than that of the Borough, and in the 143 Smaller Towns it was 14.5, while in
the rural districts it was 13.7 per 1000. When we come nearer home, it is
found that the corrected rate for the County of London was 14.7 per 1000, or
0.2 higher than the corrected rate for Islington. In the surrounding boroughs
the several corrected death-rates were: Stoke Newington 11.77 per 1000,
Hackney 13.14, Shoreditch 19.90; Finsbury 19*93; St. Pancras 15.50, and
Hornsey 9.48.
Among the Greatest Towns, which, by the size of their populations, are
more properly comparable with Islington, Bristol alone shows a lower mortality,
and there the corrected death-rate was 13.06 while in Birmingham it was
16.59, in Liverpool 20.38, in Manchester 19.98, in Leeds 15.33, and in Sheffield
16.24 per 1000 of their populations.
The Ages at Death.— Compared with the preceding ten years, there
was a decrease in the number of registered deaths at the several age periods
(specified in Table XVIII.) up to 35-45 years, after which, with the exception of
the age period 55-65, there was an increase. The decrease was very marked in
the first year of life, when the number of deaths (841) was 331 below the
decennial average. In very juvenile lives (0-5) there was the substantial
decrease of 368, of which only 37 occurred between 1 and 5 years of age.
Between 5 and 15 years of age there were 140 deaths, or a decrease of 25;
between 15 and 25, 144 deaths, or a decrease of 50; between 25 and 35, 271
deaths, or a decrease of 38; between 35 and 45, 415 deaths, or a decrease of 12,
and between 55 and 05, 000 deaths, or a decrease of 25.
On the other hand, between the ages of 45 and 55 there were 539 deaths,
or an increase of 6; between 65 and 75 692 deaths, or an increase of 37;
between 75 and 85 544 deaths, or an increase of 73, and above 85 years of
age 172, or an increase of 42.
The one feature that stands out prominently in these figures is the considerable
increase in the number of deaths at the later periods of life, amounting in all
to 152, among people who had passed their sixty-fifth year. A reference to