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Belgrave Sub-district, exceed any number that yet appears
in our tables. So however did the births likewise
in the year 1861, when they amounted to 2119, or nearly
a fourth more than the average in the Belgrave, whereas
they did not exceed the average in the older part of the
parish.
Regarding the causes of mortality, zymotic diseases destroyed
116 lives, and of these diseases whooping-cough was
the most fatal and destroyed 46 persons, all children under
five. Scarlatina and diphtheria destroyed 29 persons, all
under 20. The places in which these deaths occurred were
chiefly Hanover-street, Pimlico, where 3 children died at
No. 47, and one each at Nos. 62, and 72, and 22, Gillinghamstreet,
where 2 children died. The deaths from measles were
but 6. But with regard to the mortality from these diseases,
it differs quarter by quarter and season by season, inasmuch
as fevers that destroy 50 or 60 lives one quarter
are absent the next; for instance, in the last quarter of
1861 we had 68 deaths from scarlatina and diphtheria,
and only 18 from whooping-cough; this quarter the proportions
are different: but always the bulk of the victims
is the same—the children of the labouring classes. Typhus
destroyed 18 lives, and affects adults by preference.
Even more than zymotic disease, the weather is the
chief agent in the destruction of life. This is chiefly
shown by the number of deaths from lung disease, which
amounted to 121. But cold confers an especial fatality,
not only on diseases of the lungs, but on all diseases of
degeneration and debility, amongst which scrofula and
consumption are reckoned, and from which 81 persons
died.
All the causes of death which appear to show something
wrong in the education and morals of the people,
were particularly rife this quarter. Thus there were 9