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REPORT
FOR THE QUARTER ENDING,
The 27th SEPTEMBER, 1862.
Gentlemen,
The total number of deaths in the Whitechapel District
in the quarter terminating on Saturday, 27th September, was 631,* viz., 342
males, and 289 females. The births during the same period were 629, of which
number, 304 were males, and 325 females. From the fact of the number of
deaths having exceeded that of the births, it is probable that many of the latter
have not been registered, and I am led to make this remark by observing that in
the Aldgate Registration Sub-district, the births, as compared with the deaths, are
less by ten, (viz., 64 deaths, 54 births). . This Sub-district is inhabited by a large
number of the laboring class of Irish, the majority of whom are in very poor
circumstances, who gain a very precarious subsistance by working as occasional
laborers in the Docks and by the River Side. At this season of the year, many
entire families residing in this Sub-district leave for the county to seek employment
in the fields and hop grounds. If a birth occur within a short time of the family
leaving home, that birth is seldom registered, and when the family returns, the six
weeks has expired in which the birth of a child can be registered, free of expense,
consequently) the registration of the birth of such child does not take place. During
the other three quarters of the year, the average number of births above that of
deaths during the last six years in the Aldgate sub-district has been 20; whereas at
this season of the year the births generally fall below the deaths. On comparing
the total number of births and deaths during this quarter with that of the corresponding
quarter of 1861, it will be seen, that the births have increased 17 in
number, and the deaths 82. The deaths in the London Hospital were 70, of which,
36 were of non-residents, and 23 were the result of accident.
The chief causes of death during the quarter recently terminated are from
diseases of the epidemic class. These diseases have proved fatal to 209 persons; a
number greater than that in any previous quarter within the last six years. The
nearest approach to this number was in the corresponding quarter of 1859, when
the deaths from epidemic diseases were 201, in which were included 114 from
diarrhoea. In the quarter now under consideration, the mortality from diarrhoea is
* One death (fever) is recorded by mistake in the Aldgate sub-district. This death occurred in the
district of Wapping.