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5
Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1895.
Table II
Sub-District.
Birth-rate per 1,000.
1893.
1894.
1895.
Borough Road
36.1
37.3
38.2
London Road
32.4
37.6
30.8
Kent Road
37.6
28.5
39.6
Whole Parish
35.3
34.4
36.0
London
30.9
30.1
30.4
33 large English Towns
31.9
30.9
31.6
It will be seen that the birth-rate is two higher than that of the preceding year,
and is considerably above that for the whole of London. The diminished rate of
increase of population in the three sub-districts of the parish of St. George's is,
therefore, not attributable to a falling off in the number of persons born into the
parish, but rather to a relatively high death-rate. A reference to the section on the
mortality of infants and children will reveal the startling fact that more than onehalf
of the total deaths in St. George's, Southwark, takes place under five years of
age.
The fact is notable that the birth-rate in St. George's is higher than in London
and in the thirty-three large towns. This may, I think, be partly explained by the
fact that limitation of families is carried into effect by the better-to-do classes rather
than by the poor.
Deaths and Death-Rate for 1895.
1,253 deaths were registered in the parish during the fifty-two weeks ending
December 31st, 1895, giving an average of 24 per week. Of this total 127 were
deaths of non-parishioners in hospitals and asylums within the district. In addition
306 parishioners died in outside public institutions and extra metropolitan asylums.
There were therefore 1,432 deaths among your parishioners, equivalent to an average
mortality of 23.7 per 1,000. The death-rate for all London in the same year was
19.7 per 1,000, which is in itself, according to many authorities, 3 7 more per 1.000
than should occur from "the mortality incident to human nature." In St. George's,
then, the "death-toll," as it has been aptly called, claim-! four persons out of every
1,000 in excess of an already excessive rate. On the latter estimate there have
been no less than 243 unnecessary deaths in St George's, Southwark, during the
year 1895.
In the forty-three metropolitan sanitary areas, the lowest death-rates were 12.0
in Hampstead, 13.4 in Stoke Newington, 14.5 in Lee, 14.8 in Wandsworth, 15.1
in Plumstead, and 159 in St. George's, Hanover Square; in the other district the
rates ranged upwards to 25.6 in St. Saviour's, Southwark, 27.7 in Limehouse,s 29.7
in St. George's in the East, and 30.1 in St. Luke's.