London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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City of London 1864

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London, City of ]

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11
mortality of children, the returns of sickness, the
causes of death, and the occupation of the people.
As regards the City, however, after a consideration
of all these circumstances, there is still a high mortality,
but it is the mortality from an overstraining
of man's power by industry rather than from a
defective sanitary regime. As I remarked to you in
my last Annual Report, the chief feature in the City
death-rate is the large mortality among men at
from 55 to 65 years of age. In former years the
mortality at that period of life was only 48 per
1,000 of the living, whereas it is now nearly 60 per
1,000. In all England the death-rate of men at
those ages is but 32 per 1,000, and in France
it is but 29: and even in the City the death-rate
of women at those ages is but 37 per 1,000. It is
evident, therefore, that the great strain upon a
City life is most felt in the years of declining manhood;
and, no doubt, it is the result of the overtaxed
energies of commerce.
In Table No. IV. of the Appendix, I have
classified the deaths in the City according to age,
and you will observe that about 36 per cent. of all
the deaths were among children of less than five
years of age; in the Eastern Union the proportion
is rather more than 40 per cent. At from 5 to 20
years of age it is about 7 per cent.; at from 20 to
50 it is about 26 per cent.; at from 50 to 70 it is