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of 697 children, or nearly half, who died before they reached the age of five years.
This infantile mortality was among males more than females, 376 of the former having
died to 321 of the latter, under five years of age. The average age at death of persons
who had passed the age of 5, was 49 years.
The same facts may be put in a simpler form, as follows:—of 1,000 persons
who died in St. Giles, 360 were below the age of two years, and 477 below five; 191
of the 360 were males, and 169 females; or of those who were under five years when
they died, 257 were males, and 219 females.
It is essentially at these first periods of life, that the mortality among males is
in excess of the females, so that the extra number of male children born is wholly
destroyed in the course of a year or two, and the balance is thenceforth in favor of the
females, as has been shown in the preceding General Report.—[See also Table II. of
Births in 1857, Appendix.]
Four cases of extreme old age are recorded in the past year, they were all
among females; two were above 90, and two others above 95, at the time of death.
The mortality at different ages, from each disease, is fully shown in Table III. of
the Appendix.
(3) The 1,461 deaths were distributed as follows:—393 in the first quarter,
338 in the second, 325 in the third, and 405 in the last quarter of the year,—the
last quarter comprising 14 weeks, the others 13 weeks each. In the order of their
fatality, these seasons follow the law, which always obtains in England in the absence
of any special epidemic disease, the spring or winter being the worst, and the autumn
the most healthful. [Appendix, Table IV.]
The cold seasons are, of course, most fatal to the old; of 21 persons of the age
of 85 and upwards, 7 died in the two warm quarters, and 14 in the two cold ones. At
the other extreme of life, in infancy, the seasons had but little effect on the total
mortality.
(4) Important as it would be to know the exact position of St. Giles, among
all the metropolitan districts, in regard of its mortality, an investigation of this extent
with all the necessary precautions against error, would be impossible for any one man
to undertake. I have therefore only attempted the comparison of St. Giles with the
five districts immediately surrounding it, and with the Metropolis generally. Three of
these five districts, Holborn, the Strand, and St. Martin's, bear considerable resemblance
to St Giles, in their predominant features, while St. Pancras, and St. Marylebone
present several advantageous differences over St. Giles.
The Metropolis being made up of good and bad together, would be expected
to hold an intermediate position, as regards its death-rate, between these two groups of
districts.
In making this comparison, one finds that a considerable disturbing influence
arises from the existence of hospitals in one district and not in another, and from the
workhouse of one parish being placed in the middle of some neighbouring parish. It is
plain that this error must be got rid of, before the registered death-rate can become an
exponent of the real mortality of a district.