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used the form advocated by the Registrar-General for that purpose.
Reference to the Table alluded to will indicate the total deaths for
London and for the Whitechapel District residents, as well as the
names of the diseases with the numbers attached ; information which
I trust will prove useful for present and future reference. We thus
find that our district has a mortality at the rate of 18.9 per 1000 per
annum against that for London of 19.4 per 1000. It will indicate
also that, whilst the death-rate of London from the chief zymotic
diseases for London is equivalent to an annual rate of 2.6 per 1000, the
death-rate for the Whitechapel District from the same class of diseases
is only 1.6 per 1000. I have only to remind you that the estimated
population of London is nearly 58 times that of the estimated population
of the Whitechapel district, and a key is at once forthcoming
whereby a useful comparison can be readily instituted for any
disease, or class of diseases, between London and our own district.
In that class of diseases called " Constitutional," amongst which
appear those diseases often brought about or increased by impure air
and overcrowding, the Whitechapel district compares favorably with
the metropolitan statistics. From a general inspection of the tables
under consideration, it would appear, that where the district deaths
are comparatively greater than the London deaths, as in croup,
bronchitis, pleurisy, dentition, &c., the diseases are exactly those
which, through ignorance or carelessness, would probably be negledted
in the early stage, when treatment could have availed.
Again, a comparison of the district infant mortality with that for
London, proves, that while of the children born in London one in
about 7 survives the first year of its existence, and one in about 4
lives to the age of five years ; in the Whitechapel District one child
in about 8 survives the first year, and one in 5 attains the age of
5 years. In London, the infants who died under one year equalled
23.19 per cent. of the resident deaths, and 13.5 per cent. of the
registered births. The deaths of children under 5 years of age
equalled 42.18 per cent. of the total deaths. In the district, the
infants dying under one year of age, equalled 23.7 per cent. of the
deaths, and 12.2 per cent. of the births; whilst the deaths which took
place under the age of 5 years equalled 38.8 per cent. of the total
deaths.
The remaining columns of the same table exhibit the cases of
sickness attended upon new orders by the District Medical Officers,
and also the cases admitted into the Union Infirmary. It is necessary