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79
1886-87.
MEDICAL OFFICER'S
ANNUAL REPORT,
Gentlemen,
Judged of by the mortuary rate alone, the health of
the Metropolis during the last four years has been better
than at any previous time of which we have statistical
record. In 1883 and 1884 the deaths were at the rate of
20.5 in the thousand; in 1885 the death-rate was 19.8 in
the thousand; and in the year to which the present report
relates 19.9. But the Registrar-General in his annual
summary for 1886, points out that not only was the deathrate
singularly low; but the marriage-rate was the
lowest yet recorded for London; and the birth-rate was
the lowest since 1850. He draws attention, also, to the
facts, that the birth-rate has, for several years past, been
unusually low, and that, consequently, there were about
50,000 fewer children under five years of age in London in
the year 1886 than there would have been had the birthrate
which prevailed between 1871 and 1880 been maintained
since the latter year; and that inasmuch as the mortality
in early childhood is always very high, the presence of these
50,000 children among us would not only have caused a
considerable addition to the actual deaths during the year
1886, but would have sensibly increased the death-rate.