The Vital Statistics of Peabody Buildings and other Artisans' and Labourers' Block Dwellings Author(s): Arthur Newsholme Source: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Mar., 1891), pp. 70-111 Published by: Wiley for the Royal Statistical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2979343 Accessed: 27-06-2016 12:45 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Royal Statistical Society, Wiley are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Royal Statistical Society This content downloaded from 104.239.165.217 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 12:45:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 70 The VITAL STATISTICS of PEABODY BUILDINGS and other ARTISANS' and LABOURERS' BLOCK DWELLINGS. By ARTHUR NEWSHOLME, M.D. LOND., D.P.H., Medical Offcer of Health for Brighton. [Read before the Royal Statistical Society, 17th February, 1891. The President, FRIEDERIC JOHN MOUAT, M.D., F.R.C.S., LL.D., in the Chair.] CONTENTS: PAGE PAGE I.-Age and Sex Constitution VJII.-Tubercular Diseases . 82 of Population of Peabody IX. -Deaths from other Causes. 84 Buildings .73 X.-Density of Populatian .... 8' I.-Births acd Birth-Rates .... 76 XI.-Occupation of Tenants .... 89 III.-Mortalitv from all Causes . 77 XII.-Summnary ..................... 93 IV.-Male and Female Mortality 77 V.-Mortality at Different Ages 78 APPENDIX. VI.-Causes of Death ................ 79 Table A ............. , 94 VII.-Zymotic Diseases ................ 79 Financial Statement ............. 98 WHEN the President of the Royal Statistical Society honoured me by an invitation to contribute to its Proceedings, I ventured to say that I would read a paper on "the relation between density of " population and mortality." The views of the late Dr. Farr on this question have become accepted as almost axiomatic, and it appeared desirable that they should be revised in the light of more recent facts, and that the somewhat heterodox views I held ill relation to this matter should be subjected not only to the test of still further statistical examination than I had hitherto been able to make, but also to the criticism which their statement could not fail to elicit. With this object in view I proceeded to obtain the statistics of the Peabody Buildings as an extreme instance of a dense population, an instance which admittedly did not exist at the time when Dr. Farr first showed the close relationship then existing between density of population and mortality, and applied Farr's formula to them. The result I shall shortly give, with some reservations. But the subject opened out by an examination of the statistics of the Peabody Buildings and allied dwellings gradually expanded under my hands, and I was fortunate in obtaining statistics of such an elaborate and complete character, that I felt justified in devoting the whole of the time at my disposal to them, thus leaving the more general problem open for This content downloaded from 104.239.165.217 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 12:45:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 1891.] NEWSHOLME-Vital Statistics of Peabody Buildings, 4-c. 71 future examination. In view of the importance of the problem of the housing of the poor, and of the efforts which are being steadily and increasingly made towards a solution of this problem, the experience acquired by the block dwellings already in existence, especially in regard to sickness and mortality, and the character of the prevailing diseases, may help to guide the action of public bodies and of private philanthropists in the future. The statistics I have been able to obtain relate only to three of the many companies or trusts now providing block dwellings for the labouring classes. Only these three appear to have kept records of births and deaths and causes of death. Even among these three I must place the Peabody Buildings in a different category to the dwellings of the Improved Industrial Dwellings' Company, and of the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes. In the case of the Peabody Buildings the local registrars of births and deaths furnish quarterly returns for each Building, and in addition the deaths of inhabitants of the Peabody Buildings occurring in hospitals and infirmaries are included in the death returns. The task of obtaining the causes of hospital deaths has been undertaken for me by Mr. Crouch, the able secretary of the Peabody Trust, and his son, and I have to thank