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93
4 DECEMBER, 1889.
pared with that of the Metropolis as disclosed by the Medical
Officer's reports, and beg to submit report of your Medical
Officer on the subject as follows :
"Death-rates constructed from the mortality returns
"of short periods as a week or month are not reliable as
"tests of healthiness of a district; they are necessarily
"subject to accidental fluctuations, which must prevent
"any true and accurate conclusions being drawn from
"them. The numbers on which they are founded are
"not sufficiently large to exclude those accidental
"fluctuations from varying circumstances 'such as an
"'extra number of deaths from say convulsions or old
"'age, which may be and are more frequent at times in
"'one locality than another': these must be got rid of
"before any just reasoning can be founded on death-rates.
"It is different with yearly, or say quarterly returns, as
"where the units on which the figures are founded are
"sufficiently large, the accidental fluctuations are
"swamped so to speak, and the errors traceable to them
"are reduced to very small limits so that trustworthy
"results are obtained.
"Taking all these facts into consideration, I am con"vinced
that the Board will readily understand that the
"death-rates which appear high on the face of them,
"when compared for short periods are a fallacy, and are
"not to be regarded in such a serious light as was contem"plated
by some members of the Board at their last
"meeting.
"Taking the death-rate for the 13 weeks ending
"November 2, Mile End Old Town will compare
"favourably with that of the Metropolis for the same
" period.
"In my opinion the eastern districts should be those
"of comparison with our own, embracing as they do much
"the same class of people, living under similar circum"stances,
and for that reason I have compiled the
"following table, on the same basis as that taken by the
"Registrar General in forming the returns of the death"rate
for the whole of London.
"London and Eastern Districts.
"London 15.7 per 1,000.
" Mile End 15.2 „
"Poplar 17.3 „
" Limehouse 21.7 „
"Whitechapel 29.9 „
"St. George's 21.1 „
"Shoreditch 19.8 „
"Betlmal Green 18. 1 „
"For information the above table will be found highly