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there were 314 deaths, or less by 2 than those recorded in the
former returns. In Peckham were registered 434 deaths, an
excess of 18. In the Workhouse (Table 2) exactly the same
number of deaths, 73, occurred in 1857 as occurred in 1856;
but in the Lunatic Asylums (Table 2) they mounted from 87 in
the former year to 126 in the latter. Dulwich, therefore, presents
still an absolutely small mortality as well as a comparatively
low death rate; while in each of the other districts the specific
mortality remains comparatively high. Yet the mortality even
of Dulwich is, I fear, higher than it should be, for half of its
deaths occurred in children under 5, and 5 deaths were the
result of diarrhœa. In the remaining 4 divisions of the parish
the infantile mortality, and that due to zymotic diseases, were
not in the aggregate different to what they were in the previous
year. In Camberwell, 45 deaths were assigned to diseases of
the latter class; in Peckham, 67; and in St. George's, 42.
Scarlet fever has been most prevalent in Peckham; small pox
in Camberwell; measles in St. George's ; and hooping cough in
Peckham and St. George's. The health of the inmates of the
Workhouse has been good, and the deaths within its walls have
been for the most part due to other than zymotic causes. And
the same, in spite of the increase in the number of deaths,
holds good with regard to the Asylums.
Yet, notwithstanding the comparative healthiness which
has prevailed throughout the length and breadth of the parish,
any skilled eye glancing over the mortality tables will observe,
that a considerable number of the deaths might have been prevented—that
some were produced by causes which admit of
removal, and that others occurred in the course of diseases, the
fatality of which by proper precautions may be obviated.