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38
the parish, and that Peckham and St. George's are
the greatest sufferers.
But before leaving this subject of the death-rates, it
will be well to point out other circumstances, which,
wholly independent of healthiness or unhealthiness,
exert an influence over them, and tend to exaggerate
the apparent healthiness of Dulwich, and the apparent
unhealthiness of the other districts, and more
especially of Peckham and St. George's. The most
obvious of these is the birth-rate. It is a fact which
has been thoroughly well established, that between
one half and one third of the total number of deaths
occur as a rule to children under 5 years of age, the
majority of these deaths taking place during the
first year; and hence it is obvious that the more
prolific a population is the greater, on that very
account, will its mortuary rate be. Now the birthrate
of the parish during the year 1871 was 3.47
per cent., or, in other words, to every 1000 persons
living 34 children were born; but in Dulwich only
22 children were born to every 1000 persons; while
in Camberwell there were 33, in Peckham 35, and in
St. George's 36. But if the birth-rate in each subdistrict
had been uniform with that of the entire
parish, the births in Dulwich should have been 144