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43
Since whatever is done will entail considerable cost, over
and above the already large amount of money spent upon the
sanitary improvement of this part of the District, it will be
useful to enquire whether these improvements have resulted in
any substantial benefit to the health of the community.
The original scheme of sewerage was instituted about the
year 1881, the parishes included being Beddington, Wallington,
Mitcham, Merton, and Morden, and it so happens that these
parishes, together with Woodmansterne, constitute the Mitcham
Registration sub-district, the returns of which, from the year
1871, have, with the consent of the Registrar-General, been
placed at my disposal. The inclusion of Woodmansterne is not
sufficient to vitiate any facts to be learned from these returns,
which have been analysed as follows, on the well-recognised plan
adopted in similar enquiries in other parts of the country.
For purposes of comparison, two periods have been taken;
the first being the 10 years 1871-1880, which immediately pre
ceded the institution of the sewage scheme, and other sanitary
improvements accompanying it; the second period being the
succeeding 10 years 1881-1890.
The death-rate for the first period was 15 5 per 1000, while
that for the second was 13*7, a difference of 1*8 per thousand.
Expressed in another way, this means that, had the deathrate
remained during the decade 1881 to 1890 at its mean level
in the preceding decade, the total deaths from 1881 to 1890, inclusively,
would have been 2,980, whereas, they were actually
2,630 ; thus 350 persons, who would have died under the old
conditions, were, as a matter of fact, still living at the close of
1890.* Add to these saved lives the avoidance of at least four
times as many attacks of non-fatal illness, and we have the total
profits as yet received from past expenditure for sanitary
improvements.
*Dr. Farr bas estimated that £150 i» the mean net value of each member
of the male population estimated by the standard of the agricultural labourer.