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4 MORTALITY OF THE CITY OF LONDON.
what in excess of 30 deaths out of every thousand
living persons.
The lowest suburban mortality recorded in the
fifth volume of the Registrar-General's Reports, for
the year then under estimation, gave a rate of 11
in the thousand; and we might perhaps be justified
in adopting that rate as a minimum for the purpose
of sanitary comparison.
According to this standard (undoubtedly a very
superior one) it would appear that, during the
last year, death has prevailed in the City of London
with nearly three times its recognised minimum
of severity.
But, to avoid all sources of fallacy, I will allow
a very ample margin to this admeasurement; I
will take 15 per thousand as a fair standard, and
will assume that the deaths in the City have
amounted to only the double of their normal proportion.
Probably no one contends that the lower rate
of mortality (as illustrated at Dulwich or Sydenham),
indicates an over-healthy condition of the
locality to which it refers. Probably no one
argues that human life, in those healthier districts,
is prolonged beyond enviable limits. Surely, on
the contrary, every one who can measure the large
amount of misery and destitution which results
from a high rate of mortality, will think it most
desirable that, by every means within the scope of
sanitary science, exertion should be made to
reduce the higher rate to the level of the lower.