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79
less even than that of the healthiest of the groups of
districts (the western group) into which the RegistrarGeneral
divides the metropolis. The death-rates of the
different sub-districts of Camberwell proper shew, as
has always been the case, considerable variation. In
Dulwich the death-rate, according to the most trustworthy
estimate, was only 10 in the 1000, and in Camberwell
it was only 16; and even in Peckham and
St. George's, whose death-rates have always been
higher than those of the other districts, the death-rate
amounted only to 21.5—a death-rate less than that
of all London, and less than that of all the groups of
districts excepting the western and the northern.
It will naturally be asked how it happens that so
wide a divergency exists (and always has existed,)
between the mortuary rates of the different districts of
the Parish. This I have explained over and over
again; and without going into details in support of
my opinion, I may briefly re-state the more important
factors of it. In Dulwich, and in a less degree in
Camberwell, the population is well to do, and those
who are in comfortable circumstances are always
(other things being equal) healthier and longer-lived
than those who work hard for a precarious existence.
In the same districts again a much larger proportion of