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23
BATTERSEA.
As the Registrar-General, in his quarterly and annual
summaries, adopts for 1873 a year of 53 weeks or 371 days
(a measure which is absolutely necessary every fifth year),
the Medical Officers of Health are compelled to adopt the
same course in treating of the mortality of the large and
rapidly increasing Parish of Battersea.
This mode of deducing statistics raises the rate of
mortality for the year under consideration nearly 2 per
cent. higher than would be arrived at in any ordinary year of
52 weeks, and, although unavoidable, does not give an
absolutely correct rate of mortality.
That the following statistics may more clearly exhibit
the relative death-rate of Battersea and its two divisions
for the year 1873 with that prevailing in London generally,
the mortality must be estimated for 53 weeks, which is on
this occasion the registration year; and in order to compare
the mortality with that of preceding years, it will be
also necessary to use calculations based upon the 52 weeks
which were actually included in the year, and both these
modes are adopted with reference to the parish at large.
In the case of the separate divisions of the parish the
actual mortality registered during the year by the latter
mode alone is used.