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sumed that, since 1851, its population has gone on augmenting
at a rate not less than that which obtained during the ten years
immediately preceding. And we shall probably be within the
mark, if we calculate that in the ten years which will terminate
in 1861, 15,000 individuals will have been added to
the 54,667 existing at the last census; and that in the five
years which ended on the 31st of March 1856, the population
received an addition of half that number, or 7500. Should
this estimate be correct, the number of human beings dwelling
in the Parish in the spring of last year was about 62,167; and
the mortality of the year, estimated for this amount of population,
becomes 1-9 per cent. only, instead of 2-16 per cent.,
which indicates that 19 only in every 1000 died, instead of 22
in every thousand, which, as I have shown, would have been
the rate had no increase of population taken place.
Comparison of death rate with that of previous years.—By the
same method of computation, the population which was 54,667
in 1851, was 56,167 in 1852, 57,667 in 1853, 59,167 in 1854
and 60,667 in 1855. The deaths in the respective years
were 1203, 1125, 1367, 1980, and 1361, and these, when
calculated according to the estimated population of the years
to which they belong, yield the following series of death rates
per cent., 2-20, 2-00, 2-37, 3-35, and 2-24, every one of which
is higher than the death rate for the year 1856. And hence, it
will be observed, that the past year has been peculiarly healthy,
indeed healthier than any one of the five years immediately preceding
it.
Comparison of death rate with that of other parts of London.—
According to the annual abstract just published by the
Registrar General, it appears that the year 1856 has been
unusually healthy for the whole of London ; and in the superior
healthiness which it manifested, Camberwell would seem to
have shared in a general blessing, and from all that has been
yet shown to have been by no means peculiarly favored. But
let us compare the mortality of other sections of the metropolis,
for the past year, with that of Camberwell. (Table Y.)
London is divided into five groups of districts; the western,
the northern, the central, the eastern, and the southern. Of
these the northern and western enjoy the reputation of being
the most salubrious, the southern and eastern labour under the
imputation of being the least salubrious, while the central