View report page

5
HEALTH AND SANITARY CONDITION OF THE
ENTIRE DISTRICT.
The year 1868 has been unfortunately marked by a
very considerable deterioration of the health of this District,
compared with the average of previous years, as indicated
by the public records of sickness and mortality.
This lowered vitality will be seen, by a reference to
Tables 1 and 4 in the Appendix, to be associated with a
much greater fatality than usual, not only from epidemic,
but from general disease also.
By an examination of Tables 1 and 2, Appendix, may be
gathered two important facts, viz.:-that the population
of the entire District during the past year was increased by
the births of 4,008 children,and that it was diminished during
the same period by the removal of 2,168 persons by death.
The actual gain to the population by natural increase was
therefore 1,840. But this calculation does not take into
account the results of immigration, by which there are
good grounds for believing the population has increased
during the past year to a much greater extent than during
any year since the Metropolis Local Management Act came
into operation. This is inferred from the large amount of
building operations, and the consequent influx of new
residents, both of which have been beyond all precedent.
The impossibility of estimating correctly the increase of
population in the several Sub-districts, imposes upon the
Medical Officers of Health one important consideration,
viz. :—whether they ought, within three years of a fresh
census, to hazard any statement with regard to the deathrate
of the entire District that must be based for the most
part upon mere conjecture? The principle which most
statists at present adopt in determining the death-rate of
any particular locality, is that of assuming the annual
increase to have been going on at the same ratio since the
last census as before such census was taken, or, what