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as to render a deduction of the death.rate solely from the
death.register, without taking into consideration the foregoing
circumstances, entirely valueless. In order to arrive at the
natural death.rate therefore, it becomes necessary to eliminate
from the calculation the population and mortality of the
above named institutions and to add to it the deaths of
Wandsworth parishioners that occurred in institutions
located without the parish. The death.rate calculated in
accordance with these corrections was 16.17 per 1,000 of
the population, or 0.83 per 1,000 less than that of the
healthiest rural districts.
Births. Birth.rate.—The number of births registered during
the year was 907—458 of males and 449 of females, and
was less by 62 than that of the year preceding. This
diminution, which attracts notice from the circumstance that
with but very few and slight variations the births have
always shewn a continuous annual increase, was common to
the whole metropolis, and does not admit of a ready
explanation of its cause. The birth.rate calculated from the
foregoing estimate of the population corrected for institutions
was 32.07 per 1,000 persons of all ages. The Natural rate of
increase, represented by the excess of births over deaths,
was 15.90 per 1,000.
The following table contains, as usual, a summary of all
the causes of death arranged in accordance with the
classification of the Registrar.General; showing the sex,
social position and age at death at different periods, and
particularizing the several diseases of the zymotic class.