278 The Public Health. | April, 
Although London presented the low rate of 23 in the 1,000, it 
must not be supposed that this is not subject to lower and higher 
rates in its various districts. As a rule we find that the closer and 
thicker the population, the greater the mortality. We are not able 
to say how this influences the relative mortality of Manchester and 
Birmingham, but it is remarkable in the registration divisions into 
which London is grouped. The Registrar-General recognizes five 
divisions:—1. ‘I'he Central, which includes St. Giles, Strand, 
Holborn, Clerkenwell, St. Luke, East and West London, and the 
City: in this group the mortality was 24 in the 1,000. 2. The 
Eastern district comprises Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, 
St. George’s-in-the-Kast, Stepney, Mile End Old Town, and Poplar: 
the death-rate in this district was also 24 in 1,000. 38. The 
Northern division, including Marylebone, Hampstead with its 
Heath, Pancras, Islington, and Hackney, all with great unbuilt-on 
spaces; here the death-rate was only 23 in the 1,000. 4. The 
Western district, including Kensington, Chelsea, St. George’s, 
Hanover Square, Westminster, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and St. 
James, Westminster: in this group there is less free space, but it 
includes the wealth of London, and its mortality was 22 in the 
1,000. 5. The Southern group; this includes all the south side 
of the water; it comprises the teeming populations of Lambeth, 
Southwark, Deptford, and Greenwich, but also the almost country 
districts of Wandsworth, Clapham, Dulwich, and Blackheath: 
here the death-rate is 21 in the 1,000. This last division has an 
area almost six times as great as the Eastern and Central divisions 
together, and a population not equal to these two divisions com- 
bined. It is a fact worthy of notice that the south side of the 
Thames from 1845 to 1864 has exhibited a higher rate of mor- 
tality than it does the present year. There is no doubt that this 
is due, first, to a supply of purer water, by the water companies 
having obtained supplies of purer water; and, secondly, that the 
new system of metropolitan drainage is beginning to tell favourably 
upon the health of the south side of London. 
An interesting feature in the weekly bills of mortality of a large 
population is the fluctuation which it presents. Thus, taking the 
London returns, we find that the highest number of deaths regis- 
tered in any week in the year 1867 was 1,891, occurring in the 
week ending the 12th of January. The lowest number of deaths 
in any week in the same year was in the week ending June 22nd, 
when only 1,052 deaths were registered. The study of these figures 
in connection with atmospheric vicissitudes, of which copious details 
are given in the Registrar-General’s Reports, would appear to 
throw some light on the causation of disease; but, with the ex- 
ception of temperature, we are not able to connect the fluctuation 
of the death-rate decidedly with any other meteoric condition. The 