them for their courtesy and for the large amount of labour they have expended in furnishing me with various figures and returns. It was indispensable that the causes of hospital deaths should be included, and I am glad to say that the figures to be subsequently given are accurate and complete; but it will be easily understood that the task was so onerous as to preclude us from obtaining the data for more than the last three years. The death returns of the Metropolitan Association include the causes of death in the dwellings and in hospitals, but they are supplied on the authority of the superintendent of each Building, and cannot therefore be accepted as equally trustworthy with returns for which the local registrar of births and deaths is responsible. In addition, the populations of the dwellings of the Metropolitan Association and of the Improved Industrial Dwellings' Company are estimates, whereas that of the Peabody Buildings is annually enumerated, the age and sex of each person being ascertained. I have thought it right to put the Society into possession of the facts as to the extent to which my figures can be accepted, but at the same time I wish to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Moore and Mr. Butler, the secretaries of the two Yompanies named, for the courtesy with which they have placed all the information in their possession at my disposal. The population living in these three sets of dwellings is as follows: This content downloaded from 104.239.165.217 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 12:45:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 72 NEWSHOLME-Vital Statistics of Peabody Buildings [Mar. Peabody Dwellings . ............................................ 2o,462 Dwellings of the Improved Industrial Dwellings' Company .... Z3,470 Metropolitan Association for Improving the 5,38 Dwellings of the Industrious Classes .................................... Total population (1890) ................ ........ 49,320 It may here be stated that although the last named company includes in its property not only twelve block buildings, but also two groups of cottages, I have excluded the population, births and deaths, of the cottages from my returns, in order to confine my statistics entirely to block dwellings. TABLE I.-Analysis of Population in each Peabody 0-5. 5-1O. 10-15. 1X-20. 20-25. Male. Feniale. Male. Fenmale. Male. Female. Male. Fe- Male. Fe- Bedfordbury. 38 42 49 45 39 45 32 M8 17 25 Bermondsey . .33 z8 23 29 15 i8 8 8 5 io Blackfriars Road ................ 105 io 92 83 52 73 63 45 35 i Chelsea .2 l 13 14 10 1o 10 7 5 6 Olerkenwell .82 78 72 68 54 6z 28 26 13 27 Great Wild Street .123 138 101 o20 62 8 i 64 43 32 48 Islington .................... 11 I+ 107 107 60 7 - 47 50 36 ; i Little Coram Street . 72 go 71 65 46 48 29 z6 18 26 Old Pye Street .90 92 64 84 55 39 32 i 8 29 33 Orchard Street .116 i r8 95 IOi 66 70 39 5o 36 58 'Pimlico .180 187 165 i;5 127 1 z7 99 Dz 70 75 Shadwell.6 5 8 43 39 35 39 20 *0 20 i 8 Southwark Street. 80 92 96 8 64 70 45 5 3 22 30 Spitalfields .14 [5 12 ,o 10 1 5 7 8 9 8 Stamford Street .76 II0 74 94 74 84 57 53 47 - Westminiter ........................ 43 36 48 34 38 47 25 Xo 15 I Whiteciapel .90 ii6 94 86 44 58 40 3 30 45 Whiteoras8 Street .328 340 323 293 260 240 167 165 110 "I1 Totals for all Peabody } 1,661 I,779 1,547 1,507 1,115 1,198 812 727 547 690 Buildings j 3,440 3,054 2,313 1,539 T,237 The next point to be ascertained is how this distribution of persons compares with that for England and Wales and for the whole of London. The result is shown approximately in Table If, which gives the number of persons, and of males and females out of a total of i,ooo persons, living at each age-group. The table shows that .there is a considerably higher proportion of persons under ten years of age than for England and Wales, and a still higher proportion at the same ages than for the whole of London. This content downloaded from 104.239.165.217 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 12:45:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 1891.] and other Artisans' and Labourers' Block Dwvellings. 73 I.-Age and Sex Constitution of Population of Peabody Buildings. The Peabody Trust take an annual census of the inhabitants of their dwellings, and by this means I have been able to ascertain exactly the age aud sex distribution of their population, thus obtaining an accurate and exact foundation on which to base the subsequent statistics.