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effect this, and at the same time to comply with the technical requirement
of the Act, I have taken in the first quarter so as to exhibit in one view
the vital statistics of the year 1859, and have then given a summary of
the first quarter of 1860. This quarter may be added to the three last
quarters of 1859, so as to make up the Parliamentary year. As
Table II presents the mortality of the five quarters side by side, it will be
easy to regard the first quarter of the current civil year by itself, or as
the complement of the Parliamentary year beginning with March, 1859.
The deaths of 1495 males, and 1427 females were registered during
1859; and during the same period the births of 2535 males, and 2489
females. The total mortality, 2922, presents a more favourable aspect of
the health of the District than has been recorded in many previous years.
1855 1856 1857 1858 j 1859
2,998 2,719 2,955 3,183 2,922
The gross mortality during the last five years stands as follows:
Looking simply at these figures, the number for 1859 must be regarded
as eminently satisfactory. It is absolutely less than the figures for 1855,
1857, and 1858. But when allowance is made for increase of population,
the improvement indicated is far more striking. The estimated population
of 1855 was 123,000, and that of 1859, 133,000. The rate of
mortality therefore, is 24 deaths annually to every 1000 persons living
in 1855, and 22 to every 1000 living in 1859; or, expressed in another
form, in 1855, 1 person died out of every 41 living, and in 1859, only 1
out of every 45. Or we may further say, that had the death-rate of 1855
continued to prevail in last year, there would have died, not 2922 persons
but 3188. The improvement in the health of the District is therefore
indicated by the saving of 266 lives in the year; and this fact may be
safely taken as an index of a large amount of sickness averted. Compared
with all London, and with the Eastern Division, of which Shoreditch
forms a part, we find that Shoreditch fully bears its part in the general
improvement. It is estimated by the Registrar-General that the deathrate
of London last year was 223 per 10,000, which is slightly greater
than my estimate for Shoreditch. In the Eastern Division it was 233
per 10,000, so that Shoreditch has rather gone beyond the rate of