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The table proves that male children die at a greater rate
from diseases of all kinds than females; that the proportion of
deaths of females to males is greater in London than in all
England, in all classes of disease except tubercular affections
and diseases of the digestive organs. It also shows that if a
male child is attacked with a disease of the nervous system he
is likely to die from it, as compared with a female, as 100
chances are against 79, and if with other diseases, at the rate
set out in the table against each class of disease. It is, therefore,
necessary to exercise, if possible, more care in feeding, bringing
up, and watching male than female children, in order to
counteract the greater tendency to death which exists in the
male child.
The greater vitality of the female sex is indicated equally
as strongly in advanced as in early life, as the tables show that
4530 females in this district lived to 65 years and upwards
against 3095 males, or at the rate of 146 females to every 100
males. Now as at the census of 1861 there were only 129
females of all ages to each 100 males of all ages, it is quite
evident that there must have been an excessive mortality of
males at ages below 65 as compared with females. The
difference is also shown even to a greater extent at the most
advanced ages, as 572 females lived to 85 years and above,
whilst only 241 males lived to such an extended period of
human existence. Further, there were only 10 males to 36
females who lived for more than 95 years.