Report on the sanitary condition of the City of London, for the year 1848-9 / by John Simon.

  • Simon, Sir John, 1816-1904.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the sanitary condition of the City of London, for the year 1848-9 / by John Simon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    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 pro- portion. Probably no one contends that the lower rate of mortality (as illustrated at Dulwich or Syden- ham), 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.