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19
It is well to point out, as tending to shew that these estimates
are not altogether fanciful, that in the spring of 1861, when the
census was taken, the population of the Parish was ascertained
to be 71488, and that in the middle of that year, supposing it
to have been still progressive at the same rate by which it had
been increasing during the preceding 10 years, it must have
amounted to 71967, a number which differs by less than 100
from the number estimated upon the births. I may add that
the Registrar General calculates that, for every 100 persons
living in London in 1861, 3.448 children were born, and
that according even to this proportion the population would
still have amounted in the middle of 1866 to 96316. Now if the
population was 100090, the death-rate of the year was 2.048;
if it was 96316 the death-rate was still only 2.13; and even if
we assume the population to have been 90000, the death-rate
did not exceed 2.28.
The annual rates of mortality during 1866 for London and the
5 groups of districts into which it is divided were, according to
the Registrar General's calculations, as follows:—
London. West. North. Central. East. South,
2.647. 2.295 2.531. 2.675 3.396. 2.410.
and he shews that although (owing mainly to the presence of
cholera) the mortality of London, and of most of its groups of
districts, was above the average of former years ; the mortality
of the Western and of the Southern districts was actually (notwithstanding
the presence of that disease) below the average.
In Dulwich there were 66 births and 32 deaths; in Camberwell
852 births and 673 deaths; in Peckham 1318 births
and 740 deaths; and in St. George's 1085 births and 605
deaths. In the sub-district of Camberwell however are contained
the Workhouse, in which 119 deaths took place, and two