Mortality in Victorian England: Models and Patterns

A discussion of mortality in Victorian England based on the work of Thomas McKeown (The Modern Rise of Population, London, 1976). An alternative yet complementary description of the underlying mortality conditions is presented that takes into consideration the availability & quality of civil registration data, & of official English Life Tables. Regional variations in mortality patterns, age-specific structure changes, & the influence of environmental factors, including the maldistribution of the medical profession in the nineteenth century, are described, illustrating several weaknesses in McKeown's method. 5 Tables, 8 Figures. F. Rasmussen