If, in the most crowded districts, the inference is found to be erroneous, that the extent of sickness and mortality is indicative of the pressure of population on the means of subsistence, so is the inference that the ravages act to the extent supposed, as a positive check to the increase of the numbers of the population. In such districts the fact is observable, that where the mortality is the highest, the number of births are more than sufficient to replace the deaths, however numerous they may be.

This fact is shown in the following returns from the eight townships which comprehend Manchester and its suburbs, made by the Statistical Society of that town. But I believe the results would be more strongly manifest if the registration of the births and of the residences of the mothers were complete. I have reason to believe that in the lower districts many births, and especially illegitimate births, escape registration, and that many take place in hospitals and workhouses out of the township; whilst in the better conditioned districts the registration is comparatively accurate. I have caused attempts to be made in several of the worst neighbourhoods in Bath and other places, to ascertain with greater precision the actual number of births; but from the migratory character of the population and other circumstances, the efforts failed to do more than to confirm the impression that many had hitherto escaped registration.

The proportion of mortality in the several townships denotes with little variation the state of the streets and houses, and the condition of the inhabitants. The township of Broughton is inhabited almost exclusively by the upper classes, who are connected with Manchester. The houses are new, spacious, and well built; the site is elevated, and offers great facilities for drainage. The township of Cheetham and Crumpsall is also inhabited for the most part by the upper classes, who live in peculiarly good houses, with a superior natural drainage. There is a proportion of the working population resident in this district whose houses are well built, and also favourably situated for drainage. The condition of the habitations of a large proportion of the labouring population in Manchester has already been described.

It will be observed also that the moral as well as the sanitary influences have a coincidence in the larger proportion of the illegitimate births in the worst conditioned districts. In the best conditioned districts the great majority of illegitimate births belong almost exclusively to the more dissipated of the labouring classes who inhabit them.

Localities.Population.Deaths.Total Deaths of Males & Females.Proportion of Births to Population.Proportion of Illegitimate Births to Total Births.
Males.Females.Males.Females.
1 in1 in1 in1 in1 in
Broughton1,5542,23944·4089·5663·2136·8251·50
Cheetham and Crumpsall3,9634,86245·0363·1453·4834·7450·80
Pendleton5,1095,79640·2249·9644·8725·4712·58
Chorlton-upon-Medlock12,55115,77130·9147·7938·4826·0532·93
Hulme12,85013,96937·2438·4837·8723·1724·10
Ardwick4,5865,32035·5534·5435·0024·2734·00
Salford24,76226,76027·3036·6031·4222·8321·90
Manchester79,06184,60626·6130·1528·3326·7919·20
Total141,436159,32328·8434·6231·6025·7421·26

In the ten registration districts of Leeds the mortality prevalent in them varies coincidently with their physical condition, and the recklessness and immorality as shown in the proportion of illegitimate births, increases in a greater proportion than the mortality; and in this instance also, as in most others, if the registration were more accurate, the proportion of both legitimate and illegitimate births would be still closer to the deaths in the worst conditioned districts.

Registration Districts.Population.Ratio of Deaths to the whole Population.Ratio of Births to the whole Population.Ratio of Illegitimate Births to Total Births.
1 in1 in1 in
Chapeltown4,53857·730·674·0
Whitkirk3,19456·029·036·7
Kirkstall17,81645·624·823·1
Rothwell5,55745·128·224·6
Wortley16,18544·424·926·0
Holbeck16,66841·925·424·3
Leeds, West32,28640·428·419·2
Hunslet15,78435·524·221·7
Leeds, North30,46530·923·914·3
East District (Kirkgate)24,86228·824·320·0
Total of Leeds167,35537·325·520·1

We have seen that in the lowest districts of Manchester of 1000 children born, more than 570 will have died before they attain the fifth year of their age. In the lowest districts of Leeds the infant mortality is similar. This proportion of mortality M. Mallet designates as the case of a population but little advanced in civilization, ravaged by epidemics—a population in which the “influences on the lower ages are murderous, but where the great mortality in infancy is compensated by a high degree of fecundity. It is the case of the population in many large towns, especially in past ages.” But whilst in Manchester, where one twenty-eighth of the whole population is annually swept away, the births registered amount to 1 in 26 of the population; in the county of Rutland, where the proportion of deaths is 1 in 52 of the population, the proportion of births, as shown by an average of three years, (by a registration which I apprehend is more complete than in the lower districts of Manchester,) is only 1 to 33 of the population.

The increase of births after a pestilence has been long observed; the coincidence of an increase of births in a proportion to the high rate of mortality in the worst districts has frequently been noted on the continent. M. Quetelet has observed the fact in several countries and gives instances from which the following are selected:—

Countries.Inhabitant.
For one Death.For one Marriage.For one Birth.
Department of Orne52·4147·544·8
Department of Finisterre30·4113·926·0
Namur51·8141·030·1
Province of Zealand28·5113·221·9