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9
The rate shows an increase upon that for 1893, when it
was 267, and for 1892, when it was 27.5.
In 3 of the sanitary areas within the Metropolis the
birth-rate for 1894 exceeded 40.
The fact that the birth-rate for the District is a little lower
than that of England and Wales generally is favourable to a
lower death-rate, since it represents the bringing into the
population a comparatively smaller number of those among
whom the liability to death is exceptionally great. I have
made allowance for this in estimating the corrected death-rate.
Mortality.
General Mortality.—221 deaths of persons belonging
to the District were registered during the year; 207 of these
were deaths that actually occurred in the District, and 14 were
deaths in public institutions without the District. Of these
deaths 124 were of females and 97 were of males.
The Recorded General Death-rate is, therefore, 12.2,
as against 127 in the preceding year. This ordinary deathrate,
however, cannot be taken as a true index of the
conditions affecting the healthiness of the population, nor can
it be justly compared to the rates of other districts, unless
some allowance is made for the relative proportions of persons
of different ages and sexes in the districts compared. Obviously
since—apart from health influences—the number of young
children and old people in the community will always influence
the death-rate, and since the death-rate varies among the two
sexes at different periods of life, any comparison of death-rates
which does not take these facts into consideration might be
most deceiving. For the purpose of making a just comparison,
therefore, it is necessary to correct the recorded death-rate by
means of a factor which is arrived at, just after census returns
are available, from a comparision of the proportions of each
sex at each age-period which exist in the different sanitary
areas with those proportions which exist in England and