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Report on the Deaths Diseases of St. Giles
IN 1857,
And the Sanitarp Operations of the Dear
Chapter I.—Examination of the Mortality from all causes in the whole District.
This enquiry resolves itself into five chief heads:—
(1) The Death-rate of the District for the Year.—(2) The Death-rate, according
to Sexes and Ages.—(3) The relative Fatality of the Four Seasons.—
(4) Comparison of the Death-rate of St. Giles with that of other Districts.
—(5) Comparison of the present Mortality of St. Giles, with that of past
Years.
(1) The whole number of deaths registered in St. Giles, in 1857, was 1,466.
Five deaths, however, were registered twice over, so that 1,461 will be adopted as the
true number; the error, however, produces no material difference. This number
represents a mortality of 27 for every 1,000 inhabitants. It has been shewn, however,
in the first part of this report, that many St. Giles patients die in the hospitals of other
districts, while St. Giles itself does not record deaths among strangers in return. By
examining the death register of several hospitals, I have collected 90 deaths, which
must be added to avoid this source of fallacy. The distribution of the deaths in the
various hospitals is shown in Table I. of the Appendix. The total mortality is therefore
brought up to 1,551, or 28 ½ per 1,000.
(2) Of the 1,461 deaths 736 were males, and 725 females, giving a death-rate
of—for the males, 1½ above—and for the females, 1½ per 1,000 below the mean. This
preponderance of deaths among males is an established law of mortality.
The ages of the 1,461 persons who died in St. Giles in 1857, averaged only
26 years. Of this number, 151 died before they were three months old, and 181
others before the age of one year. Between one and two years 195 more children died,
making a total of 527 out of the whole 1,461 who died before their second birthday.
If to these are added those who died between two and five years, there is a total