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FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT.

September 28th, 1852.

I

GENTLEMEN,

BEG leave to lay before your Hon. Court the

several tables which I have prepared, to illustrate the mortality of the City of London during the past year. They refer to fifty-two weeks, dating from September 28th, 1851, to September 25th, 1852.

In the first table I have distributed the 3064 deaths of the period, according to their localities and seasons; showing them as they occurred, male and female, during each quarter of the year, in the several districts and sub-districts of the City. For the foot of each column, I have calculated the year's death's rate, per thousand of the living, in the district or sub-district referred to; and at the head of the columns, for facility of reference, I have introduced an analysis of the population, founded on the Registrar-General's recent

census.

In the second table all the deaths of the last four years are stated, in a form which will enable you to compare one year with another, and one sub-district with another, in respect of their several contributions to the total mortality of the period.

In the third table 12,540 deathst of the last four years are classified according to the ages at which they befell. This table is

*These tables are not here reprinted in a separate form, except the enumeration of deaths for the year, which is No. VI. in the Appendix. The others are embodied in the different quinquennial tables of the Appendix.

+ In the remaining number (17) the particulars of age and residence could not be correctly ascertained.

arranged in a manner to display its results, first for each year separately, and next for each Union separately; in order that you may observe what local or annual differences have obtained as to the ages of chief mortality.

The fourth table also relates to the last four years. It restricts itself to those various forms of acute disease-epidemic, endemic, and infectious, which occasion, most of all, the predominant mortality of particular districts or seasons; and which are susceptible, in the highest degree, of being mitigated or removed under an efficient sanitary system.

In their general import these documents agree very nearly with last year's record; though showing unfortunately a somewhat higher death-rate (23.62) and especially a larger proportion of fever.

On former occasions I have examined, with great minuteness, all such facts as these tables set forth, and have offered you the best suggestions in my power for the mitigation of preventable disease.

The sanitary condition of the City is now substantially the same as at the date of my last Report; and any comment which I might make on the present tables could be little else than a repetition of arguments already submitted to your notice.

Therefore, as other topics* of importance to the health of the City press for more immediate consideration, I refrain from occupying your time by any further remark on the materials which I subjoin.

I have the honour,

&c., &c.

* We were at this time closely occupied in considering the general questions of extramural interment for the City.-J. S., 1854.

FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT.

November 29th, 1853.

A

GENTLEMEN,

CCORDING to the practice of previous years, I lay

before you, in the annexed tables, a brief digest of your death-register for the fifty-two weeks which terminated at Michaelmas last.

The deaths there enumerated amount to 3040-being 24 fewer than in the last preceding similar period.

Beyond these statistics of the past year, there are other facts which I have thought it well to tabulate for your information. They relate to the entire term of five years, during which I have kept record of your mortality. Midway in this quinquennial period—namely, in the spring of 1851, the general census happened to occur. The inhabitants of the City, then enumerated, may fairly be taken to represent the mean of your somewhat fluctuating population; and the five years' mortality, compared with the numbers of this mean population, will express pretty accurately their habitual death-rate.

The period mentioned is indeed short for the purpose of establishing an average; but ten years at least must elapse before even similar materials can again be given for calculation, and a still longer time before the statistical basis can be enlarged. I have therefore thought it desirable to make the best use in my power of such facts as were before

me, for the construction of quinquennial tables; out of which, with sufficient accuracy for all practical purposes, you may draw your own inferences as to the health of that large population which is under your sanitary government.

The facts are classified, as heretofore, in the manner which will most easily display their practical meaning. First, namely, the deaths of the period are recorded in their local distribution, so that you may compare one part of the City with another in respect of healthiness. Next, they are so tabulated according to ages, as to indicate the prevailing proportion of untimely death. Thirdly, those of them are separately enumerated which, in their several classes, chiefly occur as results of acute disease in connexion with removable causes.

In after years, when sanitary improvements, now only in contemplation or commencement, shall have produced their legitimate results and rewards, these tables may serve an important use. Indicating the standard of public health within the City before such works were achieved, and constituting a permanent record of your starting-point, they will qualify your successors to estimate the amount of amelioration which your endeavours shall have produced.

The details of your present sanitary condition, as varying in different sub-districts of the City, and as fluctuating in the several years and seasons of the quinquennial period, are expressed in the figures of these tables more compendiously and more clearly than I could hope to convey them in words. Here, therefore, I restrict myself to telling you very briefly their general results.

The population of the City-about 180,000 persons--has

been dying during these five years at the rate of about 24 per thousand per annum. The sub-district rates which give this aggregate vary from under 18 to above 29; the former death-rate belonging to your healthiest locality-the northwest sub-district of the City of London Union; while the latter-more than 60 per cent. higher-mortality belongs to the north sub-district of the West London Union. The lowest death-rate hitherto attained in this country for a considerable population, during a term of seven years, has been 14 per thousand per annum; which your worst sub-district mortality more than doubles.

As different districts contribute unequally to your average death-rate, so also do different ages. Among all the popu lation exceeding five years of age, the death-rate is under 17 per thousand per annum; while, for children under five years of age, the rate is nearly 85. equally constituted by your three following proportion; viz.:

Annual Rate of Deaths to 1000
living persons.

And these rates are un

chief districts in the

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84.72

Average death-rate in the City 16'85

How various are the diseases which have conspired to produce your annual average of 3120 deaths, it would be tedious to describe; and in the table which I have devoted to a partial analysis of this subject, I have restricted myself to a consideration of those ailments which are likely to become less fatal under a well-developed sanitary system.

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