View report page

49
Metropolis in 1682 at 670,000, but perhaps half a million
would be nearer the truth, for the number of inhabitants had
only increased to 864,845 in the year 1801. Reckoning the
duration of the Plague at ten months, the annual rate of
mortality from that cause alone during the terrible year of
1665 exceeded 220 per 1,000, or about ten times the present
Metropolitan death-rate from all causes.
The actual rate of mortality was, however, probably far higher
than even 220, taking into account the vast multitude of people
which had already left the City, for some old chroniclers
estimate the number of fugitives at 200,000. During the
month of September the deaths exceeded 7,000 a week, which,
with scarcely any allowance for the exodus from London and
the previous heavy mortality, would yield a rate of over 100
per cent., or, in other words, if that rate had continued and
there had been perfect immunity from all other kinds of sickness,
London would have been left without an inhabitant in
less than one year's time. London was providentially purified
by fire the following year, and the Plague has not since made
its appearance, nor need it now be feared, for not only has
medical science made much progress, but the paving, drainage,
and sanitary works which have since been carried out in the
Metropolis, notably within the last thirty years, have rendered
London the healthiest large city in the world. The improvement
in the public health thus caused is clearly seen when we
reflect that two hundred years ago the death-rate of London
was estimated at one death per annum for every 23 persons
living, even in ordinarily healthy years, whereas the proportion
now is one death for about 45 persons living, the average
chance of life having thus almost doubled in a couple of
centuries, in spite of the enormous increase of population in
the meantime.
A glance at the bills of mortality would seem to show that
medical science was not in a very advanced state. It must,