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9
In fact, if the death-rate is estimated by the proportion
to the living instead of to the dead, it will
be seen that nearly 89 per 1,000 of all the children
under five years of age have died in the year. The
proportion in the several unions has varied from 72
to 98 per 1,000; and, as usual, the largest mortality
has been in the Western division of the City. In
all England the proportion is only 68 per 1,000,
and in France it is 69. It is remarkable, however,
that this high death-rate of children has not been
caused by any excessive mortality of infants under
one year of age, for in the different districts of the
City, the death-rate of infants of less than a year
old has ranged from 142 to 191 per 1,000 of the
births; the average being but 167. In England
the proportion is 180 per 1,000, and in France it
is 212. But although the mean death-rate of
infants is not so great as the average proportion for
the whole country, yet there are districts in the
City where this death-rate is very unequal; in the
Western Union, for example, male infants die at
the rate of 208 per 1,000, and females at 172,
whereas, in the City proper, the proportions are
but 132 per 1,000 of the former, and 154 of the
latter. In other words, there are places in the
City where one child in every five dies before it is
a year old, and there are others where the mortality
is only one in seven, showing us that however
favourable may be the general conditions of a City