View report page

15
mean annual number of deaths has increased since 1841-50 from
946 to 2,956 in 1871-80, and 3,614 in 1881. In 1856 the
number of deaths registered in Hackney was only 1,508, against
the 3,614 in 1881. The number of births to population has
diminished, having been only 33.9 per 1,000 residents against
35.l last year, and 33.2 in 1873, to which year we must go back
for so small a birth-rate as in 1881. The proportion of deaths
under 1 year to total births is very satisfactory, as it was only
130 per 1,000 births, against 142 in the 10 years 1872-81, 143
in 1861-70, and 128 in 1851-60. As the density of population
increases, the proportion of deaths under 1 year to total births
must be expected to increase slightly, but the year 1881 was
unusually favourable to infantile life, as in all London the
proportion of deaths to 1,000 births was only 148 against 158 in
1871-80. The annual death-rate per 1,000 population was also
low, in spite of the excessive number of deaths from small pox,
measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria and diarrhoea. It is, therefore,
very evident that the presence of an epidemic of one or even
more of these diseases does not, as I have pointed out in former
Reports, exercise so large an influence on our death-rate as the
continuance of excessive cold or heat, or the frequent occurrence
of fogs for a few weeks. Improvements in the sanitary condition
of a locality diminish the death-rate by improving the general
health of the population, and enabling persons to resist, to a
certain extent, the injurious effects of vicissitudes of weather, and
probably the poisons of zymotic diseases. There may, perhaps,
be at present nearly as many attacks of disease, but the power
of resistance being increased, the number of deaths becomes less.
The mean annual death-rate for 1881 was only 19.2 per 1,000
population, after due allowance had been made for the deaths of
residents of the District in hospitals, against a mean of 19.6 in
the 10 years, 1871-80,. 20.4 per 1,000 in 1861-70, and of the
19.14 per 1,000 in 1851-60. The death-rate in all London was
higher, viz. 21.2 per 1.000 population, which shows that
Hackney still retains its superiority for healthiness over most
of the other Metropolitan Parishes and Districts.