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8
From 1847 to 1851, average annual death rate 27.7 per 1000
„ 1852 „ 1856 „ „ „ 25.9 „
„ 1857 „ 1861 „ „ 22.6 „
„ 1862 ,, 1866 „ ,, „ 237 „
,, 1867 „ 1871 „ „ „ 23.2 ft
„ 1872 „ 1876 „ „ „ 21.5 ,,
„ 1877 „ l88l „ „ „ 21.4 „
„ 1882 „ 1886 „ „ „ 19.5 „
This table shows that the fall has been regular and
continuous, with the single exception of the third period.
There is one fact which is brought into very clear light by
these figures, and it is this—The span of human life is
gradually becoming lengthened: a man living under the
conditions of life which obtain in 1886 has a more extended
term than he who lived under the conditions which existed
in 1847. The average lease of life held by the one is
two or three years longer than that held by the other. Now
in what manner have the unfavourable conditions of life
been so modified from those of forty years ago, that this
result should ensue? Much difference of opinion exists and
many explanatory conjectures have been advanced, but I
think it must be conceded that several causes have been
in operation which have been promoted, fostered, and
expanded under the broadening influences of an advancing
civilization, and have concurrently contributed to the result.
The mortality in a London district bears a relationship
to the degree of the poverty, or of the competence of its
people, in worldly possessions: if the poor element predominate,
the rate proportionately rises; if the rich, it correspondingly
falls; hence the agencies that increase the
material prosperity of a people, to a parallel extent, reduce
the death roll. The converse holds good: that which adds