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population and mortality of the above-named institutions,
the deaths of Wandsworth parishioners which occurred in
the Union Infirmary being added to the mortality proper
to the parish. Thus corrected in the manner indicated,
the rate of the past year was 18.04 per thousand. Although
this rate is considerably higher than that which has prevailed
for several years, it is nevertheless somewhat below
the average of the past ten years. The same calculation
made with a population estimated from the registered
births in the manner previously described, yields a deathrate
of 17.39 per thousand, and is no doubt nearer the
correct one than the former.
Birth-rate.—The number of births registered was 744,
384 of males, and 360 of females. The birth-rate, calculated
by the official estimate of the population, was 37.97 per
thousand, and the rate of natural increase 19.93 per thousand
persons of all ages. These unusually high rates
point, as has been already indicated, to the lowness of the
estimate of the population as determined by the official
method of calculation ; and, inasmuch as they cannot be
satisfactorily accounted for by a correspondingly large and
sudden increase in the fecundity of the population, they
must be necessarily attributable to an augmentation of the
population by immigration, a supposition fully confirmed
by the large number of houses Avhich have been erected
and inhabited during the past two years. Calculated from
the estimate of the population based on the pre-determined
rates which the births bear to the population in a given
time, the birth-rate of the past year was a little under 29
per thousand, and the rate of natural increase 12.39 per
thousand.
The following table contains a summary of all the
causes of death, arranged in accordance with the classification
of the Registrar-General, shewing the sex, social
position, and age at death at different periods, and particularizing
the several diseases of the Zymotic class.