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SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH.
Being for the Year 1872.
To the Vestry of the Parish of St. Mary AbbotCs, Kensington.
Gentlemen,
In presenting my Third Annual Report, it affords me
satisfaction to state that the mortality in 1872 was below that of
any former year of which we possess the vital statistics, viz.,
17.17 per 1000 of the population (127,436.) This is but a fraction
above what is considered a healthy rate, viz., 17 per 1000. The
Registrar-General in his annual summary of births, deaths, &c.,
in London and other large towns, furnishes us with a statement
of the death-rate in 50 large towns, including such health-resorts
as Dover, Hastings, Brighton, Bath, Cheltenham, among others,
and in not one of them was the death-rate so low as in Kensington
last year. The nearest approach to it was Hastings 17.80,
and Cheltenham 17.60.' In the other towns named the rate varied
between 20.9 and 25.2 per 1000. In only seven of these 50 town
districts was the death-rate below 20 per 1000. The death-rate
in Kensington was 18.92 in 1871, and in ten years, 1862-71, the
average was 21.42. It is satisfactory to observe that the favourable
state of the public health was general in the Metropolis, the
death-rate last year having been 21.4 per 1000 : the rate in 1871
was 24.6, or almost identical with the average of 10 years. Thus
the improvement in all London, i.e., the reduction in the rate of
mortality, was greater than in Kensington, but then it must be
observed there was much greater room for improvement.
The subjoined table shows the annual rate of mortality in the
several great divisions of the Metropolis and in Kensington during
the year 1872 :—
London 21.4 per 1000
West Districts 19.5 „
North „ 21. L „
Central 23.4 „
East „ 23.5
South . „ 20.7 „
Kensington... 17.1 „