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8
No doubt some general cause has been in operation increasing the rate of mortality
in the metropolis during the last two years or so, but I protest against any
misconception of our position in this respect; for, whatever the cause may have
been, it has not operated on our population to the degree that it has upon the population
of the rest of the metropolis. We have felt its influence, but mildly. When
we speculate as to what this influence may be, we must not omit to include in our
consideration of causes, the increase in the price of meat, which will naturally tend
to deprive the poor of a proper share of this element of a normal diet. It is difficult
to over-estimate the importance of a sufficiency of animal food in the diet of the
people; and this, not only as respects labouring men who must suffer in health, when
the supply does not come up to the waste of tissue, but also as respects children, in
whom not only re-construction, but a primary process of building up of a bodily
frame is in progress. Growing children, if they are to become strong and healthy
men and women, fitted to bear in after life the tax that will assuredly be laid upon
their vital forces, should be supplied with at least two good meals of animal food
every day. There can be no two opinions upon this subject, nor can we doubt that
unless thus well fed, the youth of our population will be more liable to suffer from
disease while young, and more likely to succomb under its attacks. On these
grounds, then, it is a matter of profound satisfaction to observe that strenuous efforts
are being made to introduce into this country animal food from distant places, where
the beasts that can furnish it are at present sacrificed merely for the sake of their hides
and fat. It is true that the efforts of one company formed for this purpose have not
been at first so successful as might be wished, but there exist processes of preservation
other than curing with salt, which there is reason to hope may ere long be
brought into practical operation for this purpose.

These numbers place our parish in a satisfactory position.
It is to he recollected that Islington contains the Small-Pox and Fever Hospitals, and no correction
is made for hospitals except in the number of deaths from "all causes," "at all ages." Hence a disproportionate
number of deaths from small-pox, fever, and scarlatina i3 assigned to Islington.