1472 



VITAL STATISTICS. 



where the average age at death is nearly SSJ- 

 years, the mean age at death would become 

 30 7 } years, or a year and a half in excess of 

 the mean age at death of the existing inhabit- 

 ants of London. The advantage, therefore, 

 which the county of Hereford enjoys over the 

 metropolis, in a sanitary point of view, instead 

 of being represented by the difference between 

 38 \ and 29 years, or 9 years, is really not 

 more than a year and a half. Again, the 

 average age at death in the metropolis is 29 

 years, and in Sheffield 23 years ; but if the 

 population of the metropolis were transferred 

 to Sheffield, the average age at death would 

 be 28 years. So that the difference of 6 

 years, which, according to this test of the 

 mean age at death, marks the sanitary su- 

 periority of London over Sheffield, dwindles, 

 under this very obvious correction, to one 

 year. If we apply the same correction to the 

 several districts of the metropolis, we obtain 

 similar results. Bethnal Green is the district 

 in which the mean age at death is lowest, 

 while in Kensington it attains its maximum. 

 In Bethnal Green the mean age at death is 

 26, in Kensington 32. But the population of 

 Bethnal Green transferred to Kensington, 

 would have a mean age at death of 27 years ; 

 so that in this case also a difference of six 

 years in favour of the more aristocratic 

 quarter dwindles down to one year. In some 

 cases the use of this corrective actually re- 

 verses the position of the two populations 

 submitted to comparison. Thus, the mean 

 aire at death in the united parishes of St. 

 Giles's and St. George's Bloomsbury is 28 

 years, and in Bethnal Green, as has just been 

 stated, 26 ; but transfer the population of 

 Bethnal Green to St. Giles's, and the mean age 

 at death becomes 24 years. The application, 

 therefore, of this correction completely alters 

 the relative position of the two parishes, so 

 that the parish which, when tested by the mean 

 age at death, seemed the healthiest, proves to 

 be the most unhealthy. Serious errors and 

 exaggerations have also been committed in 

 comparing the smaller districts of our large 

 towns with each other. The meanest and 

 most squalid districts are as naturally the 

 resort of those who marry early, and of those 

 who are sunk into poverty by the burden of 

 large families of young children, as better 

 districts are the abodes of the more prudent 

 and least encumbered members of society. 

 The lowest districts of the large towns of 

 England are also the resort of that part of 

 our population which indulges most habitually 

 in intemperance, and in all the habits that 

 engender poverty, misery, and disease. It is, 

 therefore, inevitable that in comparing the 

 worst districts with those of a somewhat 

 better class, we should be comparing popula- 

 tions containing a large proportion of persons 

 liable to a high mortality for reasons other 

 than the insalubrity of the districts themselves 

 with those containing a smaller proportion. 



c. The mean age at death has also been 

 used to test the sanitary condition of different 

 classes of persons inhabiting the same town 



or town district. A very extensive series of 

 tables, for instance, has been compiled, in 

 which the mean age at death of the gentr}', 

 tradesmen, artisans, and paupers of the several 

 parishes of the metropolis is represented, and 

 used as a measure of their sanitary condition.* 

 Tiie parish of St. James's, Westminster, in 

 which the class termed gentry is more likely 

 to be appropriately named than in the poorer 

 and less fashionable parishes, may be con- 

 veniently taken as an example. In this parish 

 the average age at death, children included, 

 is 42 for gentry, 26 for tradesmen, 21 for 

 artisans, &c., and 49 for paupers. The differ- 

 ences are here so extraordinary, as only to 

 admit of explanation on the supposition of a 

 vast disproportion between the numbers living 

 at the same ages in the several classes. If 

 the element of age in the living is disregarded 

 in comparing the gentry with the artisans out 

 of the workhouse, it must equally be dis- 

 regarded in contrasting the gentry with the 

 paupers in the workhouse, who are drawn 

 chiefly from the artisan class. The difference 

 between 49 (the mean age at death of paupers), 

 and 42 (the mean age at death of the gentry ) 

 is obviously due to the greater average age of 

 the inmates of the workhouse, as the differ- 

 ence between 42 (the mean age at death of 

 the gentry), and 21 (the mean age at death of 

 artisans), is traceable mainly, if not wholly, to 

 the great disparity in the ages of the living 

 members of the two classes. Unfortunately 

 we are not yet in a condition to apply to the 

 mean age at death of these classes of the 

 population, the same correction which, when 

 applied to counties, cities, and city districts, 

 served in so striking a manner to equalize the 

 results. The ages of the living members of 

 the several classes of society is still an impor- 

 tant desideratum. The tables under consider- 

 ation also give the mean age at death of gentry, 

 tradesmen, artisans, and paupers dying after 

 21 years of age. In the parish of St. James's, 

 Westminster, the mean ages at death of these 

 classes are 57, 51, 46, and 58 respectively. 

 The differences, though less considerable, are 

 still at total variance "with the results of the 

 most accurate inquiries into the value of life 

 of the same classes of society f, and only 

 admit of explanation by supposing a great 

 disparity in the ages of their living members, 

 together with an erroneous method of se- 

 lection and classification. 



d. The mean age at death has also been 

 employed to test the sanitary state of different 



* These Tables are published in the same volume 

 (vol. vii.) of the Journal of the Statistical Society, 

 which contains Mr. Neison's valuable essay just 

 quoted. They form part of a paper by Mr. Chad- 

 wick, " On the best Modes of representing: accu- 

 rately by Statistical Returns the Duration of Life, 

 and the Pressure and Progress of the Causes of 

 Mortality among different Classes of the Commu- 

 nity, and amongst the Populations of different 

 Districts and Countries." 



f See especially, Contributions to Vital Statistics, 

 bv F. G. P. Neison, in which the artisan class is shown 

 to occupy a much more favourable position in the 

 sanitary scale, than had previously been supposed. 



