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I may further add that the better is the health of the people the more
advanced will be their moral and intellectual condition; drunkenness will
be diminished, self-respect will be engendered, and the prosperity of the
nation advanced. How important therefore is it that the public health
should receive the first consideration at the hands of the legislature; and in
order that the laws required for the preservation of public health should
with authority be promulgated, it is necessary to appoint a Minister of
Public Health, to whom should be intrusted such powers as would enable
him effectually by the aid of skilled inspectors, to promote such measures
as are calculated to advance the sanitary condition of the people.
The number of births registered in this District during the year has
been 2658, and the deaths 2430, including those of non-residents in the
London Hospital (469). In the preceding year the births were 2751 and
the deaths 2506, including those of 567 non-residents.
The deaths in the "Workhouse have been 350, against 315 for the
previous year; and the deaths in the London Hospital 671 against 728.
The population of the District, at the taking of the last census, was
76,573 ; which is 2397 less than when the census was taken in 1861.
The deaths being (excluding 469 of non-residents) 1961, the rate of
mortality has been, during the year, 25.6 per 1000, or 1 in 39.0 of all
living. The rate of mortality during the preceding year was 25.2 per 1000,
or 1 in 39.6 of all living.
In making a comparison, however, of the rate of mortality of this
District with that of those in which there is no hospital, the total deaths in
the London Hospital must be eliminated, which this year, as before stated
amount to 671. This gives a rate of mortality of 22.9 per 1000.
Deaths eeom Epidemic Diseases.
Of the total deaths recorded in this District during the year, there were
269 from epidemic diseases, viz.: 11 from small-pox, to which must be added
12 which occurred in the Asylum Hospital, thus making a total of 23; 32 from
measles, 24 from scarlet-fever and diphtheria, 84 from hooping-cough, 89
from diarrhoea, and 33 from fever, including 4 which occurred in Hospital.
In the first quarter of this year the deaths from small-pox were 13,
including 6 which occurred in Hospital; in the second quarter there
were 7, including 4 in Hospital; in the third quarter 3, 2 of which
occurred in Hospital; and in the present quarter not a single death
occurred either in the District or in Hospital. The total deaths from
small-pox, including the 12 which took place in Hospital during the year
in this District, containing a population of 76,573, was 23.