View report page

15
The death from phthisis, on the average in the
parish, is 1 in every 360 of the population. This
is favourable as contrasted with the whole population
of London, the death from phthisis in which
is 1 in every 324 of the population.
But the death in our parish is not the same
over the three districts into which the RegistrarGeneral's
Returns are divided. If we take the death
in the Workhouse, and equally divide it between
the three districts of the parish, and then compare
it with the population, we shall find that phthisis
occurs very unequally. Thus, in the St. James's
Square division only one person in 426 of the
population died; in the Golden Square division
1 in 422; but in the Berwick Street division 1 in
every 327 of the population, so that the death from
phthisis is nearly one-fourth greater in the last
than the other two divisions. This leads us at
once to the question as to whether there is any
absolute necessity that a fourth more people should
die of consumption in one division of the parish
more than another? We must answer, of course,
that there is none. It then becomes our duty to
seek out for the causes which destroy so large a
number of our population every year, and in seeking
for the cause of the excess of death from phthisis in
the Berwick Street division, we shall be helped to
discover generally the cause of this disease which
produces the death of a seventh of those who die
annually in the parish. Without quoting authori-