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fatality of measles in 1860, must be attributed in great
measure, to the low temperature and great humidity by which
the year was characterised, conditions always unfavourable
to diseases of the respiratory system.
Diarrhoœa, scarlatina, and typhus underwent a striking
diminution. In 1859, the fatal cases of diarrhoea, which were
by no means unusually numerous, amounted to 160, but in
the past year they sunk down to 89. The fatal scarlatina
cases decreased from 297 in 1859, to 158 in 1860 ; and the
fatal typhus cases from 120 in 1859, to 70 in 1860.
In order to ascertain the death rate of Lambeth in the
year 1860, it is necessary first to know its population. The
amount of population in previous years has been estimated
upon the assumption that the average rate of increase which
subsisted between 1841 and 1851 still prevailed. But the
census of 1861, has shown, as was of course expected, that
the assumption did not accord altogether with the fact. The
population of 1860, therefore, has been calculated upon the
average rate of increase which existed between 1851 and 1861,
and the result may be considered as a close approximation to
the truth. But it cannot be exact, because while the actual
population of Lambeth increases every year, the per-centage
rate of increase diminishes. Thus in the 10 years, or rather
98137 years, between the 1841 and 1851 census, the population
of Lambeth increased by 23,253 souls ; whereas, during
the 10 years, or rather 10.0219 years, between the 1851 and
1861 census, it increased by only 22,683 souls; and inasmuch
as the former increase has to be calculated upon a population
of 116 thousand, and the latter upon a population of
139 thousand, the per-centage rate of increase is considerably
higher in the former period than in the latter, as shown in the
following table. Seeing then, that the rate of increase decreases
every year, the population of 1860 calculated upon the average
rate of increase between 1851 and 1861 will be somewhat overestimated.