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40
believe prevails in the hamlet of Dulwich, and which
I believe an analysis of the causes of death will confirm,
but I do most distinctly wish it to be understood
that the death-rate alone is a very fallacious test of
healthiness.
The tables which are appended to this report give
full information as to the ages at death and the causes
of death during the year 1871.
The deaths of young children were very numerous:
616 died in their first year, and 379 between
1 and 5, yielding a total of 995, a number amounting
to nearly two-fifths of the entire number of deaths in
the parish. Of this number 7 died in Dulwich, 225
in Camberwell, 409 in Peckham, and 354 in St.
George's. Of course we should expect a much
smaller number of children to die in Dulwich than
in any other of the sub-districts, on account of the
comparative paucity of its population; and in fact
we do find that there is some kind of relation
between the number of children's deaths and the
populations of our sub-districts, inasmuch as the
numbers of such deaths are actually larger as the
respective populations are larger. But the number
of children's deaths are not proportionate to the