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direction, and even large portions of these gardens are being covered
with dwellings and other buildings, in defiance of all the Building and
so-called Public Health and Sanitary Acts, passed ostensibly for the
well-being of the public. No doubt many of the thickly-populated
districts of the West and South of London contain a much larger
population to acreage than ours with proportionately greater overcrowding.
DEATHS.
By the same Table it will be seen that the total deaths were 2,296,
being 75 less than the previous year. The annual rate per 1,000 population
was about the same as that for the whole Metropolis, including
its most favoured districts.
Table I. shows also the annual death-rate, 24-5 per 1000 population,
of the six other Eastern districts combined, exclusive of Mile End, so
that we not only compare favourably with the whole Metropolis, but
especially so with the densely populated districts by which we are
completely surrounded, a position and conditions which would, inferentially,
act prejudicially upon the public health of this Hamlet, hence
the low rate of mortality is all the more gratifying and satisfactory.
The same Table further shows the total deaths were 59 less than the
average for previous five years, although compared with a largely
increased population. The Table also gives a comparison between the
birth and death-rates in the Metropolis and Mile End—the death-rate,
inclusive and exclusive of Workhouses and in Mile End, as compared
with the other combined Eastern districts.
Table IV. shows the number of deaths at various ages. As usual,
the age under one year is largely in excess of the other periods, being
about twenty-eight per cent, of the total mortality. During the first five
years of age, the deaths amount to 47 per cent, of the total, then there
is a rapid decline from five to twenty years, whence there is a gradual
rise up to seventy years and upwards. There were two deaths at 88 and
89, and ten in the decade between 90 and 100, one being in the 100th
year. The great majority of the infants, in the first year, die from
inanition, mostly produced by specific or congenital diseases, bad
feeding, and neglect. From that period up to five years they too easily
fall victims to infectious diseases, or any illness by which they may be
attacked.
Table V. gives, in the first column, the monthly births for each
quarter, and in the other twenty columns, the monthly deaths in each
quarter, of males and females, separately, in each of the five Wards
and Workhouses in the Hamlet, and the general totals.
DEATHS IN WARDS.
Table VI. shows the number of deaths in each Ward with rate per
1000 population, exclusive of Workhouses and Infirmary. The Centre
and East are the highest, South and West much lower. The very low