London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1885
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington]
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rate in England and Wales also shows a reduction of 0.6 per 1,000,
as compared with 1884; and, with one exception (18.9 in 1881),
it was the lowest recorded in any year since civil registration was
enacted in 1837.
The subjoined table shows the annual death rate per 1,000 persons living, in each of the last eleven years, in Kensington, in London as a whole, and in all England:—
| Death Rate. | 1885. | 1884. | 1883. | 1882. | 1881. | 1880 | 1879. | 1878. | 1877. | 1876. | 1875. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kensington | 16.1 | 15.1 | 15.5 | 16.2 | 16.6 | 17.8 | 18.8 | 20.2 | 17.3 | 19.5 | 19.2 |
| London | 19.7 | 20.3 | 20.4 | 21.4 | 21.2 | 21.7 | 22.6 | 23.1 | 21.5 | 21.9 | 23.5 |
| W. Districts | 19.2 | 19.2 | 19.3 | 19.9 | 19.6 | 19.8 | 20.9 | 21.6 | 19.2 | 20.9 | 22.2 |
| North „ | 18.5 | 19.1 | 19.1 | 19.7 | 20.6 | 20 8 | 21.5 | 22.0 | 21.5 | 22.1 | 22.1 |
| Central „ | 23.0 | 23.8 | 23.2 | 23.9 | 23.2 | 23.4 | 26.0 | 25.1 | 24.2 | 24.1 | 26.2 |
| East „ | 22.5 | 23.0 | 24.1 | 25.3 | 24.2 | 24.3 | 25.5 | 25.0 | 24.5 | 23.9 | 25.7 |
| South „ | 18.5 | 19.8 | 19.4 | 20.7 | 20.5 | 21.3 | 21.8 | 23.0 | 20.5 | 21.2 | 23.3 |
| England & Wales | 19.0 | 19.6 | 19.5 | 19.6 | 18.9 | 20.5 | 20.7 | 21.6 | 20.3 | 209 | 22.7 |
The Registrar.General in his Annual Summary of Births,
Deaths, and causes of Death in London, says that " the year 1885
was remarkable from a statistical point of view ; for the marriage
rate and the death rate in London were the lowest on record, and
the birth rate the lowest since 1850." The two next lowest death
rates, moreover, "were those recorded in the two immediately
preceding years, 1883 and 1884, when the death rates were 20.5
and 20.4 respectively." In each of these three years "some
small share in producing the low death rate is attributable to the
low birth rate." He adds that "had the deaths in London in
1885 equalled the corrected average annual number in the preceding
decennium, 8,412 persons would have died in the year,
who, as it was, were alive at its close." In a valuable table
appended to the foregoing remarks, the Registrar.General shows
the diminution or excess of deaths in 1885, compared with
annual deaths in 1875.84, from which we learn that there was an
excess in 1885, "under measles, diphtheria, and croup; cancer,
premature birth, diseases of the circulatory system, and diseases
of the urinary organs," while "there was a diminution under
scarlet fever, typhus, enteric fever, simple continued fever,
erysipelas, phthisis, diseases of the nervous system, diseases of
the respiratory organs, murder, and accident."