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find as a matter of fact, that when a larger number
of children are born, there the mortality is always
highest, arising from the fact that the death
amongst a number of children is always
greater than amongst young persons or adults.
Again, the deaths amongst very old people is much
greater than amongst the young and the adult,
hence a population of old people ought to be expected
to die more rapidly than those of younger
people. As this subject is one of great importance
in estimating the value of weekly and annual returns
of mortality, I subjoin here some remarks recently
made by the Registrar-General on the significance
of rates of mortality.
Significance of eates of Mobtality.
The rates of mortality published in the Weekly Beturns
having been misunderstood in some quarters, it may be useful
once more to explain what the general death rates of a population
imply.
The rate of mortality differs in a generation as it passes through
different ages. It is in infancy very high, in boyhood very low
through manhood it increases, and as men descend into the vale
of years is rapidly accelerated by the wearing away of vital
force. The mean rate in England has been for some years 22
annual deaths to 1000 living of all ages. The rate for males is
183 in 1000 in the Jirst year of life ; only 18 in the fifth 6 in
the tenth, 5 in the sixteenth, 8 in the twenty-first year of life;
13 in the forty-first year, 19 in the fifty-first year; 33 in the
sixty-first, 70 in the seventy-first, 153 in the eighty-first year,
307 in the ninety-first year of life. Infants and boys under 4