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26
1907]
no more than 17.60, and its mean death-rate for six years 17.59 per 1,000 of
its population. It is to a very large degree a working man's district, and it is,
as already shown, the most densely populated area in the borough, no fewer
than 174 persons dwelling on each of its 309 acres. This is a very great
density, and the wonder is, not that the death-rate of Barnsbury is so high as
it is, but that it is so low. The district, it is estimated, contains 53,897 persons,
and it is, therefore, so far as popnlation is concerned, as large as Stockton-onTees.
South-east Islington, which is the most populous of the sub-registration
districts, and, with the exception of Barnsbury, the most crowded part of the
borough, is mainly a working man's district, and houses 140 persons on each of
its 545 acres. Nevertheless, its death-rate in 1907 was only 15-01 per 1,000
of its inhabitants, and its mean death-rate during six years only 15.58. Such
death-rates as these, occurring in so crowded a district, speaks well for its
general sanitary state, and reflects credit on the borough. It may be truthfully
asserted that there are few, if any, similar provincial sub-districts in the
great towns with such densely packed working class populations which can
show such low mortality returns as Barnsbury and South-East Islington. In
point of population, it may be mentioned that this sub-district will rank with
such a town as Coventry.
Thus we see that each of the sub-districts during 1907, and,
indeed, during the last six years, has presented most favourable
mortality returns, and that the death toll is as low as can be
reasonably expected, especially when it is recollected that no special
and organised effort has been made to grapple with the burning
question of the early deaths of so many very young children. The further
lowering of the death-rate may probably be looked for in that direction by and
bye, when the means to efficiently make the attempt have been provided.