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to "diphtheria;" 32 to "measles;" 57 to "hooping cough;"
34 to "croup;" 2 4 to "erysipelas or puerperal fever;" and
654 to other diseases, chiefly of a chronic character. (Tables I
and II.)
In the first quarter of the year 497 persons died, in the
second quarter 388, in the third quarter 384, and in the fourth
quarter 462. (Table III.)
The number of children born was 2688, of whom 1385 were
boys, 1303 girls ; and of whom 46 were born in Dulwich, 711
in Camberwell, 823 in St. George's and 1108 in Peckham.
(Table IV.)
Such are the bare statistical facts on which I now proceed to
comment.
The Registrar General, in his summary of weekly returns for
1863, shews that the corrected death-rate of the Metropolitan
population for that year was 2.452 per cent; he shows that this
is slightly (.029) above the average of the preceding 24 years,
still more (.89) above the average of the ten years 1850-59,
and that from the year 1860, in which the rate of mortality
was very low (2.249 per cent.) it has gradually increased, until
it attained its present comparatively high figure.
He proceeds to say, "London is divided into five groups of
districts; and the mortality for the year in the West districts
was at the rate of 2.324; in the districts South of the Thames
2.337; in the North districts 2.381. Thus over these great
districts the mortality was nearly uniform, the rate having
slightly exceeded 2.3 in 100. The East districts lost annually
2.655, and the central districts 2.664 in 100 inhabitants. The
mortality of the South group of districts was below its high
average of the previous years."
"The excess of mortality in the year," I still quote the
Registrar General, "is principally due to the zymotic class of
diseases, which killed 13,001 persons in the 52 weeks of 1860,