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113
Tables XI. and XII. give the details of the returns of
births and deaths for the year, arranged both according to
districts and according to seasons. They also include the
enumeration of deaths according both to age and to diseases.
Again, there is little calling for special comment in the facts
which the tables disclose. The births, as I have already
shown, exceeded those of 1888 by 139; the deaths were fewer
than those of 1888 by 70.
The deaths of children under five years of age were, as
usual, very numerous, they amounted to 1,727, or 43.6 per
cent. of the total mortality. There was much variation,
however, in this respect in the different districts of the
parish. In Dulwich, where, owing to the circumstances of
the residents, birth-rates and death-rates are always low,
the number of such deaths was 12, and formed only 18 per
cent. of the total number; in Camberwell the number was
508, and formed 43 per cent.; in Peckham the number was
627, and formed 41 per cent.; in St. George's the number
was 582, and formed 48 per cent.
The deaths under the head of accidental or other
violence, including those of parishioners occurring in
Hospitals and elsewhere outside the parish, amounted to
109. This number is larger by 10 than that returned in the
previous year.
Under the head of premature birth or defective vitality,
are included 313 deaths; 3 more than in 1888. This group
includes children born prematurely or malformed, and
children dying shortly after birth from various ill-defined
and obscure causes.
Twenty-three deaths were ascribed to child-birth. Of