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fever, which is most fatal at the middle period of existence, the time when the life of man is the
most valuable to his family and to society. Although there is a diminution in the rate of
mortality of young children over the whole district, yet, in the sub-district of Goodman's
Fields, the deaths of children under 5 years are 25 out of 46 or 54.8 per cent. A striking
difference is observed in the number of deaths in some of the registration sub-districts when
compared with that of the corresponding quarter of last year; thus, in the Spitalfields subdistrict
the present return of deaths is only 76 against 121. In the Goodman's Fields it is
reduced from 74 to 46. In both of these sub-districts the births have very little varied; in the
former they have increased from 143 to 149, and in the latter have decreased from 111 to 100.
The diminished number of births and deaths recorded in the Goodman's Fields sub-district
may be accounted for by the population having been reduced in consequence of the taking
down of more than of 60 houses for the extension of the Blackwall Railway.
While the total number of deaths in this quarter is considerably less than in the
corresponding three months of last year, (the weekly average being 49.2 against 53.8,) the
mortality from epidemic diseases has increased from 83 to 108, of which number, 53* or 49
per cent. are from fever. The week in which the greatest number of deaths from epidemic
diseases was registered, was in that ending March 15th, when out of a total mortality of 54
there were 11 deaths from epidemic diseases, of which, 10 were from fever. Small-pox has
declined from 13 to 3, measles from 16 to 10, hooping-cough from 26 to 22, diarrhoea from 7
to 3, while scarlet fever and diphtheria have increased from 13 to 16, and fever from 8 to 53.
The deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs have decreased from 174 to 142, the
mortality from consumption has increased from 61 to 78. Croup was fatal to 11 young
persons; six or more than half of these deaths occurred in the sub-district of Aldgate. Disease
of the heart proved fatal to 24. Three deaths are attributed to privation, 20 died from mechanical
injuries, 12 from burns and scalds, two from accidental drowning, and three from suicide—two of
which were from wounds in the throat, the other from taking prussic acid; 10 deaths are registered
as having occurred in children prematurely born, of which number, three were born at a single
birth; the mother is a poor woman residing in Plough Street; one of these children lived six days,
and the other two lived seven days. A Sailor's wife, aged 48, died from lead colic. Two deaths
were caused by stricture of the oesophagus or gullet. A child aged 13 months died from spasm
of the glottis. Two children died from suffocation in bed.
* The deaths from fever during this quarter, although comparatively very numerous, are few when
compared with the number of deaths from this disease iu the corresponding quarter of 1838, when the deaths,
exclusive of those which occurred among the patients who were removed to the Fever Hospital (and these were
very numerous) from this district, and who died in that Institution and whose deaths were recorded in the
Islington sub-district, were 141. The deaths from fever for the last quarter of the year 1837, when according
to the census of 1831 the population was 64,141, were 155, making, with the 141 deaths of the preceding quarter,
a total in six months of 296, or .461 per cent., whereas the deaths from fever during the last six months in a
population of 78,964 were 80, or only .101 per cent., or it may be read thus : in the autumn and winter quarters
of 1837 and 1838, 46 in 10,000 died from fever, while in the corresponding quarters of 1861 and 1862 only 10
in 10,900 died from the same disease. The annual death rate per cent. from all causes in this district, excluding
the deaths in the London Hospital, in the two and a half years ending 31st December, 1839 was 3,552, whereas
in the four quarters terminating 30th December, 1861, it was only 2,488 per cent. The total deaths in the six
months from 1st July to 31st December, 1837, were 1.450, which is at the annual rate of 4.521 percent. Can any
better proof be afforded of the advantages derived from sanitary improvements which since that time have been
carried out in this district, the rate of mortality being reduced from 45 in 1000 to 24 in 1000 J