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from 20.3 to 20.0. But further it must be pointed out that
the death-rate of each one of the years prior to 1890 has
been deduced from the deaths occurring in a calendar year,
whereas that of 1890 has been calculated on a mortality of
53 weeks or 371 days; and that if the deaths for the 6
days, by which the year of 371 days exceeds a calendar year,
(which amount to 1,503, or as nearly as possible to the
number of Metropolitan deaths occurring outside London)
be deducted, the death-rate falls to about 19.7—a rate which,
though still higher than that recorded in several of the
mediately preceding years, is certainly not a heavy rate.
No doubt two main causes of the increased mortality
of the year were the excessive number of deaths due to
diseases of the lungs, which occurred in the first and last
quarters, and the prevalence of influenza in the early part of
the year, to which disease a large proportion of the deaths
ascribed to inflammatory affections of the lungs was
certainly due. Another cause was the general increase of
the deaths from the so-called "zymotic diseases," including
diarrhoea. Thus, the deaths from small-pox increased from
1 to 4; those from measles from 2,425 to 3,291; those from
hooping cough from 1,749 to 3,276; those from scarlet fever
from 784 to 876; those from diphtheria from 1,477 to 1,588;
those from typhoid and other varieties of continued fever
from 596 to 662; and those from diarrhoea from 2,739
to 2,753.
Since the Registrar General's Annual Summary was
published the Census has been taken; and although the
returns are liable to revision they may be accepted as substantially
correct. It appears, therefrom, that London,