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9
approximate in their standard of health to the average which is
deduced for the whole of London. In the western districts
the mortality was 2-097 per cent., in the northern 2-069, in the
central 2-193, in the whole of London 2-178, in the eastern districts
2-286, in the southern districts 2-211. The lowest death
rate was in the northern districts, where it was only 2-069 per
cent,; and the death rate of Camberwell, not allowing for
increase of population, was but little in excess of that, namely
2-16 per cent.—a rate about equal to that of the whole of
London, and superior to that of the group of eastern and the
group of southern districts. But in deducing these rates, the
Registrar General has allowed for increase of population, and
he has calculated the rate of increase of the several groups of
districts, and of London, according to their respective rates of
increase between the last two censuses. Calculated on this
principle, I have shown that the death rate of Camberwell
during the last year was 1-9 only, less therefore than the
healthiest of the groups with which I have compared it. In
the northern districts 20 persons died in a 1000, in Camberwell
19 died in a 1000.
Again, let us compare the Camberwell death rates, which I
have deduced for the years 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, and 1855,
with the death rates for the whole of London, and for the five
groups of districts, during the corresponding years. An examination
of table Y demonstrates that thrice during the Jive
years, namely in 1851, 1852, and 1855, the mortality of Camberwell
was lower than the mortality of all London, and of all its
groups of districts, including the northern and western which
usually rank the healthiest. And the probability that this is no
fallacious estimate is enhanced by the fact that the year 1851,
in which the number of inhabitants comprised in the several
districts was accurately determined, and in which, therefore,
the death rate could be accurately calculated, was itself a
year in which the comparative healthiness of Camberwell was
manifest. In 1853, Camberwell appears to have been comparatively
healthy also, but in that year the death rate was
higher than those of the northern and western districts, and in
1854, it rose to such a height as to exceed the death rates
of all the districts except the south. How was this ? In the
latter part of the year 1853, cholera had appeared in London,