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10
average for the whole City being 21.1 per 1,000.
In the course of the last ten years, the general
averages for the three districts have been as follows:—26.2
for the Eastern, 26.5 for the Western,
and 19.2 for the Central, the average for the whole
City having been 23.2. A great improvement has
therefore taken place in the death rate of the population;
and at the present time the mortality of the
City will bear comparison not merely with the deatli
rate of the large cities of Europe, but even with that
of the rural towns of England. In the whole of
London the mortality is in the proportion of 24'5
per 1,000 of the population, and in the chief towns
of England it is nearly 26 per 1,000. Even in the
rural districts, it is at the rate of 19.8 per 1,000,
and in the whole country it is 22.5. Could we,
therefore, but abate the mischief which arises from
overcrowding in the worst districts of the City—
where the mortality ranges from 26 to 27 per 1,000,
we might hope to make the City of London the
healthiest City in the world, and the standard for a
sanitary comparison.
The ages at death are classified in Table IV.
of the Appendix, and you will perceive that
rather more than 37 per cent. of the deaths were
among children of less than five years of age, and
of these about half had not reached the first year
of their age; in fact, about one in six of all the
children born in the City die before they are a year