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79
1887-8.
MEDICAL OFFICER'S
ANNUAL REPORT.
Gentlemen,
Judged of by the death-rate alone, the health of
London during the year 1887 was better than it has ever
been since authentic sanitary records have been made. In
my last annual report I pointed out that the death-rates of
the last four years had been lower than at any previous time.
That of 1887 was an improvement even on this. The deathrates
of 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886 and 1887 were severally
205, 20.4, 19.8, 19.9, and 19.6 per 1,000. At the same
time, it is right that I should explain, as I explained last
year, that the marriage and birth rates have all been unusually
low, the marriage-rate for 1887 having been the
lowest yet recorded, and the birth-rate the lowest since 1849 .
that the relative deficiency in infantile population necessitates
a relative falling off in the mortality; and that consequently