The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-03 00:00:00

QUARTERLY MORTALITY RETURNS.

The registrar-general has just issued his usual quar-
terly return of the mortality in 117 districts of England.
These districts are subdivided into 582 sub-districts ; 36 dis-
tricts are in the metropolis, and the remaining 81 comprise,
with some agricultural districts, the principal towns and
cities of England. The population in 1841 was 6,612,800.
The deaths registered during the past quarter terminating
September 30, were 49,479, a number less by 1,948 than
were registered in the corresponding quarter of 1846, but
7,007 more than the corrected average of the September quar-
ters of 1838 46. The deaths registered in the September quar-
ters of the 5 years ending 1847, were 36,953, 38,933, 36,139,
51,427, and 49,479. Had the mortality been uniform, and the
population increased from 1843 at the rate of 1.75 per cent.
annually, the deaths during the last varier would only
have amounted to 42,742 instead of 49,4,9, the actual num-
ber, which is an excess of 7,007 above the corrected average.
The excess of the September quarter in 1846 was 9,686
above the average. The deaths registered during the 4
quarters of the 4 years ending 1846, and three quarters of
1847, were 163,651, 168,127, 166,256, 192,104, and 157,169.
A small rise in the mortality took place in the spring after
the mild winter of 1846 ; the mortality during the quarter
ending in March 1847 reached the maximum 56,105, and has
since slowly subsided.
The epidemic of fever has been much more fatal in the
provincial districts than in London, In Manchester, Salford,
and Chorlton, 4,154 deaths were registered from all causes.
Diarrhcea and fever were the prevalent diseases. Typhus
carries off men and women in the prime of life. Diarrhcea
destroys more children, and becomes dangerous to adults in
the form of cholera. The registrar of Deansgate, Manches-
ter, says :
More children have died in the district during the last
quarter ander the age of 5 years than in most other r. outon
there have been deaths at all ages. This is an astOunsiii4
bet, yet perfectly consistent with prior observation : if the
general mortality be large the infant mortality will ever be
found to bear its due proportion, and the causes, in such a
district as this, are perfectly obvious. In the calamitous
season just passed, manufactures have been almost at a
stand stall; food has been unattainable by the poor, for em-
ployment they had none ; famine made her dwelling in their
homes, and her attendant horror, Typhus, relentlessly swept
his victims to the grave. Daring the sickness, which either
terminated in death, or rendered the removal of the poor to
the fever hospitals necessary, their offspring have been
neglected and snared for; some have sunk under the
malady of their parents—others, deprived of the nourish-
ment nature had supplied, have pined and wasted away, the
victims of inanition, their glands diseased, and 'incapable of
assimilating the incongruous food supplied to them. The
disease of autumn has also done its work fearfully amongst
them, no lees than 103 deaths, almost entirely of children,
being recorded from diarrlicra, under the drain of which the
exhausted frames of the little sufferers rapidly sank. In the
close, ill-ventilated, and densely-crowded zooms where the