The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-18 00:00:00

"45,220 boys and 43,400 girls were born in the

year.
" 32,563 males and 31,319 females died in the year.
" The mortality was at the annual rate of 2.356
per cent., or 23 and less than 24 in 1,000. This rate
exceeds the rates (22) of the two years 18;6-7, and
the rates of 1850-1-2, namely, 21, 23, 22 ; but it is
below the rates of 26 and 30 of 1848-9, as well as
the rates 24, 29, and 24 of 1853-4-5.
" London is divided into five groups of districts ;
and the mortality to 1,000 living was 21-77 in the
west districts, 22.48 in the north-districts, 23.16 in
the central districts, 24.26 in the south districts,
and 25.30 in the east districts. In interpreting
these facts it must be borne in mind that the calcu-
lated population of particular districts cannot be
viewed with the same confidence as the calculated
population of London : and that the population is
often differently constituted in respect to age and
occupation. The reduction in the mortality is
greatest in the south dikricts.
" 10,004 persons died in the public institutions
of London, 5,535 in the workhouses, 57 in the prisons
and 4,412 in hospitals and lunatic asylums. Of the
latter number 317 belong to the Greenwich and
the Chelsea Hospitals, 211 to the military and naval
hospitals. About one in six of the inhabitants of
the metropolis dies in the public institutions; nearly
one in 11 dies in the workhouses. The death of so
ninny persons in the large workhouses demands in-
quiry. Of the 63,852 deaths in 1858 the causes
were specified in 63,027 instances. The fatal diseases
were nearly all certified by the medical attendants,
by the medical officers of institutions, or by the
coroners.
" 16,704 persons died by diseases of the zymotic
class. These maladies exhibit great fluctuations,
but they are not the less on that account under
human control. Thus 247 persons, children chiefly,
died of small-pox in the year 1858, 154i11 1857,
1,024 in 1855, and 1,617 in 1848. The deaths by
small-pox fluctuate from year to year ' • the cause of
the fluctuation we do not yet know, but we know
well that if all the people were vaccinated there
would be no deaths from small-pox at all, or very
few. The deaths from cholera were 130 in 1858,
10,708 in 1854, and 14,125 in 1849. The cause of
the difference is obscure ; but it has been demon-
strated that a large part of the mortality of cholera
in London was due to the night soil in the air, in
the cesspools, in the sewers, in the wells, and in
the water of the Thames; and it is probable that
if the air and water of London are purified by the
Board of Works the mortality of London will never
be again so high as it was in 1849. Indeed, when
the sanitary defences of the metropolis are com-
plete, and the medical health officers are in full
activity, epidemics may assail, but they will, it is
hoped, never destroy large numbers of the people.
Of typhus 1,902 persons died in 1858 ; and since
1844 the annual deaths have fluctuated from 3,614
to 1,333. The fever under this head is properly,
distinguished now by skilful practitioners as ty-
phus, typhoid fever, and relapsing fever. These
descriptions rather than names may be advantage-
ously replaced by real names, such as typhus,
typhia, and typhinia. It has been shown that
typhoid fever or typhia is propagated and some-
times generated by cesspool poison, typhus by
crowding in dirty apartments, and typhinia by fa-
mine. Dr. Murchison proposes to call typhia on
this account pythogenic fever. Diarrhoea, fatal to
2,093 persons, and dysentery to 181, have kindred
causes. - Measles (2,383) and whooping cough
(2,700) caused an unusual number of deaths ; but
the mortality from these diseases declined during
the year. It was otherwise with scarlatina and
diphtheria, which in four successive periods of 13
weeks destroyed 473, 588, 1,243, and 1,814 lives,
amounting to 4,118 in the aggregate. The deaths
from carbuncle were 61 ; fewer than in 1856, but
ten times as many as the deaths from the disease in
the earlier years. This troublesome plague of boils
has been prevalent for some time. Syphilis is more
fatal, or it is moresaccurately distinguished than it
was formerly ; 263 deaths were directly referred to
it, and 42 to sericture of the urethra, in the year.
