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per 1,000 of the population, and in all England it
is nearly 35 per 1,000. The birth-rate in the City,
therefore, during the last year, has not only been far
below the normal proportion for the country generally,
but it has also been below its own proportion.
The distribution of the 2,900 deaths for the year
has been as follows:—1,094 were in the Eastern
district, 795 in the Western, and 1,011 in the
Central. These are in the proportion of 26.5
per 1,000 of the population of the first-named
district, 29.7 of the second, and 21.7 of the third
—making together a mean proportion of 25.3 for the
whole City. In the preceding ten years the average
annual mortality in the City has been only 24.2
per 1,000, and in the several unions it has ranged
from 20 per 1,000 to nearly 28. In all England
the proportion is but 22.1 per 1,000 of the population,
and in the districts of the chief towns it is
24.3 But last year was unusually unhealthy, for
the mortality in the whole of England rose from
an average of 22 per 1,000 to 23.5; and in the
winter quarter of the year it reached to nearly 28
per 1,000—that of the chief towns being 29.7, and
of the Metropolis, 30.9. "Seldom, indeed," said
the Registrar-General, in his comments on this
fact, " has a winter been more fatal."
Taking a retrospect of the past, I find that in