View report page

71
population is sparse, and comprises, in large proportion,
persons who are wealthy, or, at any rate, in easy
circumstances, and its birth-rate and death-rate are
always alike low, yet very variable. I do not think
that either of my estimates as regards this sub-district
are near the truth. I suspect that the population and
the death-rate lie somewhere between the extremes
which I have given above.
In the result I think it may be assumed that the
death-rate of Dulwich lies somewhere between 8T3
and 16.98, probably half way between these estimates;
that of Camberwell between 18.85 and 19.35 ; that of
Peckham between 21.76 and 26.03—the former
estimate being probably pretty nearly accurate; that
of St. George's between 20.78 and 20.9; and that of
the whole Parish between 20.64 and 21.79. So far,
therefore, as we may judge by the death-rates, Camberwell
and its component parts have been healthy
during the year.
Still, compared with the mortality of 1877, that
of 1878 was excessive, for as I have already shown the
deaths registered in the former year were 2,693, while
those registered in the latter year were 3,348, or 655
in excess. On what does this excess depend? Of