The Spanish Fork Press

London's
Health
is on
the Gain.

Death Rate Reduced Thirty Per Cent. Since Passage of Act of 1891.

London.—What a wonderfully healthy place London would appear to be in spite of its black spots is shown by a striking report from the pen of Sir Shirley Murphy, medical officer of health for London county. In comparing London with other towns, however, it should be remembered that the metropolis has a health act, passed in 1891, which gives the local authorities far greater powers than those possessed by the sanitary districts in the provinces. How valuable, indeed, how necessary are these powers, is proved by Sir Shirley Murphy's statement that since the act was passed the London death rate has diminished by over 30 per cent., and that this means a saving in each of the last two years of over 19,000 lives, which, in its turn, means an addition to the life capital of London of three-quarters of a million years. The London death rate is for the year under review 15.1 per 1,000, which is less than that of any other town with more than 200,000 inhabitants, except Bristol and Leicester. An analysis of the London figures, however, reveals that the changes of life are much greater in some parts of the metropolis than in others. The death rate varies from 9.4 in Hampstead to 20.7 in Finsbury. The infant mortality figures tell the same story, the death rate being 77 per 1,000 for children under one year in Hampstead to 160 in Finsbury and 163 in Shoreditch. The marriage rate, while slightly in excess of that of the previous year, shows a steady decline. The birth rate is the lowest on record.