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small-pox (1,132), scarlet fever (518), whooping cough (261),
and " fever " (461), and an excess from measles (459), diphtheria
(180), and diarrhoeal diseases (478). There was a diminution
in deaths, among other causes, from phthisis and tubercular
diseases (2,015), diseases of nervous system (929), diseases of
respiratory system, including croup (1,834), and "all other
causes " (1,843), the total diminution being 9,198. On the other
hand, there was an excess under several heads—viz., cancer
(302), premature birth (197), diseases of circulatory system
( 708), diseases of urinary system (192), and suicide (22). The
excess (2,538) being deducted from the diminution, a balance of
diminution and excess shows a net diminution of 6,660. It is
shown further that as regards cancer, premature birth, diseases
of the circulatory system, and diseases of the urinary system,
the increased mortality has been continuous for some years, not
in London only, but throughout the country generally. The
increased fatality from diarrhoeal diseases is " attributable to the
long spell of hot weather in the third or summer quarter, in
which the mean temperature was 10.1 above the average
for the ten years 1877-86." So with regard to the diseases
which show diminished mortalities; here, also, most of the
changes are not peculiar to the year 1887, but are parts of a
change that has been going on for a considerable time, for, in
regard to the thirteen causes named, " there are no fewer than
ten under which there was also a diminution in each of the four
next preceding years—viz., under scarlet fever, typhus, simple
continued fever, enteric fever, phthisis and tubercular diseases,
diseases of the nervous system, diseases of the respiratory
system, accident, murder, and the aggregate of other causes.
This persistency of decrease,' it is added, " affords fair grounds
for expectation that the diminution under, at any rate, some of
these headings will be permanently maintained."
The death rate in the " Outer Ring " of Suburban Districts
around London, with a population slightly exceeding a million
persons, after correction for the County Lunatic Asylums, " did
not exceed 15.9, against 16.5 in the preceding year." The
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