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18
life, as there were 13 deaths in the temperate against 35 in the
colcl period. It is, therefore, very evident that persons of all
ages should adopt the greatest precautions possible against cold
when the weather is very severe; that the weakly and aged
should not. be unnecessarily exposed to it, for the purpose of
hardening the young and keeping up the strength of the old.
That good fires, plenty of food, and warm clothing should be used
in cold weather by all who can afford to obtain them. I would
especially impress upon School Masters and School Mistresses
who have the care of large numbers of children, many of whom
arrive at school cold and probably wet, the necessity of keeping
up good fires in cold weather, and of allowing those who are wet
to dry their clothes and especially their boots and shoes.
As the whole of the deaths of inhabitants of this district
which have occurred in the Small Pox and Fever Hospitals are
now registered amongst the deaths, and as the mortality in the
City of London Union and German Hospital about counterbalances
the proportionate number of deaths in the Hospitals of
London, I have not deemed it necessary to make any alterations
in the number of deaths as a correction for deaths in other
Hospitals of the Metropolis. I therefore assume the true
number of deaths to have been 2799, although 102 deaths
happened in the German Hospital and 44 in the City of London
Union. If these 166 deaths of non-residents had been eliminated
as they generally arc in other districts, the death rate would have
been much smaller than what I calculate it to have been, viz.:
203 per 10,000 inhabitants against 218 for the whole of the
Northern Districts and 226 for all London. This is a small
average considering the great vicissitudes of weather during the
year, but it would not have been so small if the number of deaths
from epidemic diseases had not also been exceptionally small.
The rate of births to deaths was extremely high, so that altogether
we may conclude the health of the district to have been unusually
good during the year.