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credited to the districts from which they came. By this means alone can
reliable data be secured upon which to calculate trustworthy rates of mortality.
"The births registered in London during the year 1887 were 133,075, equal to
an annual rate of 31.7 per 1,000 of the population, estimated at 4,216,192
persons. The London birth-rate has steadily declined, year by year, since 1876,
when it was 35.9 per 1,000, and was lower during the year under notice than in
any year since 1849, when it was also 31.7 per 1,000. In the various sanitary
districts, the birth-rates showed the usual wide variations; owing to the
differences in the age and sex distributions of their populations. In those
districts containing an undue proportion of unmarried females, chiefly domestic
servants, such as Kensington, St. George, Hanover Square, St. James', Westminster,
and Hampstead, the birth-rates are exceptionally low; while in
Fulham, St. Luke's, most of the East districts, and Southwark, where the
population consists largely of young married persons, the birth-rates show a
marked excess.
"The 81,113 deaths registered in London during the year under notice were
equal to an annual rate of 19.3 per 1,000 of the estimated population, which was
lower than in any year since the present system of civil registration was
established in 1837. During the past seven years of the current decade, the
mean death-rate in London has been only 20.4 per 1,000; while it was equal to
24.4 in the ten years 1861-70, and to 22.5 in 1871-80. The recent marked
decline in the London death-rate is to some extent due to the decline in the
birth-rate, which materially diminishes the proportion of young children in the
population. The lowest rates of mortality among the forty sanitary districts
during 1887 were 13.0 in Hampstead, 14.3 in Plumstead, 15.2 in Kensington,
15.9 in Paddington, and 16.0 in Hackney. In the other districts, the rates
ranged upwards to 27.0 in St. George, Southwark, 28.3 iu Holborn, 28.5 in
St. Saviour, Southwark, and 28.7 in St. George-in-the-East. During the year
under notice, 12,627 deaths were referred to the principal zymotic diseases in
London; of these, 3,762 resulted from diarrhoea, 2,928 from whooping-cough,
2,893 from measles, 1,431 from scarlet fever, 951 from diphtheria, 653 from
different forms of fever (including 587 from enteric fever, 48 from ill-defined
forms of continued fever, and 18 from typhus), and 9 from small-pox. These
12,627 deaths were equal to an annual rate of 3.0 per 1,000, which, though
slightly exceeding the rate in 1886, was considerably below the average rate in
the preceding ten years 1877-86.
"The zymotic death-rate during the year 1887, in the various sanitary districts,
did not exceed 2.0 per 1,000 in London City, Hampstead, Paddington,
Lewisham, St. James', Westminster, Plumstead, and St. George, Hanover
Square; while it was equal to 4.2 in Mile End Old Town and in Bermondsey,
4.6 in Fulham, 4.7 in Stepney, 4.8 in St. Saviour, Southwark, 5.2 in St. Georgein-the-East,
and 5.3 in St. George, Southwark. Compared with the preceding
year, the fatality of small-pox, 'fever,' and diarrhoea showed a slight decline,
while that of each of the other zymotic diseases showed an increase. The
mortality from scarlet fever, which last year considerably exceeded that
recorded in either of the two previous years, was yet below the average for the
ten preceding years 1877-86.
"The number of scarlet fever patients under treatment in the Metropolitan
Asylums Hospitals, which had been 496 at the commencement of the year 1887,