The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-24 00:00:00

AN ENEMY'S ARMY.

Every year Dr W. Farr presents to the Regis 4
trar-General a statement on the causes of death in
England. The memoir for 1862 has just been
issued. We learn from it that the continued
fevers (typhus, typhia, and typhinia) killed
18,721 of the people in
the
the Fever Hospital supply materials for an estimate
of the proportion of the mortality to the number
attacked, and upon this anthyoreiatry.
it The
may re
:e taken
that in the great battle With fever more than
17,000 of the people of England were destroyed
every year in the ten years-1848-1857—and
above 135,000 were severely wounded, but rem
b° records
of
covered. The wh01e135,000 probably averaged about
a month's sickness, so that the average fever po-
pulation was about 12,700. They would fill 127
hospitals with 100 beds each, and require
in every year about 4,630,000 days' sub..
sistence. Typhus and relapsing fever (typhinia),
like the pythogenic fever (typhia), are lit up by
a specific zymotic matter which is generated when.
human beings are badly fed and crowded together.
in an inadequate supply of fresh air. The seeds of
the disease can only be got rid of by a vigilant sani-

tart' police, and by the effectual destruction of ty.
phine, its existing leaven. Scarlatina was fatal in
the year to 14,834 persons, which is nearly the ave-
rage. Malignant sore throat (cynanche maligna) is
allied to scarlatina in some respects, as it attacks
the throat; and for the same reason diptheria, which
was not at first recognised as a novel form of disease
in England, was confounded with sore throat. The
deaths by diphtheria were 9,587 in 1859, which
was the centre of the epidemic, bat had declined
to 4,903 in 1862. Together these diseases—scare
latina, sore throat, and diphtheria—destroyed
above 19,000 lives annually in the eight years
1855-62. The deaths from smallpox were 6,460 in
1858, and fell progressively to 1,628 in 1862;
12,272 persons died from whooping-cough in 1862
its mortality is never low. Influenza has subsided,
but it is undoubtedly often confounded with broil•
chitis or pneumonia, which are its frequent sequels
or complications ; 11,112 died of diarrhoea, which
is often the result of a zymotic poison allied to those
of cholera and dysentery. Thanks to the progress
of cultivation and drainage, our deaths from ague
and remittent fevers are few, only 21 in a million
living in 1862. Rheumatism is allied to these
affections, and remains after they have disappeared,
proving fatal generally by fixing on the mem-
branes of important organs. Seventy-three people
died of privation (starvation), 471 of delirium
tremens, and 246 of intemperance in other forms.
Parasitic diseases diminish with the progress of
cleanliness. One hundred and fifty-aix persons,
chiefly children, died of worms. Worms enter the
body through water generally,and sometimes through
diseased meat. Should arrangements be made to
dispose of the sewage of to was, and to supply
houzes with pure water, we may hope to see the
deaths by worms diminish. There was only one
death from hydrophobia in the year. But zymotic
poisons as dangerous as mad dogs are still allowed
to be kept in close rooms, in cesspools, and in sewers,
from which they prowl in the light of day and in the
darkness of the night with impunity to destroy
mankind, In 1862 zymotic diseases carried off
4.551 in every thousand of the population. The
second great class of diseases—constitutional dise
eases—were not far behind. Allowing for the iris
crease of population, the proportion of deaths
by cancer has steadily increased, while dropsy
and mortification have declined ; but this is
partly due to improvement in medical diag-
nosis. Deaths which would have been returned
under the head of dropsy are now traced
to organic changes of the heart and kidneys. A
common sequence is rheumatic fever, heart mem-
branes injured, circulation obstructed, dropsy. But
in the constitutional class of diseases phthisis (con-
sumption) is the chief. The mortality by phthisis
has fallen from 2.511 a year per thousand living in
1850-54, to 2.586 in 1858.62; but the deaths by
bronchitis, with which in the chronic ataterphthisis
is liable to be confounded, have increased more than
the deaths by phthisis fell. Bronchitis comes under
the third class of diseases—namely, local diseases,
which comprise four-tenths of the total deaths in
the country, arising chiefly from affections of the
vitals organs of the head and chest. Uniting the
respiratory diseases with phthisis to get rid
of any ambiguities of nomenclature, the
mortality from the two groups of chest
disease is found increasing from 5'580 in
a thousand of the population per annum in
1850-54 to 5895 per annum in 1858-62, more than
a quarter of all the deaths in England. It is a
question of great interest, what has led to this re-
cent increase of mortality from inflammation of the
air passages and air cells of the lungs. Of the
55,692 deaths in 1862 by diseases of the nervous
1 system—brain, spinal marrow, nerves-25,286 were
from the convulsion of infancy, in which the sympe
toms of disease are obscure. Bright's disease has
increased greatly in the last ten years, but perhaps
only in appearance, arising from a change due to
the diffusion of pathological knowledge. Fatal stone
cases have decreased, but diseases arising fromin-
flammation or irritation of the mucus membranes
involved have grown more fatal ; these are the evils
to be obviated in using crushing instruments. A bold
operation is now practised for ovarian dropsy, and Mr
Spencer Wells considers that 185 of the women who
died in the year might have been saved by surgery,
six deaths in 1862 were ascribed to fright, seven to
grief, one to rage, and 44 to melancholy. We have
now reached the fourth class of diseases—the de-
velopmental—the diseases incident to the birth, de-
velopment, nutrition, and decay of man. In this
class are 68,842 deaths. The great majority of them
are from debility and old age, but of all the 429,000
obf born
samerh
ne these
alive,
iv deathseit and
dfa rseonmi
end
deaths in 1862, the causes of which are specified,
IhBelr6oe2,
remained
oa lc
li
numbersaneaa children seriesetohm e
only 26,780 were. from old age. The deaths of
commence with 60 deaths
women in becoming mothers (including metria)
with only 43. About a thousand mothers
survived in. 1862 who would have perished had
the
ee4rm7e
1847. The improved registration of births accounts
mot3te:horle7tBra7s6:2l ntt
mortality
for only a portion of this apparent rate of
decrease.
Last come the violent deaths of the year, 14,944
in number, 7.43 in every 10,000 persons. About
one death in every 29 is by violence But the bclk
of them are the result of accident. or negligence.
The deaths by burns and scalds fell to 2,767, but
by due precaution the number of these fearful
deaths might be still further reduced. The acci-
dental deaths by poison have fallen to 262. The
suicides were 1,317, 611 of them by the rope ; 17
persons were executed. 12 were killed by lightning.
This statement of the mortality of the year suggests
several questions of interest; some of them will be
discussed in a supplemental volume which was in
preparation at the Register-office, showing the re-
sults of the registration of the ten years lying be-
tween the two last censuses.

" SON AND HEIL" A novel. 3 V 018....." g Son
and Heir' is a story of no ordinary merit. It cannot fail
to attract the novel reading public. The principal scenes
are remarkable for their intense passion and vivid reality.
We know not whether the author of this novel iYatended to
aim at popularity by means of drawing marked 'contrasts of
character, but, if such were the aim, success has been most
positively attained."—/Ifessenger,