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4
of last year and the Deaths in London and Bethnal Green
are shown in the first Table of the Appendix to this Report.
"1858," says the Registrar-General, "was an unhealthy
year." The heat of the second quarter was great; some
days "were of almost tropical heat, but as November overtook
us there came an extraordinary change. A long drought
was followed by intense cold which deformed for ever the
aspect of 1858." In our District, the maximum mortality
consisting of 70 and 76 deaths occurred in the weeks ending
July 17th and December 4th, while the minimum mortality
was attained in the two terminating February 13th and June
5th. Nosologically, the increase of Small Pox and the prevalence
of Scarlatina were the distinguishing features of the
year.
Computing the population by the surplus of births, it
numbered 101,966 persons in the middle of 1858. If, however,
the influx of immigrants equaled the rate of the preceding
dccennium, it was 104,755. Assuming—from the
great increase of new buildings, and from the birth ratio
exceeding by 4.8 the London proportion—that the rule still
obtains, I have made the latter estimate the basis of my calculations
in the present Report. Accordingly, the population
under the age of 5 would be 15,431; at 5—10, 13,090; at
10—20, 20,908; at 20—40, 32,296; at 40—60, 17,245; at
60—80, 5,404; at 80—100, 380; and beyond the age of
100, 1. Consequently the children under 5 constitute 14.7
per cent. of our people; whereas in all England in 1851
their percentage was about 13. Of the 104,755 persons there
would be living on the 141 acres of the Sub-District—Hackney
Road, 27,149; on the 391 acres of the Green, 30,230;
on the 132 acres of the Church, 25,747; and on the 96 acres
of the Town, 21,629. The area to each individual therefore
will be 25 square yards in Sub-District 1; 62 in No. 2; 25
in No. 3; and 21 in No. 4. Such, speaking generally, is