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76
And, as I supposed, that founded on the number of
births, though far from correct, is on the whole much
nearer to the actual truth. The chief errors here
relate to Dulwich and Peckham. In Dulwich it is
obvious that the birth-rate has sunk from 22 in the
1000 in 1871, to as little as 14 or 15 in the 1000
in 1880. As respects Peckham, it is of course possible
that the population of 73157, derived from the
birth-rate, is quite as accurate as that of 68897
deduced from the enumeration for 1881; for it may
well be that, although the population of Peckham
has been increasing rapidly during the last ten years,
there was little or no increase in the 9 months
between July 1880 and April 1881.
Next as to the deaths. Before we can properly
compare the deaths returned from the several
districts of the Parish with their estimated populations,
so as to determine the death-rates, it is necessary
to make some re-arrangement of the deaths. Of the
1167 deaths ascribed in the returns to the sub-district
of Camberwell no less than 330 took place in
the Workhouse and Lunatic Asylums, which are
situated mainly in that district. Now these belong no
more to Camberwell, at any rate belong very little
more to Camberwell, than they do to the other