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10
the bills of mortality, as if there were plague spots
in the city.
And now, there is another circumstance to which
I must direct your attention—it is that which
relates to the early age at which the great bulk of
your fellow citizens die. You will notice in the
second table I have placed before you, that out of a
total annual mortality of 2,910, as many as 1,119
perished before they had reached the fifth year of
their age. This is at the rate of 38 per cent. of all
the deaths. It ranges, however, in the different
districts of the City from 30 to 40 per cent; and,
as you might suppose, the infant mortality is
greatest in the crowded alleys and courts of the
Eastern and Western Unions.
In all England the mortality of children under
five years of age is, as nearly as possible, 39 per
cent. of all the deaths. This is, apparently, a larger
proportion than occurs in the City of London, and
as in the last case, without due consideration, it
might be made the ground of a false opinion as to
the state of the public health. Let us therefore
examine the facts a little more closely. London,
as you know, is not the nursery of its population.
Few comparatively of those who live and labor
among you are citizens by birth. The great bulk
of your population has entered upon a London