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improvement of that part of the Metropolis, to the conditions of which it
most nearly approximates. Or, to state the comparison in another form ;
if we assume the population of Shoreditch to be one-twentieth part of the
Metropolitan population, the Shoreditch contingent to the death list
should have been 3080 instead of only 2922.
Ages at Death.—An important sanitary test, is the proportion of
infant-mortality to the aggregate deaths. In the year 1858, the proportion
of children dying under the age of five years was 50 per centum,—a
very high one. Last year, however, there appears a remarkable improvement
in this respect. 727 children died under the age of 1 year, or in the
proportion of 24 per centum; and 1331 under 5 years, or 45 per centum.
554 persons survived the age of 60, being 19 per centum of the whole,
Thus, the average age attained, or the gain in length of years, is marked
at both the extremes of life.
Mortality of the Seasons.—In Table II. we may observe that 767
deaths occurred in the first quarter, 650 in the second, 793 in the third,
and 712 in the fourth. The Spring quarter is therefore far the most
healthy, and the Autumn quarter the most fatal. In examining the particular
causes of death, the explanation of this will more clearly appear.
Causes of Death. Tables I. and II. give detailed information as to
the causes of the mortality. Ranged in the order of destructiveness the
different causes stand as follows : 1.—At the head of lethal causes is
Phthisis, which killed 358 persons, or 12 per centum of all who died; of
these, 183 died between the ages of 20 and 40. 2.—Bronchitis cut off
232 persons, and Pneumonia 163. I class these two diseases together
from their similarity of nature as inflammation of the lungs, and from
the frequency with which they are confounded in practice and in the
death-register. It is unnecessary to say that the fatality of lung-inflammation
varies with the seasons. But it is important to observe the
variations in their fatality in different years and at different ages. 148
persons perished from Bronchitis and Pneumonia during the first or
winter quarter, 88 during the second, only 29 during the third, and 103
in the fourth quarter. The striking influence of cold and wet in increasing
the mortality, is seen by carrying the eye on to the fifth column in Table
II.. where we see that in the first quarter of the present year 267 persons
died of lung-inflammation, being 119 more than in the corresponding