Abstract of the Return of 1811. ADJOINING STREETS OR ON THE STONES. THE CITY of LONDON within and without the 120,906 Bermondsey 19,530 Limehouse 7,387 Horsleydown. 8,370 Rotherhithe 12,114 Other small districts and liberties, as the 28,576 10,886 Pancras, (the other third,) Kentish Town, &c. 15,444 Kensington To which adding an eighth for visitors, sailors, soldiers, &c. we shall find that there usually exists a total of nearly a million and a quarter of souls, within four miles round St. Paul's. 3. City and Liberties of Westminster 4. Out parishes within 130,000 152,000 165,000 180,000 the Bills of Mortality 226,900 258,900 379,000 460,000 5. Parishes not within the Bills of Mortality 9,150 22,350 123,000 151,000 6. Total of the Me-674,350 676,250 900,0001,039,000 tropolis. The many inquiries and discussions which have taken place concerning the population of the metropolis, have determined the deaths unregistered at about 5,000 annually; and the registered burials of the last five years average at 24,000. Nine hundred thousand divided by twenty-nine thousand gives the annual mortality at one in thirty-one. In the year 1750, it appears to have been one in twentythree. DISEASES AND MORTALITY. In the year 1650, the total number of deaths was 8,764; in 1700, they were 19,443; in 1750, they were 23,727 ; in 1798 and 1799, they were 18,000 in each year; and in 1800, they were 23,068; in 1801, they were 19,374; in 1806, they were 17,938, viz. 9215 males, and 8723 females. A General Bill of all the Christenings and Burials from December 12, 1815, to the 10th December 1816. DISEASES. Colds Abortive and Still Born 734 Colick, Gripes, &c. 19 6 106 Consumption 4,272 1,913 Convulsions 3,264 3 Cough and Hooping- 666 Asthma 1,003 Cramp 2 5 Croup 92 Bile 1 Diabetes 5 788 35 Dysentery 79 Epilepsy 4 1 Evil 234 Fevers of all kinds 1,299 * There were executed in London and the county of Surry 25, of which numbers 10 only were reported to be buried within the bills of mortality. Reference from the general bill of mortality. SALUBRITY AND CLIMATE. The broadness of the streets, and the space occupied by the bulk of families residing in London, contribute greatly to health, but there are a variety of circumstances tending to the same point. The greater part of the town is situated on rising ground; the soil is of the best kind for residence, being sound and dry; the lower parts are freed from moisture by subterraneous sewers or drains; a broad and rapid river flowing through the heart of the town, and agitated twice in four and twenty hours by the tide, ventilates and purifies the whole; the immense quantities of water, conveyed into the houses, even of the meanest, for domestic purposes, afford the means of cleanliness, one of the surest companions of health. In a word, although the atmosphere of London is too frequently moist, the weather often in extremes, and the change, from one extreme to another, frequently sudden, yet the metropolis may fairly be deemed one of the most healthy in the world. The wind, in London, blows from the south west half the year, and from the opposite quarter, or north east, another five months. During the four last years of the last century, the thermometer out of doors, averaged 49.6; the barometer 29.9; and the average annual depth of rain was nineteen inches; on the hottest day during the four years, in June 1798, the thermometer stood at 86. Fahrenheit's thermometer has been frequently observed at 20, several times at 15, more than once at 10, once at 6, and once so low as 2 below 0, that is, 34 degrees below the freezing point. This was on the morning of Christmas-day 1796. In that month it averaged 32.1; in December, 1797, it averaged 42.7; in December, 1793, 35.2; and in 1799, 34.3. On certain remarkable hot days in July, 1808, the thermometer, in the shade, stood at between 90 and 103 degrees, and in the sun between 120 and 140 degrees; but the average of the same days in former years was about 83 degrees. There are about 209 days in the year without rain, and 156 in which it rains or snows; about 12 is the average of days in which it snows or sleets; the number of cloudy days when the sun scarcely ever appears, is about 50 or 60 out of the 209. |