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14
The death rate is 23.3 per thousand living. The rate has
fluctuated during five years from 19 to 23, with a slight
tendency to rise.
The gross number of deaths in the Belgrave Subdistrict
was 1,368. If we deduct the deaths in St.
George's Hospital, the deaths at home were 1,060. There
has been a rise during the last four years, the successive
numbers being 813, 948, 926, and 880. Estimating the
population at the close of the year as 56,500, the gross
rate of mortality was 24.3 per 1,000 living; if we exclude
the total deaths in St. George's Hospital, the rate of
persons dying at home was 18.4 per 1,000 per annum.
The deaths under 5 in the Belgrave Sub-district were
580, or nearly one-half the total mortality.
It is now thoroughly understood that the death rate of
a place gives no absolute information as to its salubrity;
for the deaths out of any number of young children are
so far in excess of the deaths of an equal number of
adults, that unless we knew the numbers of various ages
living, we could come to no useful conclusion. But the
death rate amongst equal numbers of infants in any two
places is one of the surest tests of salubrity; or if salubrity
be equal, it is the surest test of the moral condition
of the people.
The following table will shew for the Belgrave Subdistrict
what we have shown for the Hanover and Mayfair,
namely, that the high rate of mortality is an evidence
of the existence of children living under unfavourable
conditions. For example, if we take five squares, Belgrave-square,
Eaton-square, Chester-square, Ecclestonsquare,
and Warwick-square, the deaths there during the
year were 19, including 2 children under 5, and 17 persons
above that age. But if we take a group of poor streets
inhabited by the labouring classes, we find that out of 115