The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-02 00:00:00

INCREASE OF POPULATION.

As the births in the quarter were 152,066, the deaths
99,946, the natural increase was 52,120. The number
of emigrants who sailed in the quarter from London was
12,322 ; Plymouth, 1,676 ; Liverpool, 41,317; from the
three English ports, 55,315. The total numbers who
sailed from the ports of the United Kingdom at which
there are Government emigration agents, amounted to
57,913. Many who sailed from other ports are not in
the return, and it is well known that a large proportion
of the emigrants who sail from Liverpool are by birth
Irish. At present it is probable, taking all circumstances
into account, that the emigration from England is not
equal to its natural increase.

The number of emigrants who sailed during the year
852, from the ports of the United Kingdom at which

there are emigration agents, amounted to 350,647, or
certainly not less, taking the year through, and other
ports into account, than 1,0001. a-day.
The price of provisions has increased since last year ;
in last three months of 1852 wheat was 40s. sd. a quar-
ter ; beef, by the carcase, at Leadenhall and Newgate
markets, 4d. a pound ; mutton, 51d. a pound ; pota-
toes, (York regents), 105 s. a ton at the waterside mar-
ket, Southwark. In the corresponding three months of
1851 the prices were—wheat, 365. 7d. a quarter; beef,
4d. ; mutton, 41d. per lb. ; potatoes 70s. Potatoes are there-
fore, through the disease with which they have been in-
fested, dearer by 50 per cent., wholesale, in London,
than they were at the same time last year.
It should be recollected that the potato cannot be re-
placed in the dietary of the people by bread or meat.
Fruit and vegetables are indispensable constituents of
man's food ; and without a due supply of them to the
population, scurvy and malignant diseases of various
kinds break out. Turnips, carrots, artichokes, green
vegetables, oranges, and lemons, should be procured,
where there are means, in towns ; in the country the
old practice of drinking herb teas with cream of tartar
would be salutary.

• STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.
99,946 deaths were registered during the last quarter
of the year 1852. In the corresponding quarter of 1851
the deaths were 99,248. The annual rate of mortality
in the last quarter is at the rate of 2.197 per cent.,
which is higher than the average rate, or than the mor-
tality in the corresponding quarters of 1842-45, and in
1848, in 1850-51, but much lower than 2'545 and 2'389,
the rates of morality in 1846-47.
On dividing the country into two large divisions,•the
first of 117 districts, comprising the chief towns, and a
population of 7,795,882, the second of 506 districts,
having a population of 10,126,886, it is found that *the
mortality in the town districts was, during the quarter,
at the rate of 2.514 per cent. per annum, which is below
the average (2 579), while the mortality in the country
districts was at the rate of 1.982 per cent. per annum,
or somewhat above the average of the corresponding
quarter (1.941).

. ,
The unfavourable condition still prevailing in the
towns is, however, too evident ; to every four deaths
out of a given number living in the country, five deaths
occurred out of an equal number living in the towns
during the last quarter ; and on an average, out of equal
numbers living, four die in the towns during autumn to
every three who die in the country. The causes by
which this mortality is wrought affect the whole organ-
isation of children, and must ultimately produce a dege-
neration of large numbers of the English race. But
there is apparently no reason why, by the use of the
same or more efficient means, the health of all the town
populations should not be improved to the same extent
as the health of the navy. The work would be greater ;
so would the benefit and the glory. It is evident, how-
ever, that, though her Majesty's Government may con-
tribute to this happy change in the public health, by
proposing and carrying out good laws, they can only be
successful in measures involving an infinite number of
details by the energetic action of the authorities and of
the people living in towns, where human life is now so
much impaired and shortened.
In London the mortality was. below the average.
13,681 deaths were registered in the December quarter.
2,851 of the deaths were referred to zymotic diseases,
74 to small-pox, 121 to measles, 952 to scarlatina (which
has been unusually fatal), 343 to diarrhoea, 14 to cholera,
41 to influenza, 634 to typhus (136 less than in the
year preceding). Erysipelas, fatal in 67 instances,
was also less prevalent than usual. The deaths from
diseases of variable and uncertain seat, as well as from
tubercular diseases, fluctuate little ; thus the deaths from
cancer in London during the five last autumns were
240, 242, 219, 223, and 228 • deaths from consumption
1,456, 1,473, 1,455, 1,737, and 1,662. The cause °fele
considerable increase in the deaths from consumption
during the last two autumns is unknown. 1,492 per-
sons died from diseases of the brain (which varydieindcono-f
siderably from year to year), 288 p
above the usual
referred to
ed
apoplexy,nomh er)
from
m 8 of paralysis,epilepsy.
51 517 deaths
(40 w
ere
of the lungs and other organ
diseases of the heart and bloodvessels,a2ti,o3ns.9
Btorodniseehaisteiss
ilreOuso6,.
idoetaustlisso,sepenpetiuomt4onianadofstril,eot3u2r6e
thein
tceHasutesir
one
wasdo
featthhes.
ailao'fcanal Niue fatal in 109 instances, a
number one-fourth above the average. 115 mothers
died in childbirth, 46 by metria (or puerperal fever), and
69 by
.other diseases incidental to that state. The
births in London during the quarter were about 20,482,
consequently one mother died to every 178 children
born alive. The deaths from carbuncle and phlegmon
(23), though not considerable, are more numerous than
in the autumn quarter of 1851, and twice as numerous
as in the previous autumns (1848-50). 20 deaths were
referred directly to intemperance ; 26 to delirium tre-
mens ; 54 to the want of breast milk; two to privation
one to cold ; 26 to poison ; 66 to burns and scalds. 93
deaths were referred to hanging, strangling, and suffo-
cation ; and the numbers from these causes has rapidly
increased of late from 22 in the autumn of 1848
to 41, 54, 55, and 93 in the autumns succeeding. 103
deaths by drowning have also been registered in the
quarter, or 50 more than the average of the correspond-
ing quarter.

The mortality in Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire was
below the average ; in Kent about, in Berkshire above,
the average. The deaths in Reigate during the last
three autumns were 44, 51, 68 ; in Croydon 132, 132,
176. In Kingston, Dartford, and the Medway, the
mortality was much below the average ; so also was it
in Margate, Ramsgate, Brighton, and Hastings. In
Dover the deaths were 193—the mortality high ; in
Portsev. Island, Southampton, and Winchester, the
deaths also exceeded the average number. The mor-
tality in nearly all the districts of Berkshire, on the banks
of the Thames, was above the average ; scarlatina
i pre-
vailed. The registrar's note on Southampton s as