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4
and under certain special circumstances, to the fluctuations of atmospheric temperature and
other meteorological conditions. As respects the general mortality, these representations
require no comment.
AGE AT DEATH.
6. In Table 1, it will be observed that the Deaths are arranged as to age in a different
manner to that adopted in my Quarterly Reports, being distributed into quinquennial and
bi-quinquennial periods, so as to render the Table comparable with the annual Tables of
Mortality for the whole country issued from the General Register Office. The Quarterly
Tables are comparable with the Registrar-General's Quarterly Summaries of the weekly
returns of Deaths in London. In order to establish this double correspondence, two
distinct tabulations were necessary. I have also tabulated separately the deaths which took
place from every disease, at each period of age, in each sub-district; but, in order to
economise space, have presented you only with the general results in association with the
Table for the whole Parish. I shall have occasion, nevertheless, to refer to some of the
details in these secondary Tables.
7. The most striking feature in the horizontal column of Ages at Death from all causes,
is the number 1066, as representing the deaths which took place under 5 years of age.
They formed as much as 46.4 per cent. of all the deaths which occurred in the Parish; 87
per 1000 of the number living under 5 years of age in 1851 (viz. 12,190), and 64.9 per 1000
of the estimated number living in Islington under 5 years of age in 1856 (viz. 16,418).
The annual mortality under 5 years of age in England during the 10 years 1845-54, was
68.49 in the 1000 living. *
In the East Sub-district the per centage of deaths under 5 years of age was 47.3; in the
West, 45-6. Comparing the mortality with the number living under 5 years (1851), it is
found that in the West Sub-district the deaths were at the rate of 89 per 1000, and in the
East, 85 per 1000.
Mure than half of the 1066 deaths took place in the first twelve months of existence, and
305 are stated to have occurred before the infants had reached the age of three months. I
shall take another opportunity of again calling your attention to this most serious waste of
infant life.
CAUSES OF DEATH.
The three Classes of Disease in the Nosology of the Registrar-General to which the
largest proportion of deaths was assigned (Table 1.), are the Zymotic, the Tubercular, and
those affecting the organs of Respiration. In respect of the first of these, I propose
entering into some detail.
a. Diseases of the Zymotic Class.
8. The Zymotic class of Diseases † was fatal to 542 persons, thus causing 23 6 per cent.
of all the Deaths in Islington during the year. (Table 4, col. 4.) In this respect there
was a great disproportion between the Sub-districts. In the West Sub-district, 20 4 per
cent. of the deaths were thus referred, while in the East, the number was 27 per cent. The
zymotic mortality of the whole Metropolis was 22 6 per cent.; so that, compared with the
entire number of deaths, the zymotic mortality of Islington was 1 per cent. higher.
9. The zymotic mortality which had undergone great and frequent variations, between 5
and 17 per week, during the first half of the year, was permanently high (Table 2 & Diagram),
* 17th Annual Report of Registrar-General, p. xvi., Table xiii.
† "This class comprises diseases which have been observed to be epidemic, endemic, or contagious. The
blood is probably, ill the greater lumber of them, the primary seat of disease: and they may be considered by
hypothesis, the result of specific poisons, of organic origin, either derived from without, or generated within the
body."—Statistical Nosology, 1845, p. 14.