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74
"found dead," 1; sundry, 4. It is probable that a large proportion
of illegitimate children are brought up by hand-feeding and
not by the mothers themselves: the evidence of improper feeding,
and of the want of maternal care, is sufficiently apparent in the
above list of diseases.
At sixty years of age and upwards there were 612 deaths—44
fewer than in 1880—equal to 22'4 per cent. on total deaths, the
equivalent proportion in all London being 20'8 per cent.
It may be here mentioned, by way of comparison, that the death
rate in the Metropolis being 21.2, the rate in the male sex was 23.2,
and in the female sex 19.4 per 1,000. There died 47.2 persons
to every 1,000 living, and there were 105.5 deaths of males to
every 100 of females. "Only once since civil registration began,"
says the Registrar-General, "had a lower death rate than 21.2 been
recorded in the Metropolis, viz., in 1850, when the rate was 21.0.
The mean annual rate in the immediately preceding decennium
(1871-80) was 22.5. Had the mortality been at this rate, 4,849
would have died in the course of the year who, as it was, were alive
at its close."
The Registrar-General states that the rate of mortality in the
19 great provincial towns, the aggregate population of which is
slightly below that of London, was 22.2 per 1,000. Brighton had
the lowest rate, 19.0, and Manchester and Liverpool the highest,
25.5 and 26.7 respectively. In other 50 towns the average death
rate was 19.6 per 1,000, ranging from 14.2 in Reading, to 24.6
at Merthyr Tydfil.
The rate of infantile mortality varies widely in provincial towns.
The deaths of infants under one year in the 19 towns (average)
were equal to 15.6 per cent. on the registered births, ranging from
11.9 at Portsmouth to 20.2 at Leicester. The average rate was
14.0 per cent. in the fifty towns, ranging from 9.6 at Shrewsbury
to 18.3 at Blackburn. These wide variations in the rate of infant
mortality were as usual mainly governed by the fatal prevalence
or otherwise of diarrhœa.