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FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT.
To the Vestry of the Parish of Paddington.
Gentlemen,
A necrological survey of Paddington in
the year 1879 discloses a higher death rate than
has obtained in any year since 1875. Assuming
for the moment the correctness of each year's
estimate of the population, and not doubting the
accuracy in point of numbers of the death returns,
the unwelcome fact above stated is indisputable.
An examination, however, of the tables appended,
will show that the higher death rate is due to the
greater mortality from diseases of the respiratory
organs, which were unusually fatal, the result of
an exceptionally cold winter. In the case of persons
aged sixty years and upwards, the death rate during
the winter months is for the most part a question
of temperature, as it is mainly determined by it.
It is moreover not improbable that an estimate
formed in 1879, and based upon data supplied by
the census of 1871, is incorrect. Whether this be so
or not the next census will declare. It is certain
that in estimating the population the method