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37
It is a well ascertained fact that more boys
are born than girls, but that owing mainly to the
greater mortality among boy-children than among
girl-children, the females of a population considerably
outnumber the males. It is interesting, in the light
of these facts, to examine the returns of our births
and deaths. We find in them, in accordance with
general experience, that the births of boys are more
numerous than those of girls, and this not only in
the parish as a whole, but in each one of its subdistricts;
but we find also, contrary to general experience,
that the female mortality is considerably in
excess of that of males. It is, I need scarcely say,
quite obvious from this that the great preponderance
of females over males in the population of our parish,
must be due either to the constant secession of a considerable
number of our males, or to the constant
addition to our female population from without, or
to a concurrence of these two conditions. As I
have already remarked, my belief is that this great
inequality in the number of the sexes is largely due
to the immigration among us of female servants. But
it must not be forgotten that this excess of females
over males necessarily influences favourably the
mortuary rates, and that in this respect Dulwich is
much more favourably placed than any other part of