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10
PROCEEDINGS THAT HAVE BEEN CARRIED INTO EFFECT BY
THE VESTRY, FOR THE REMOVAL OF NUISANCES, AND
THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SANITARY CONDITION OF
THE PARISH.
THE MEDICAL OFFICER REPORTS AS FOLLOWS:
The following Report embraces the civil year 1860, a
period adopted for convenience of comparison with the Sanitary statistics
of the Registrar-General, relating to other parts of the metropolis and
the kingdom; it also embraces the year included between March 31st,
1860, and March 31st, 1861, being the municipal year indicated by the
Metropolis Local Management Act.
In Table I., are set forth in detail, the causes of deaths, distributed
according to ages, for the year 1860.
In Table II., the causes of deaths in each of the four quarters of the
year 1860, are distinguished; and the causes of deaths during the first
quarter of 1861, are set forth side by side with the four quarters of 1860.
The mortality from any particular cause, and the gross mortality for the
year ending with March, 1861, may thus be readily ascertained.
The Census taken on the 8th April last, is an event of great interest
when regarded from a sanitary point of view. By restoring the exact
account of the population as determined by enumeration, we are enabled
to test and correct the mortality-estimates of former years; to take an
accurate departure for the present year; and to calculate upon more
proximate data the death-rates of the ensuing years.
It will be desirable to lay down in the first instance, those facts
which the recent census supplies as the foundation of our local sanitary
statistics.
The population of the entire metropolis in 1851 amounted to
2,362,236 persons. In 1861 it had added 4-40,798 persons, raising the
population to 2,803,034. The rate of increase in these ten years was
18.66 percent. The annual rate of increase was 1.722 percent. The
annual rate of increase during the ten years, between the Census of 1841
and 1851, was 1.975 per cent. The Metropolitan rate of increase has
fallen off, although the absolute gain is enormous.