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92
the past year (as will be subsequently seen), and the
great increase in the number of houses that have been
erected during the same period, lead to the conclusion
that the foregoing estimate of the population, which does
not sufficiently take into account the variable results of
immigration, is considerably understated. If such understatement,
as may be reasonably inferred, is the case, it
should be recognized in the calculation of the death-rate,
which by its operation will be correspondingly and
unduly raised. Estimated from the proportion which
the mean birth-rate bears to the mean population of the
decennium 1871—81 (when the population was accurately
known), the mean population of 1885 would be about
1,000 higher than the number officially determined.
With reference to this subject will be found, in the subjoined
footnote, an extract from my annual Report for
1868 (page 14).*
The number of deaths registered during the
Mortality. past year amounted to 628,—330 of males and
298 of females. The average number of the preceding ten
years, raised in proportion to the estimated increase of
the population, is 560, and therefore exceeded by 68 in
the past year.
Of the total deaths 132 took place in the following
public institutions, viz.:—in the Surrey County Lunatic
Asylum, 105; in the Hospital for Incurables, 7; in
* "Looking to the great value which belongs to an accurate determination of
Vital Statistics as the first trustworthy step in the projection of Sanitary Science
to the prevention of disease, it seems proper to mention that in the Metropolitan
suburbs and in large towns known to be greatly increasing by immigration, a more
frequent Census of the population is imperatively needed. In such localities, under
such conditions, an interval of ten Years, it need scarcely be observed, renders
calculation unsound and more or less conjectural. A quinquennial census, with an
extended scope of inquiry, might be made the means of conveying most important
information alike to the sanitarian and to the political economist.