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21
PUTNEY AND ROEHAMPTON.
In this report I propose to confine myself chiefly to a brief
narration of facts and statistics bearing upon the condition of the public
health of this sub-district during 1859. The attention these facts may
deserve, and the measures they may suggest, I leave to the consideration of
the authorities, fully assured that every reasonable project tending to benefit
the health, and to improve the sanitary status of the parish, will be, in due
time, carried out in a way to ensure the largest amount of good at the least
possible expense.
Statistics of Mortality.
In the year 1859, the deaths registered in the sub-district were 119 (59
males and 60 females), which is, notwithstanding the increase of population in
the interval, only one more than occurred in 1858, but would be rather under
the death-rate of that year, if the ordinary corrections were made for such increase.
A most accurate calculation in the above respect, may be made next
year upon the completion of the approaching census, but at present only an
approximate estimate can be arrived at in respect to the death-rate of any
particular period, relatively to the exact number of persons living in the
sub-district at that period. Extending the basis of a calculation of
the kind referred to, which however is not done without some risk of
either under or over estimating the present population, we may arrive at a
rather more satisfactory conclusion as to whether we are progressing, or
otherwise, in a sanitary sense, if we compare the mortality of the past year
with that of the corrected average of the ten preceding ones. This done,
and dug allowance being made for the difference between the natural deathrate
from disease alone, and the registered death-rate from all causes, as well
as for cholera years, which have unduly increased the rate of mortality, and
the number of deaths that have occurred to non-parishioners in the recently
established Royal Hospital for Incurables, it will be found that a steady ratio
of somewhat under 18 in 1,000 of the present assumed population is being
maintained, which being nearly the zero of the death-scale of the Registrar
General, places Putney in a position of healthfulness very little inferior to the
most favoured of rural districts. If there be any error in such a calculation,
it is unquestionably one on the side farthest removed from exaggeration, since
there are abundant proofs existing that the population of the parish has of
late years increased by immigration and otherwise to an extent far beyond
that which would be indicated by the usual correction adopted by the Registrar
General, as the approaching census will, doubtless, clearly demonstrate.
The following table gives the deaths from each class of disease and other
causes, together with the sex, age, and social positions of the deceased