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MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT,
1862.
Report on the Health of the Pariah of St. Martin-in-theFields
for the Year 1862.
The population of St Martin-in-thc-Fields diminished
in number 1,951, in the ten years between the Census
of 1851 and that of 1861—from 24,640 in the former
year to 22,689 in the latter. This diminution of population
has been chiefly caused by the destruction of old
houses in widening streets, opening new thoroughfares,
and the improvement of some of the more densely
inhabited parts of the parish. This falling off in the
population will account for a diminution in the number
of births; in addition to this cause, the gross number
of our deaths should have fallen off in a greater ratio,
from the attention to sanitary measures in the last ten
years. The actual numbers for three years at different
periods stand thus: in the three years, 1840, 1841,
and 1842, the total of deaths was 1,868. In the three
years, 1850, 1851, and 1852, the total was 1,760. In
the three last years, 1860, 1861, and 1862, the total
was 1,705, showing a diminution in the last ten years
of 55, and in the preceding ten years of 108.