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102
immediately preceding year, which had been 16.1, and the
lowest on record.
"The births registered in London in 1889 (52 weeks)
numbered 131,487, and were in the proportion of 30.3 per
1,000 inhabitants. This is the lowest birth-rate as yet
recorded in London, the rate having fallen continuously
year after year since 1876. Nevertheless, the excess of
births over deaths, or the natural increment, was 55,804,
though it had averaged only 51,772 in the four immediately
preceding years; so that the decline in the birth-rate was
more than compensated by the still greater decline of
mortality.
"The deaths registered in 1889 (52 weeks) numbered
75,683, and corresponded to an annual rate of 17.4 per 1,000.
This is by far the lowest death-rate as yet recorded in
London; moreover, the four next lowest rates are those in
the four immediately preceding years, 1885-6-7-8, when
the figures were respectively 19.8, 19.9, 19.6, and 18.5."
In addition to the lowness of the death-rate, it may be
pointed out, as tending to shew the great healthiness of the
year, that on the whole the mortality from the so-called
"zymotic" diseases (including diarrhœa in the class) was
remarkably low, the total deaths having been 9,709, "while
the corrected decennial average would have been 13,537."
There was, comparing the mortality in the years 1888 and
1889, a diminution in the deaths from hooping cough of
from 2,993 to 1,749, in the deaths from measles from 2,425
to 2,314, in the deaths from scarlet fever from 1,214 to 784,