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TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH,
BEING FOR THE YEAR 1879.
To the Vestry of the Parish of St. Mary Abbotts, Kensington.
Gentlemen,
I propose in the present report, as in previous reports, to place
before you the vital statistics for the registration year. In 1879, this
period, comprising 53 weeks, came to an end on the 3rd January,
1880. The ordinary sanitary statistics will be compiled for the
parochial year, which terminated on the 25th March, 1880: other
subjects calling for notice, will be dealt with as occasion may
require.
The year 1879, judged by the rate of mortality, was somewhat
above an average year.
The population, estimated to July, was 156,250, an increase of
2,650 over 1878. As the population increases every year, we
might expect an increase, yearly, in the number of deaths. But in
some years, the rate of mortality is above, as in others it is below,
the decennial average, which is made the standard of comparison.
Thus the year 1877, exceptional for a rate much below the average,
was followed by a year in which the rate was above the average. In
the year just ended, the rate again fell below the average, though not
to the low point touched in 1877.
BB