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pensated by the still greater decline in mortality. The deathrate
(17.4) was by far the lowest recorded in London; the four
next lowest rates, moreover, were those in the four immediately
preceding years 1885-6-7-8, when the figures were respectively
19.8, 19.9, 19.6, and 18.5. In 1890 there was a still further, if
slight, increase in the marriage rate, to 16.6 per 1000, but the
birth-rate continued to fall, being so low as 29.1 per 1000, while
the death-rate rose to 20.3, a higher rate than in any year since
1884, when it was 20.4. The birth-rate being so low and the
death-rate so high, the excess of births over deaths or natural
increment of the population was only 39,447, or 16,357 fewer
than in 1889.
The Registrar-General, as usual, has prepared a table shewing
diminution or excess of deaths in 1890, compared with annual
deaths in 1880-89, corrected for increase of population, from
which we learn that there was a marked diminution in the number
of deaths from small-pox (674), scarlet fever (838), "fever"
(304), and diarrhoeal diseases (679). There was a diminution
also in deaths, among other causes, from phthisis and tubercular
diseases (539), diseases of the nervous system (172), and " all
other causes " (556); the total diminution being 3762, against
14,720 in 1889. On the other hand there was an excess under
several heads—viz., measles (664), whooping-cough (193), diphtheria
(355), cancer (349), premature birth (222), diseases of
the circulatory system (1293), diseases of the respiratory system,
including croup (2143), and diseases of the urinary system (89).
The diminution being deducted from the excess a balance of
excess and diminution shews a net excess of 1546 in 1890,
against a net diminution of 13,224 in 1889. This saving of life
in 1889 was very unequally distributed among the several causes,
and there were four headings under which the mortality was in
excess, viz., diphtheria, cancer, premature birth, and diseases of
the circulatary organs. These headings had shewn similar excess
in each of the six preceding years, and they shew it again
in 1890, Similarly with regard to the diseases which shew
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