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authority, as is done now in respect of the medical certificate of the
cause of death for registration. This is the plan recommended by the
Society of Medical Officers of Health, and it is I believe the course
adopted in those boroughs where under Local Acts, the disclosure of
such cases has already been enforced. Having regard to the relations
of doctor and patient, it is useless to expect that the desired information
will be at all generally given by medical men until it is made their
duty as law-abiding citizens, to supply it; and even then the exaction
should be made as little onerous as possible, whether or not the public
service thus rendered by the giving of such certificates is recognized
by the payment of a suitable fee.
POPULATION, INHABITED HOUSES, &c.
The population of the parish estimated to the 1st of July, 1878, was
153,600, the increase for the year being 2,600, viz., 1,500 the natural
growth, representing the excess of births over deaths; the remaining
1,100 being due to immigration. The estimate of population is based
on the number of inhabited houses (19,719—an increase of 389 in the
year) multiplied by the average number of persons per house (7.8),
ascertained at the last census.
It is almost impossible eight years after a census, and in a parish
which is growing rapidly, though irregularly, to estimate with accuracy
the population of the several registration sub-districts, or the relative
number of the sexes, but, subject to correction at a future date, I shall
assume the population of "Kensington Town" sub-district to be
114,10 ), and that of "Brompton" 39,500; also that the males (whole
parish) number 62,520, and the females 91,030—an excess of the
gentler sex of not less than 28,560. The subjoined table shows the
relative numbers of the sexes, in groups of ages, at the census, 1871.