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6
Various Rates Compared.
Our Birth rate was .3 above that of last year and 1.55 beyond that of the previous
decimal: it exceeded that of all London by 5.14 per 1000, and of all England bv 9.2
per 1000.
The Marriage rate was 1.7 per thousand lower than that of all England, and 21
below that of all London. The corrected Death rate was 5.1 per 1000 lower than that
of all London, 5.6 lower than the mean of the twenty large English towns, 44 less than
that of the fifty next in size, and 3.6 below that of all England; while it was 13.6 per
1000 below that of the most sickly place in the kingdom, only .5 beyond that of the
whole population, and hardly .2 above that of the healthiest town in England.
The correlative Indian Death rate averaged 34 3 per thousand; the highest Continental
Death rate was 46.1 per 1000, the mean being 30.8 per 1000, and the lowest
20.3.
The North American Death rate (mean) was 23.6 per 1000.
Whilst the lowness of our mortality, especially if calculated on the corrected scale,
i.e. all deaths of non-parishioners being excluded, but our proportionate number
(1 in 108) of all deaths in public institutions in London being added, is gratifying, we
should not be content with it, but look facts in the face, and endeavour, each according
to his ability, to diminish that sad blot on our boasted civilisation, the far too high
(because largely preventable) child death rate.
We must remember that our neighbours and ourselves having better food, drinking
water, wages, lodgings, and sanitary surroundings than most rural working people, and
breathing an atmosphere, which, thanks to our river, park, and docks, is less polluted
than that of most cities, ought to be quite as successful as country folks in raising
young families.
That such alas is not the case is one truism: that we might shew a child death
rate diminished from our usual average by at least 44 per cent., if we would only in our
daily life, put in practice the rudimentary teachings of Sanitary Science, is another.
Although our gravelly, well-drained soil, fairly wide streets, good water supply
and sewerage, many open spaces, and comparative freedom from trade nuisances and
offensive manufactories, are most important sanitary factors, still these advantages are
largely counterbalanced in our houses generally, and indeed in most London dwellings,
by detective ventilation, bad house drainage, and improper water fittings.
Whilst the house drain pipes, from defective construction and workmanship, and
want of being cut off from the main sewer, act as much as sewer ventilators as channels
for removing solid and liquid filth; whilst constructors and occupiers' fondly believe
that a D trap, if not a "bell" trap, is a sure and certain cure for all house sanitary
faults, and that the water from open butts, or from cisterns into which privies and
drains are ventilated, can safely be used for dietetic purposes; whilst damp-proof
courses and concreted basements are deemed foolishness; whilst overcrowded houses