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79
The decline in the prevalence of and the mortality from
the latter diseases clearly indicates a good sanitary
condition of the sub.district and affords satisfactory
evidence that the care and vigilance of those entrusted
with the carrying out of sanitary measures are fully
maintained.
The following statistics derived as usual from an
analysis of the Registrar General's Returns and from
the local records of Sickness, Mortality and Sanitary
Operations, will, I believe, corroborate these observations
and disclose in detail the state of the public health in
Streatham and Tooting during the year 1886.
Vital Statistics.
Population. It is impossible to estimate exactly the
population of a growing suburb like this
without the aid of an annual census and yet it is essential
if we are to obtain a correct knowledge of its vital
statistics.
The official method of calculation assumes that the
population has increased during the year under review
in the same ratio as obtained in the ten years before the
last census. It is very obvious that this mode of computation
must yield an under.estimate of the population
in this sub.district, seeing that it does not take into
account the results of immigration. That our population
has increased beyond the official estimate may be fairly
inferred from a study of the births and birth.rate for
the last four or five years, and from the number of new
houses that have become occupied since 1881. However,
as the official estimate is the one generally adopted, it