Alcoholism killed 123 unhappy people by delirium
tremens, 98 in other ways ; it was also undoubtedly
the cause of many fatal diseases. Of cancer, 1,142
persons died; of mortification, 170. Of the class
of diseases in which tubercles are generally depo-
sited 10,127 persons died; namely, 437 by scrofula,
823 by tabes messenterica, and 7,369 by phthisis
-001161111101011. Of 1,498 deaths by hydrocephalus
or water on the brain, a certain number were in-
flammations of the membranes and tissues of that
great organ.
" Of the 6,571 deaths by diseases of the nervous
system, 1,423 were by apoplexy, 1,184 by paralysis,
2,119 by convulsions.
" Heart disease often exists without being fatal ;
yet 2,435 deaths are recorded by pericarditis and
other heart maladies; and 86 persons died of aneu-
risms of the large vessels.
" Bronchitis (6,388) and pneumonia (4,150) were
unusually fatal ; exclusive of phthisis, 11,908 persons
died of diseases of the respiratory organs. The
deaths were thus distributed through the four
quarters : 4,440, 2,226, 1,167, 4,075. They vary
in the inverse direction of the mean temperature,
which was 38 deg., 54 deg., 61 deg., and 44 dep.:.
The unusual degree of cold in November was the
main cause of the increase in the last quarter. It
will be observed that the mortality of consumption
was nearly the same in three quarters ; but that it
was below the average in summer.
" The 2,573 deaths from diseases of the digestive
organs were very equally distributed over the
seasons; so were the 831 deaths by diseases of the
urinary organs, except nephria (Bright's disease),
which, like phthisis, is least fatal in the summer,
but is nearly equally fatal in the other quarters.other
" Of ovarian dropsy, and of uterirda i
diseases of the order, 205 persons
diseases, 182. Of skin diseases, 262d.eers; of joint
ons died,
gives no idea of the
Pid
including 48 by ulcer.
T
amount of disease and ofhs i
disability among the
labouring population of London by ulcer of the
legs alone, which is, sing tally ens
ough, n
mot treated
16 woen died of
to any extent in the hoi
metric; 265 of other diseases incidental to child-
' bearing ; making 430 mothers dying to 88,620
children born alive, or, on an average, one mother
died to 206 children born alive. The deaths from
we may hope, be greatly reduced
this cause will,
in future years.
‘• 2,591 deaths were referred to atrophy and de_
Unity ; 2,413 to old age, without apparent disease.
s, 1,916 violent deaths happened in the year ; 2
were public executions, 52 were homicides, 238
were suicides, and 1,622 were returned as deaths
by accident or negligence. The homicides were
most numerous in summer. The suicides were least
numerous in the first three months of the year ; of
the suicides, 9 were by gunshot wounds, 60 by other
wounds, 36 by. drowning, 76 by hanging, 44 by
poison, and 13 in other ways.
r 1
"Of the accidental deaths, 755 were by frac-
tures, contusions, and wounds inflicted in various
ways ; 309 were by burns and scalds ; 235 were by
drowning; and 230 by suffocation in bed and
otherwise. One violent death was not classed.
"The violent deaths increased in London from
1,528 in 1848, to 1,916 in 1858, and it is desirable
that every means should be adopted likely to lessen
these calamities.
" If the population of London at each respective
period of age had experienced a mortality at the
same rate as the population of 63 comparatively
healthy districts of England, the deaths in London
in 1858 would have been about 45,988 ; they ac-
tually 94
amounted to 63,882, and consequently
unnatural deaths may be referred to causes
the Metropolitan Board of Works havet
T
investi-
gate, and endeavour to remove or ien 1
It is an important mission which couiltry
'1
expects them to fulfil.
" As a preliminary condition of the improvements
which may be expected t
flow from the cultivation
of sanitary science, three °things are indispensable
p .0 air for the people to breathe, pure water, an,
in
a healthy soil to live on.
"Thus the cesspools of London, and collections
of putrefying dirt, must be suppressed ; the sewer
air must be carried off or purified, so as not to
poison people in the houses or streets ; the method