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diminished mortalities : here, also, mast of the changes were not
peculiar to the years 1889-90, but were parts of a change that
had 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, the varieties of " fever," diseases of the nervous system,
diseases of the respiratory system, and the aggregate of " other
causes." "This persistency of decrease," as 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." It will have been
observed that the diminution in respect of all the causes named
was maintained in 1890, with the single exception of the diseases
of the respiratory system, which, in place of a diminution of 4376
in 1889, shew an excess of 2143 in 1890, a difference of no fewer
than 6519 deaths. Measles, again, and whooping-cough, which
in 1889 shewed a diminution of 278 and 1406 deaths respectively,
shew an excess of 664 and 193 in 1890. The diminution, moreover,
in respect of scarlet fever and " fever," in 1890, was considerably
less than in 1889, the net result being that 1890 was in
point of mortality an average year, the decimal in the nominal
death rate of 20.3 corresponding to the deaths accounted for by
the inclusion in the London mortality, this year, for the first time,
of the deaths of Londoners (1502 in number) that occurred in
certain institutions outside the area of Registration London, viz.,
the Lunatic and Imbecile Asylums. The death-rate in " Greater
London," which is co-extensive with the Metropolitan and City
Police districts, was as high as 19.4 per 1000, the rate in the four
preceding years having been 19.3, 18.9, 17.8, and 16'8. The
deaths, however, properly belonging to the Outer Ring, as distinguished
from Inner or Registration London, were equivalent to
a rate of only 16'5 per 1000 of a population slightly exceeding
1,200,000. But the excess in the death-rate from the principal
zymotic diseases was proportionately greater in the Outer Ring
than in Inner London, for while the rate in Inner London was
2.73 per 1000, and not more than 5.l per cent. above the mean