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Kensington. The death-rate in England and Wales, 19.2, shews
an increase of 1.8 per 1000 compared with that of 1889 (17.9),
which, with the single exception of 1888, when the rate was
17.8, was the lowest recorded in any year since civil registration
began, in 1837. It was 1.1 below the rate in London, and
3.1 above the rate in Kensington.
The subjoined table shews the annual death-rate per 1000
persons living, in each of the last eleven years in Kensington, in
London as a whole, and in all England :—
1890.1889. 1888. 1887. 18S6. 1885. 1884. 1883. 1882. 1881. 1880.
Kensington 161 135 15.9 16.4 15-9 161 151 15-5 16.2 16.6 17.8
London 20 3 17.4 18.5 19.6 19.9 19.8 20.4 20-5 21-3 21.3 21.7
W. Districts 192 17.0 18.3 19.0 19.0 19.2 19.2 19.5 19-8 19.6 19-8
North „ 181 15-7 16.6 17.8 IS.0 18-5 19.0 19.0 19.6 20.6 20.8
Central „ 29.6 241 25.7 261 25.4 24"4 24.9 241 241 23.5 23.8
East „ 24-0 20-2 21.8 22-5 23.2 22.5 22.9 241 25.2 24.2 243
South „ 185 16-6 17-2 18.6 191 18-5 19.7 19-5 20.6 20.5 21.3
England & Wales 19.2 17.9 17.8 18.8 19.3 19.0 19 5 19-5 19.6 18.9 20.5
The year 1890 stands out in marked contrast, and disadvantageously
as we shall see, not only with 1889, but also with
several previous years, the death-rate having been the highest
recorded since 1884. The increased mortality, and an unusual
prevalence of sickness, were due beyond question to the epidemic,
or the causes of the epidemic of Influenza, to which reference
will be made later on. The London death-rate had been declining
yearly since 1884 until 1889 when it reached the lowest point
ever recorded. The Registrar-General, in his "Annual Summary
of Births and Deaths, and causes of Death," spoke of that year
as one of " excessively low rates." The marriage rate (16"3)
indeed shewed a slight recovery from the rate of 1888 (16.1), the
lowest on record, but the birth rate (30.3) was the lowest ever
recorded in London, the rate moreover having fallen continuously
year after year since 1876. Nevertheless, in 1889, the excess of
births over deaths, or the natural increment, was 55,804, though
it had averaged only 51,772 in the four immediately preceding
years; so that the decline in the birth-rate was more than