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40
much larger than usual, so large indeed as to fairly warrant
the belief that the death-rate of the year was below that of
any former period since the Metropolis Local Management
Act came into operation.
From the extreme difficulty of forming any estimate of
the present population that could be relied upon, it is
thought to be politic to wait the result of the forthcoming
census before advancing any decided opinion upon the
matter. It may be observed, however, that the total
number of deaths from all causes was in the past year 118,
whereas in the year preceding it was 128. As these 118
deaths took place in a greatly increased population, it
follows that a death-rate considerably lower than that of the
previous year, is fairly deducible.
It is not advisable to hazard even a conjecture as to
the last year's actual increase of population, since by so
doing it may happen that the Sub-district will be made to
occupy an apparent position of healthiness amongst the
several Parishes comprising the Wandsworth District that
it does not relatively hold. Be this, however, as it may,
it is a fact that the total mortality of the past year was less
than the average of the previous ten years, without any
correction whatever being made (even the usual one
adopted by the Registrar General) for increase of population
in the interval of the last census and the present time. If
such usual correction be admitted into the calculation, it
would follow that the death-rate would be very considerably
below the same average.
The mortality table of the present report will, in many
other respects, bear a very favourable comparison with that
of 1867. It will be seen, for example, that not only has
there been a rather large decrease in the number of deaths
due to Zymotic diseases, but that the principal non-epidemic
maladies (the tubercular excepted) resulted in fewer deaths
than has been noted in the reports of several years past.