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65
Death-rate. As has been explained in previous Reports,
the usual method of calculating the death-rate from the
number of the population and the number of deaths
registered, cannot be satisfactorily employed in this Subdistrict
without taking into consideration the disturbing
influence of the Hospital for Incurables, St. Peter's
Hospital and the Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum, the
inmates of which institutions are derived almost entirely
from without the Sub-district, undergo no natural increase
and are necessarily subject to a high mortality ; the latter
unduly raising the death-register to such an extent
as to render any calculation derived solely from that record
entirely valueless. It becomes necessary therefore,
in order to arrive at a determination of the natural deathrate,
to eliminate from the calculation the mortality and
population of the institutions referred to.
After correction made in the manner indicated the
death-rate of the past year was 15.95 per 1,000 persons
living at the middle of the year, or 1.05 less than that of
the healthiest of the rural districts. If the deaths that
occurred in the hospitals and other public institutions
situated without the Sub-district be added, the death-rate
would be 18.56.
The latter calculation however is unfavourably affected
by the circumstance that while it includes the deaths
of parishioners who have died without the Sub-district
it does not exclude the deaths of non-parishioners who
have died within the Sub-district, the number of which
cannot be ascertained but may be fairly supposed to
approximate the number of external deaths.
The following Table exhibits in comparison the Birth
and Death rates for the past and ten preceding years:—