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30 deaths in every ten thousand of the population. The sub-districts, arranged
in the order of their salubrity, stand as follows:—Kentish Town, Regent's
Park, Camden Town, Gray's Inn Road, Somers Town, Tottenham Court Road.
This is the same order which they took in 1860.
Another way of estimating the relative healthfulness of districts is to consider
the ratio which the births bear to the deaths under 5 years of age; by
this method the districts of this Parish take nearly the same order as they
do when judged by their gross death-rates, the only difference being that
Somers Town changes places with Tottenham Court Road, having the highest
infantile mortality in proportion to the numbers born.
The relative infantile mortality of the several sub-districts stands in the
same order as their relative density of population, Kentish Town being the
least densely populated, and Somers Town the most densely, whilst Regent's
Park stands second, Camden Town third, Gray's Inn Road fourth, and Tottenham
Court Road fifth on the list. In Kentish Town there are only 27 persons
to each acre; in Somers Town there are 212. The number of persons in each
inhabited house varies from between 7 and 8 in Kentish Town to nearly 11 in
Tottenham Court Road. The sub-districts, arranged according to the numbers
of persons in each house, take the same order as when arranged according
to their gross death-rate, except that Regent's Park and Camden Town change
places. (Tables B and C.)
It is thus seen that crowding exercises an important influence on the
mortality of different parts of this Parish; this is quite in accordance with
what is found to be the case in other places. Whatever exists to contaminate
the air is of course much intensified by density of population, and diseases of
an infectious nature are more readily spread in thickly populated localities.
Hence the more urgent necessity in towns, especially in the more crowded
portions of them, of the best possible drainage, of an abundant supply of good
water, of well paved and frequently cleansed streets, of houses being so built
that there may be a free current of air through them from top to bottom and
from front to back. It is also very essential that the more crowded parts
should be periodically inspected, to see that the house-drains are in efficient
condition, that the house refuse is not allowed to accumulate in the cellars and
close to the houses, that the water-butts are in good condition, and other
sanitary matters are not neglected. The poor people who occupy these
localities, although for the most part they welcome the visits of the Sanitary
Inspectors or Medical Officer of Health, yet do not feel sufficient interest in
the state of their homes to make spontaneous complaints, or do not like to do
so from the fear of unpleasantness on the part of their landlords. Then again,
when infectious diseases prevail in such districts, it is most important that
they should be visited, in order that advice may be given as to the separation
of the sick from the healthy, and as to the use of free ventilation, disinfecting
materials, and other precautionary measures to prevent the spread of infection,
and in the case of Small Pox to urge the importance of attention to vaccination.
If this Parish could be sub-divided into still smaller sub-districts, and the
mortality of these were calculated, the differences would be found to be much
greater than those referred to above. For the purposes of the census, each
sub-district was distributed into a number of enumeration districts, in all
about 120. By the courtesy of the Registrar General, I have received the
number of houses inhabited and uninhabited, and the numbers of persons,
male and female, in cach of these sub-divisions. The average number of