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the year 1889, but are parts of a change that has been going on
for a considerable time; for there was also a diminution in each
of the five preceding years in respect of scarlet fever, typhus,
simple and ill-defined fever, enteric fever, diseases of the nervous
system, diseases of the respiratory system, and the aggregate of
"other causes." "This persistency of decrease," the RegistrarGeneral
stated, in his Summary for 1888, " affords good grounds
for believing 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 14.6 per 1000, against 16.5, 15.9, and 15.0 in
the three preceding years. The death-rate in "Greater London,"
which is co-extensive with the Metropolitan and City Police
Districts, was 16.8 per 1000, against 19.3, 18.9, and 17.8 in the
three preceding years.
The death-rate in twenty-seven Cities and Boroughs, having
an aggregate population exceeding five millions, was 19'3 ; ranging
from 15.1 in Brighton, 16.4 in Derby, and 16.9 in Leicester, to
25.5 in Blackburn, 26.7 in Manchester, and 30.0 in Preston,
without correction for differences between one town and another
in regard to the age and sex distribution of their respective
populations. With such correction, Brighton shews a death-rate
of 15.5, Derby 17.0, Blackburn 27.7, Manchester 29.7, and
Preston 32.6.
In twenty-two of the largest foreign European cities, having
an estimated population of more than eleven millions of persons,
the mean rate of mortality was 25.4 per 1000, and exceeded by
6.1 the mean rate in the twenty-eight largest English towns, including
London, having an aggregate population exceeding nine
millions. The lowest rates were 19.4 in Brussels and the
Hague, 20.0 in Stockholm, and 20.1 in Christiania, ranging upwards
to 28'4 in St. Petersburg, 29'3 in Breslau, 29.5 in