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8
merely shows the number of children under five in the
registration district of Kensington, Paddington being
included as a sub-district. I, however, took the precaution
to get at the composition of several streets
from the enumerators’ books, placed for a short time
at my disposal by Captain Clode, the Secretary of the
Census Office, for without these data, and without
comparing the prevalence of disease and death in different
places and under different social conditions,
statistics would be very fallacious.
In taking 15 streets, typical of the ordinary condition
of the dwellings in which the working class
reside, I find the annual proportion of deaths under
five, ranges from 41 to 75 per cent, of the total deaths,
and from 9 to 23 per 1,000 of the population in most
of the said streets. The death-rate from all causes,
and at all ages, it may be mentioned, in 18 very
thickly-populated streets of the same character as now
referred to, has been estimated many times during the
last ten years, and is found to vary from 21.7 to 50
per 1,000. A. very high proportion of these deaths
are children under one year, for many die within six
months of birth. It must be remembered that the
working class are much more prolific than the middle
and higher class, the proportion of young children to
the general population, according to the census, revealed
the fact that only per 100 persons living in the
squares and mansions were under 5 years, whereas
17 to 20 per cent, were under five in the streets and
houses let out in tenements. It was further ascertained
that among the aristocracy double the proportion
of persons were living at the age of 60 and upwards.