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10
MORTALITY OF THE CITY OF LONDON.
instances, nearly three-eighths of the whole, death
has befallen children under five years old. Children
at this age constitute about a tenth part of the
population of the City. They accordingly die at
about four times the rate which would fall to them
as equal participators in the average mortality of
the district. The next table will throw some
light on this disproportionate excess of infant
deaths.
5. In it (Appendix, No. V.) an enumeration is
made of such deaths, during the last three years, as
have arisen in consequence of acute disease partially
or entirely preventable. They amount to 3,923—
more than two-fifths of the entire mortality of the
period.
I would especially beg the attention of your
Honourable Court to the particulars set forth in the
successive columns of this table.
The first column shows 391 deaths by fever; and
of these, without hesitation, I would speak as entirely
preventable. Under favourable sanitary conditions
fever is unknown. The deaths arising from
it for the most part befall persons in the prime of
life, whose premature removal, in the midst of
their vigour and usefulness, is not only a direct
weakening of society, but is also, in respect of
orphanage and widowhood, a frequent source to the
public of indirect detriment and expense.
In the second column, swelled by the epidemic