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32
It must be recollected, in making any deductions
from these tables, that they include the deaths in
the Workhouse from Saint Anne's, Soho, and the
real death rate for St. James's are, for 1869, 719;
for 1870, 824; and for 1871, 680.
A comparison of these tables is interesting, as
showing that the principal differences in the death
rates of the three years have been in the second
quarter. Whilst in the second quarter, 1869, 207
persons died; in 1870, in the same quarter, 241
persons died; and in 1871 there were 174 deaths.
The difference in the death rates is principally due
to the prevalence of diseases of the chest, and these
are, more than any other class of disease, dependent
on cold. When the temperature of the quarter is
below the average, the diseases of the chest are
above the average. When the temperature is above
the average, then the death rate of these diseases
diminishes. I have before pointed out the vast
influence which temperature exercises over the death
rate of our population. There is no better way of
meeting this condition than by warm clothing. Unhappily
the practice of the poor in the overcrowded
dwellings of Saint James's, is to protect themselves
from cold by excluding the fresh air, and thus by
protecting themselves from one enemy, they invite
another even more deadly than the one they have
excluded.
I now invite your attention to a series of tables
by which one may discover the fluctuation of our
death rates according to age.