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7
to the registrar of the parish or district in which the birth occurred." The
34th section of the same Act enacts, for the still greater security of ensuring
a complete registration of births, that "there shall be produced to the Minister
or other person officiating in the administration of the Sacrament of
Baptism of any child a certificate of the registration of the birth of such child,
and failing such production such Minister or other person shall forthwith
intimate the baptism of such child, with all the information he may have
regarding the birth and parentage of such child, to the registrar of the parish
in which the parents of such child reside." By the 60th section of 26 Vict.,
c. 11, entitled an Act for the registration of births and deaths in Ireland, a
penalty not exceeding 20s. may be inflicted on any of the parties who are
required to give notice of the birth of a child failing to give such notice to the
registrar within 21 days of the birth of such child. Still-born children are
not registered in Great Britain. There is no good reason why still-born
children are not registered in this country. They are registered in France;
and in Paris it appears that the still-births to the living births are 79 to 1000,
and in the whole of France there are 41 to every 1000 living births.
It will be seen on looking at the Return of Deaths (Table 8) that during
the last four years there has been an annual increase in the mortality of the
district, and as there is no reason to suppose that the population has increased
(the number of houses and the population having diminished between the
census of 1851 and 1861, and since the latter period a great many of the then
remaining houses have been taken down) it would appear that sickness and
death have prevailed to a greater extent among us; thus in the year 1860, the
deaths were 2,302, or a weekly average number of 44.2; in 1861, they were
2,331, or a weekly average of 44.8; in 1862, they were 2,551, or a weekly
average of 49; and in 1863, they were 2,764, or a weekly average of 52.1.
The deaths in 1863 are only 14 less than they were in 1849 when the
cholera prevailed. The deaths in London in the above mentioned years
were respectively 61,821, or 2.26 per cent. of the population; 65,001, or 2.32
per cent.; 66,950, or 2.34 per cent.; and 72,346, or 2.45 per cent. These
calculations are made upon the estimated increase of the population, which in
London is 1.73 per cent. annually.
The birth rate for this district is 3.54 per cent.; in London it is 3.37 per
cent., and for the whole of England it is the same as that for the Whitechapel
District, viz., 3.54 per cent. In the City of London it is 2.63 per cent. of the
population.
The death rate, excluding all the deaths in the London Hospital, is 29.5 in
every 1000, or 1 in 34 of the population. If the deaths of the non-residents
only are deducted, then the rate of mortality in this district is 32.4 per 1000.
The death rate for the whole of England in 1863 was 23.1 in every 1000, in
London it was 24.5, and in the City of London it was 25.1 per 1000. The
average death rate in England during the preceding 10 years was 22.1, in
London 23.3, and in the City of London it was 24.3 per 1000 of the inhabitants.