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TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OE HEALTH,
Being for the Year 1876.
To the Vestry of the Parish of St. Mary Abbotts, Kensington.
Gentlemen,
I propose in the present report, as on former occasions,
to place before your Vestry the vital statistics for the registration
year, which in 1876 terminated on the 30th December. The ordinary
sanitary statistics will be compiled as usual for the 52 weeks
ended 25th March, 1877, the close of the Vestry year. Other
subjects of interest will be dealt with as occasion may seem to
require.
The year 1876, judged by the rate of mortality, may be considered
an average year in a sanitary point of view. The deaths,
including those of non-parishioners in public institutions, were
2,896, an increase of 110 upon the number registered in 1875,
as the number registered in 1875 was an increase of 90 upon the
number registered in 1874. But as the population increases rapidly
year by year, so necessarily must the gross number of deaths. Between
July, 1874, and the same period of 1875, the estimated increase
in population was 5,500; and to the middle of 1876 a further estimated
increase of 4,500 occurred, raising the total to 148,000.
The deaths registered (2,896) were equivalent to 19.5 per 1,000
living, exactly the decennial average rate ; but if the deaths of
non-parishioners in the Brompton Hospital for Consumption and
Diseases of the Chest (109), and the deaths that took place at St.
Joseph's House, Notting Hill (36), be deducted, the rate falls to
18.6 per 1,000. A certain number of parishioners, however, die
away from their homes, and it seems only fair, therefore, in comparing
the parochial with the Metropolitan rate of mortality, to
allow for these deaths, and hence, in all the statistics that follow,
the death of non-parishioners within the parish, will be retained as
a compensatory allowance for the deaths of parishioners beyond the
limits of the parish. Calculating the death-rate in Kensington,
then, at 19.5 per 1,000, it will be seen by the subjoined statement
that the parish still retains its favourable position:—
Death-rate 1876. 1875. 1874. 1873.
Kensington 19.5 19.4 19.5 18.3 per 1,000
London 22.3 23.7 22.5 22.5 „
West Districts 21.0 22.1 20.9 20.5 „
North 21.4 22.3 21.8 21.2 „
Central 24.0 26.0 25.6 25.0 „
East 24.0 25.5 25.4 25.2 „
South 22.1 24.0 21.5 22.0 „