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SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT,
For the ending 27th December, 1862.
Gentlemen,
In conformity with my "usual practice at this season of
tlie year, I submit to you, in addition to my Quarterly Report, a statement of
the sickness and mortality of the District during the year terminating on the
27th December, 1862, a period embracing fifty-two weeks.
It appears, from the official returns, that in the last quarter of the year the
total number of births was 721, viz., 367 males and 354 females; and the
deaths 670, viz., 355 males and 315 females. The Sub-Districts, in which the
births have exceeded the deaths, are the Artillery, Spitalfields, Whitechapel
North, and Goodman's Fields, while in the Sub-Districts of Mile End New
Town, Whitechapel Church, and Aldgate, the deaths have exceeded the births.
The total mortality in this quarter far exceeds that of any of the corresponding
quarters of the preceding six years, the average mortality in each of which
is 567, while in the quarter now under consideration the mortality is 670, or
103 in excess of such average, or at the rate of 8 per week. In the corresponding
quarter of last year the total mortality was 556, the increase in the
mortality, therefore, of this quarter over that of the corresponding one of last
year is 114, which is an increase on an average of 8.7 per week; and, as we
have no reason to believe that the population has increased, we are led to the
conclusion that the season has been unusually unhealthy. The greatest mortality
(65) occurred in the week ending November 15th, when for that week
the mean temperature of the air was 37.3°, which is a very low temperature for
this period of the year and may account for the excess of mortality. The mean
temperature of the air for the quarter was 45.6°, and for the corresponding
quarters of the four preceding years it was respectively 44.0°, 43.1°, 42.8°,
and 46.4°. All parts of London appear, from the Registrar General's Report,
to have suffered equally with Whitechapel a larger amount of mortality; the
deaths in the entire metropolis having increased from 15,866 for the quarter
ending Christmas, 1861, to 17,717 for the corresponding quarter of 1862.
The chief causes of death have been diseases of the epidemic class; 169
persons having fallen victims thereto. The returns show that 17 died from
small-pox (six of whom had not been vaccinated; of the others there is no