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tribute very largely to the aggregate mortality.
Those indeed of the working classes whose deathrate
is over 26 per 1,000, cause no less than 48
per cent. of the total mortality; and as they occupy
for the most part the eastern and western divisions
of the City they swell up the death-rate of those
districts. In the Western Union, where they are
chiefly located, the mortality of men at 20 and
upwards is 25.3 per 1,000, and of women, is
only 22 per 1,000, whereas, in the City proper,
the death-rate of men is but 21.5 per 1,000, and of
women 17.5. It would seem, too, that the habits
of the people, as well as the occupations, affect the
death-rate, for while in this City the death-rate of
adult labourers is 43.5 per 1,000, in the rest of
England it is but 22; so, also, while here the
butchers die at the rate of only 16 in the 1,000,
and wine merchants and tavern keepers at 18, in
the whole country the mortality of these classes is
21 and 31 respectively. We may, therefore, conclude
that although the circumstances of a City life
are manifestly very unfavourable for the labouring
classes, they are not so for the butcher and the
shopkeeper. It may be that these conclusions are
not altogether reliable, because the better classes,
unlike the labourer and artisan, have the means of
seeking health when they are ill, and thus, by
dying from their home, they relieve the death-rate
of their class in the City ; but still, with all