284 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



16 it would mean that 6500 persons died regularly 

 every month. But we should probably find that in some 

 month or other as few as 5417 persons died. That 

 would be reported "as at the rate of" 13 per thousand 

 per annum ; since, if every month gave only 5417 deaths, 

 we should get 65,000 deaths a year, which works out at 



13 in the thousand in a population of 5 millions. In 

 other months it might run as high as 19 or 20 (represent- 

 ing over 8000 deaths a month), although, taking all the 

 months together, the deaths are at the rate of 16 in the 

 thousand for the year. 



The bald statement of the death-rate, of course, admits 

 of much analysis where proper records are kept. Thus 

 the death-rate from different diseases and groups of 

 diseases can be stated, and the death-rate in each group 

 at different ages and for the two sexes can be given where 

 proper records are kept. In this country the records of 

 population in various areas and for the whole country, 

 and of the deaths from various causes, and at different 

 ages, are collected and tabulated by the Registrar-General 

 and his officials. The annual reports issued by him show 

 what an amazing progress has been made in increasing 

 the security of life in our great cities within the last fifty 

 years. Thus, in London, the death-rate was, fifty years 

 ago, 24 in the thousand. In 1906 it was only 15*1 in 

 the thousand it has gradually fallen, year by year, so 

 that now it is less than two-thirds of what it was half a 

 century ago. In Manchester and Liverpool it was about 

 26 twenty years ago, and has fallen to 19 in Manchester 

 and to a little over 20 in Liverpool. In the same period 

 the improvement has been (omitting fractions) from 19 to 



14 in Bristol; from 20 to 16 in Birmingham ; from 20 to 

 14 in Leicester. This great diminution in the death-rate 

 has been coincident with the expenditure of public funds 

 on the improvement of the water supply and the sewage 



