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6
You will perceive by the first table, that the
total mortality of the year is 2,910. This number
is 490, or nearly 17 per cent. under that of the
preceding year; and it is 280, or about 11 per cent.
less than the average of the last eight years: in
fact, the death rate of the whole City has been
reduced from a general average of 24 per 1,000
of the inhabitants to 22. How much misery and
desolation are represented by the difference in these
numbers cannot be expressed; but you can easily
imagine that an improvement to the extent of 11
per cent. in the health and vitality of a population
is a matter of no mean importance; and I lay stress
upon it, because I know that it is due, in a very
large degree, to the operation of those sanitary
measures which were put into action by my predecessor—"it
is," to use his own metaphor, "the
fruitage of that stately tree which begins to give
evidence of its widelier spreading roots." I hope
that the results of my own labours in your service
will be equally beneficial.
And now, in turning from the contemplation of
what has been done, to the consideration of that
which is still to be accomplished, I am reminded
that there is yet a wide field of action before me,
and that it will require great energy to deal with
the many untoward circumstances .that beset a City
life; for wheresoever there is a large aggregation
of living beings, there are always fertile sources of