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41
populations of the sub-districts, for while in Dulwich
they were last year at the rate of 17 in 10000 inhabitants,
in Camberwell they were at the rate of 71 in
10000, in Peckham at the rate of 96, and in St.
George's at the rate of 103. But I have already
pointed out that this would not be a fair way of showing
the relative mortality of the sub-districts as regards
children, inasmuch as the number of children
born in relation to the population, instead of being
everywhere equal, is very much smaller in Dulwich
than elsewhere in the parish, and this disproportion
has been constant for years. I think it may be
assumed that the birth-rates which prevailed in our
parish last year have prevailed for some years past,
and hence that, roughly speaking, the proportion of
children under 5 years of age to the entire population
is proportionate in the several sub-districts to the
number of children born in them during the last year.
Now to every 100 children estimated as having been
born, there were, last year—in Dulwich, 7.7 deaths
under 5; in Camberwell, 21.5; in Peckham, 26.8; and
in St. George's, 28.8; or in other words, the deathrate
of children under 5 was—in Camberwell nearly
three times, and in Peckham and St. George's nearly
four times as great as that of Dulwich. A reference
to the mortuary tables will readily explain this