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7
that the number of deaths in 1858 was much less
than that of any other year since 1848, excepting
the remarkable year of 1850, when, after the
ravages of a cholera epidemic, the mortality fell to
the low proportion of 2,752, which is at the rate of
21 per 1,000 of the inhabitants; in the course of
the last year it was 22 per 1000. This, therefore,
lias a satisfactory appearance, for it shows that the
condition of the public health has been steadily
improving, from the very beginning of your sanitary
functions. Altogether, in fact, the reduction
in the annual mortality of the citizens, has been
about nine per cent. below the average for the first
three years of the decade, eight per cent. below that
of the second, and about six per cent. of the third—
making a general average of seven per cent. below
the death-rate for the whole period.
Of the 3,184 births in the City during the year,
1,351 were in the Eastern Union, 766 in the Western,
and 1,067 in the Central. These numbers are
in the proportion of 33 per 1,000 of the population
in the first-named district, 27 in the second, and
scarcely 19 in the third; the average for the whole
City being about 25 per 1,000 of the inhabitants.
Now this is a long way below the average of births
in the rest of England, for the usual birth-rate in
this country is as nearly as possible 34 per 1,000 of
the inhabitants. The circumstances of a City life