| Districts. | Annual Deaths. 1 in |
|---|---|
| Hackney | 57·87 |
| St. George, Hanover Square | 57·05 |
| Camberwell | 55·34 |
| Islington | 50·03 |
| Rotherhithe | 38·58 |
| Clerkenwell | 38·54 |
| St. Luke | 38·49 |
| Greenwich | 38·42 |
| St. George, Southwark | 33·77 |
| East and West London | 33·50 |
| St. Giles and St. George | 33·46 |
| Whitechapel | 28·15 |
Yet it is to be observed that the best and the worst districts present striking instances of extremes of condition in the residences and the inhabitants. In the Bethnal Green and the Whitechapel unions, in which are found some of the worst conditioned masses of population in the metropolis, we also find good mansions, well drained and protected, inhabited by persons in the most favourable circumstances. Immediately behind rows of the best-constructed houses in the fashionable districts of London are some of the worst dwellings, into which the working classes are crowded; and these dwellings, by the noxious influences described, are the foci of disease. These returns are all from large parishes, containing the mean results from all classes. If it had been practicable to give correctly the average rate of mortality prevalent in different classes of streets, the variation of results, it is to be presumed, from the variations of circumstances, would have been much greater. Since the character of the residences of many of the labouring classes, and the condition of their places of work and their habits are known, it is to be considered that where the occupations are duly registered, returns, on the principle of those we have first given of the average age of death amongst particular classes will afford the most close approximation to accuracy, or the best indications of the extent of the operation of the noxious circumstances under which each of those classes is placed.[[19]]
A LINEAR REPRESENTATION
of the number of Deaths in the Metropolis, from Epidemic, Endemic and Contagious disease; Diseases of the Brain, Nerves & Senses; diseases of Respiratory Organs and diseases of the Heart & Blood Vessels: also the number of Deaths from Small Pox, Scarlet Fever, Measles; Typhus Fever, Hooping Cough, and, all other Epidemic diseases, during each Four Weeks of the Two Years, ended the 1st January, 1842.
(Population of 1841.—1,870,727.)
Sanitary Report P.L.C.
The annexed linear view of the numbers of deaths from the chief diseases during every month of two years in the metropolis will be of interest as showing the influence of the seasons, and especially of the winter, when there is the most cold, wet, and crowding.
In Scotland we have not the advantage of systematized registries of mortality or of the causes of mortality, and we are therefore unable to make the same comparisons as in England; yet so far as the records of the dispensaries serve, they are confirmatory of the returns with respect to the different rates of mortality in differently conditioned districts in England. Thus, in a report from Leith, it is stated that—
“Contagious febrile diseases of all kinds are met with in Leith, particularly typhus, which in certain seasons is prevalent to a great extent. The parts of the town in which it seems to prevail chiefly (so far as can be deduced from the records of the Leith Dispensary for the last five years) are the central and most crowded districts in which the number of cases amongst the poor during the last five years have been in the proportion of 1 to 6 of the whole population, while in other districts not so central in situation, but inhabited by persons of nearly the same class, the proportion has been not above 1 to 13 within these districts. One locality containing a population of 1579, has produced 433 cases of contagious fevers in general (of which 306 were of typhus) in dispensary practice, within five years, being in the ratio of 1 to 3⅖ of fevers in general, and 1 to 5⅙ of typhus to the gross population; of these 433 cases, 130 of all fevers, and 96 of typhus, occurred in the two narrow streets (St. Andrew’s-street and Giles’s-street) which bound the district to the north and south, the remainder in the narrow lanes and closes communicating with them. These may be regarded as the most unhealthy parts of the town.”