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4
consider what may be the causes which are in operation
to account for the unnatural and unnecessary amount
of death in our own parish.
The computations of the Registrar General give 17
per 1000 as the average death-rate of healthy districts.
Hampstead and St. George's, Hanover Square, give
about 18 deaths for every 1000 persons living, while
some of the worst districts of the metropolis reach 30
per 1000. The parish of St. Martin stands in a
medium between these extremes; but if we take the
worst parts of the parish—the old streets and courts,
where the drainage is the same as it was when the
houses were built—some as far back as the reign of
Elizabeth, and many in that of Charles I., we find our
deaths nearly as numerous as in the worst parts of
London. The drainage in these old houses is very
complicated, frequently passing under several houses
before it reaches a sewer. All drains carried under
houses from their neighbours' should be reconstructed,
so that every house might have a direct and independent
drainage into a sewer. Were this done, I have no
doubt that our death rate would be diminished, and the
health of our population increased. So long as the
wretched old brick drains are allowed to remain, and to
circulate under ranges of houses from one to another,
so long shall we be sanctioning an unnatural excess of
death to the amount of about 100 human beings, who,
under proper conditions of ventilation and drainage,
would live to aid in the increase of the wealth and
prosperity of their country. While we allow people to
live in such places as Prince's Court, Charles Court,
York Place, Bedfordbury and its courts, not only do
more of our people die than ought, but of those who
escape death, a large proportion, from the feeble health
engendered by living under such circumstances, are
incapable of much exertion, and add considerably to
the amount of the poor rates.