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29
BATTERSEA.
The following is a brief summary of the sanitary events of
1866, together with the usual and necessary statistics by
which to judge of the condition of the public health of the
Sub-district in the year referred to. The year 1866 was
marked by the prevalence in this locality of a large
amount of disease, still, I am happy to say that the deathrate
has been 4 in 1000 living, less than in the previous
year.
It must be recollected, that Battersea is very peculiarly
circumstanced; first, in having become a very
large manufacturing district, and, secondly, in having a
labouring population daily and hourly enlarging, not only
by natural increase, but by immigration, to an extent that
would be hardly credited did not the parochial records
fully bear out the assertion.
The present population of the parish is variously estimated.
By many, the number of inhabitants is considered
to quite double that of the last census taken in 1861, and
there are those who go even beyond this, and who, basing
their calculations upon the number of houses erected
within the last few years, and inhabited for the most part
almost as soon as erected, assert that the number of inhabitants
must largely exceed the above estimate.
In the table that follows will be found as usual a record
of the number of deaths under every classified cause, as
well as the sex, ages, and social positions of the deceased
persons.