View report page

REPORT
FOR THE QUARTER TERMINATING 30tli MARCH, 1861.
Gentlemen,
The Report which I have now the honor to lay before you
comprises a return of the births and deaths in the Whitechapel District, the number
and classification of the cases of sickness that have come under the care of the
Medical Officers of the Union, and a statement of the sanitary improvements effected
in the quarter, terminating on Saturday, the 30th March.
The number of births registered in the district is 712, viz., 362 males and
350 females. These numbers are in the proportion of 103 of the former to 100 of
the latter. The deaths, including those of the non-residents (57), are 700. Of that
number, 379 are males, and 321 females, which is in the proportion of 118 to 100.
The excess in the number of deaths of males over that of females, may be accounted
for by the larger number of the deaths of males in the London Hospital ; the deaths
of males in that Institution being 68, and of females only 44.
On comparing the mortality in. this quarter with that of the corresponding
quarter of the previous year, it will be seen that the deaths are less by 34. The
births are also less. The number in this quarter, as stated above, being 712 against
737. The excess of births over deaths is only 12; but if the deaths of the nonresidents
are excluded, then the births have exceeded the deaths by 69. The
proportion of births to deaths varies very considerably in the several registration
districts, as may be seen on referring to Table No. 6, from which it appears that, in
the Artillery, Spitalfields, Whitechapel North, Goodman's Fields, and Aldgate
districts, the births have exceeded the deaths ; while in the districts of Mile End New
Town, and Whitechapel Church, the deaths have exceeded the births. In the former
district the Workhouse is situated, and in the latter the London Hospital. Although
the total number of deaths is less than in the corresponding quarter of 1860, yet the
mortality in some of the districts has considerably increased. Thus, in the subdistrict
of Spitalfields, the deaths have increased from 89 to 121; but in Aldgate
and in Mile End New Town, they have decreased respectively from 89 to 49, and
from 205 to 186. There has not been much variation in the number of deaths in the
other registration districts.
Of the 700 deaths, there were 329, or 47 per cent. under 5 years of age, and
of these, 138 were of infants under the age of twelve months, or in other words, nearly
the half of the total deaths occurs before the population has arrived at the age of