The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-04 00:00:00

STATE OF TILE PUBLIC HEALTH.
(From the Quarterly Return.)
The quarterly returns are obtained from 117 districts,
sub-divided into 582 sub•districts; 36 districts are in
the metropolis, and the remaining 81 comprise, with
some agricultural districts, the principal towns and cities
of England. The population was 6,612,958 in 1841.
It is gratifying to observe a remarkable improvement
in the state of the public health. The number of deaths
registered in the three months ending June 30, was
46.552; which is less by 11,158 than were registered in the
winter quarter of the present year, and less by 5,033 than
were registered in the corresponding quarter ending the
last day of June, 1847. The mortality of the country,
after having been excessively high during the latter half
of the year 1846, the whole of 1847, and the first
quarter of 1848, is now little above the average of the
nine years 1839-47. The mortality, however, is still
much higher than it was in the spring quarter (April,
May, and June) of 1844, when the number of deaths
was only 38,977; which, taking the increase of popula-
tion into account, implies a lower rate of mortality than
has been experienced in the spring season of any other
year. _ _ _

In London the deaths in the quarter were 12,945.
The deaths in the preceding quarter were 16,455; iu
the quarter ending Ikcembr, 1847, when influenza
prevailed, 19,605. Influenza has almost entirely dis-
appeared; it was the cause of death in only 50
• cases during the 13 weeks ending in June. Small pox
was fatal to 381 persons in London; measles to 306;
scarlatina to 816, hopping cough to 449; purpura and
scurvy to 12 ; typhus to 882 ; erysipelas to 129. Small
pox, scarlatina, and typhus were prevailing epidemics
in London. Scarlatina in one week destroyed 107
lives. Typhus was at a maximum (1,279) in the last
quarter of the year 1847 ; it is now declining ; but it
is invariably longer in the epidemic form than other
diseases of the class. The diseases of the tuber-
cular class—namely, scrofula, tabes, consumption, and
hydrocephalus, fluctuate very little; to them 2,640
deaths were ascribed in the June quarter of 1841, and
2,403 in the June quarter of 1848; which were the
highest and lowest numbers returned in the eight years
1841-8. Diseases of the lungs declined rapidly; they
were the cause of 176 deaths in the first week, of 76
deaths in the last week of the quarter.
The improvement in the health of Liverpool is remark-
able ; while there were 4,809 deaths in the June quarter,
1847, there were only 1,907 deaths in the June quarter
of 1848. In Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds there
has also been some improvement. Small pox and scar-
latina have been the prevailing epidemics throughout the
country.
The deaths in London from diarrhoea, dysentery, and
cholera were 11, 23, 13 and 14, in the first four weeks ;
27, 31, 37, and 51 in the last four weeks of the quarter.
The mortality from these diseases is somewhat higher
than it was in the corresponding week of 1847. The
deaths ascribed to cholera in the June quarters of the
eight years 1841-8, were 1,7, 8,9, 2,9, 4, 17 ; in the
last year, therefore, though the deaths are not numerous,
there is a slight excess.
These three diseases are always most common in the
three months of July, August, and September, when the
temperature is highest. The popular error which
ascribes them to fruit was referred to last year. That
it is an error is established by the fatality of these
diseases to infants at the breast, to the aged, to persons
in' prison and public institutions, who procure no fruit,
and by many such facts as the following, reported about
the middle of the last century, by Sir John Pringle, in
his classical account of the diseases of the campaign in
Germany.
"Nearly half the men were ill, or had recovered from
dysentery a few weeks after the battle of Dettingen,
which was fought on the 27th of June, 1743. The
dysentery, the constant and fatal epidemic of
camps, began sooner this season than it did in
any succeeding campaign. Now as the usual
time of its appearance is not before the latter
end of the summer or the beginning of autumn, the
cause has been unjustly imputed to eating fruit in excess.
But the circumstances here contradict that opinion ; for
this sickness began and raged before any fruit was in
season except strawberries (which from their high price
the men never tasted), and ended about the time the
grapes were ripe ; which, growing in open vineyards,
were freely eaten by everybody.
"To this add the following incident :—Three com-
panies of Howard's regiment, which had not joined us,
marched with the King's baggage from Ostend to Hanau,
where, arriving a night or two before the battle, and hav-
ing orders to stop, encamped for the first time at a small
distance from the ground, that was afterwards occupied
by the army. These men had never been exposed to rain,
or lain wet; by this separation' from the line, they were
also removed from the contagion of the privies ' • and
having pitched close upon the river they had the
benefit of a constant stream of fresh air. By means
of such favourable circumstances it was remarkable that,
while the main body suffered greatly, this little camp
almost entirely escaped, though the men breathed the
same air, the contagious part excepted, eat of the same
victuals, and drank of the same water. This immunity '
continued for six weeks, until the army removed from '
Hanau, when these companies joined the rest, and en-
camping in the line were at last infedted, but suffered
little, as the flux was then so much on the decline."—
Pringle on the Diseases of the Army, 3d Edition, 1761,
pp. 20, 21.
Fruit, potatoes, and green vegetables, are essential
parts of the food of man; and it is only when taken to
excess that, like other articles of diet, they disorder the

stomach.
There is as yet in England no trace of the epidemic
of cholera which is ravaging Russia from Moscow to
St. Petersburgh and ascending the Danube. It raged in
the summer of 1831, 17 years ago, at St. Petersburgh,
reached Sunderland in October, London in February,
1832, Paris in March of the same year. Whether it will
pursue the same course now, travel at the same rate,
and be less or more fatal, must depend on a variety of
circumstances. If the visitation cannot be arrested, it
is greatly to be wished that it should be de-
ferred, for though enlightened communities have before
been too much in the habit of postponing sanitary
arrangements, and only commencing them when the
plague is actually destroying them—which is very like
admitting the enemy within the city walls and then putting
the fortifications in repair—it is certain that the great
capitals of the continent were never in a worse condi-
tion to withstand au epidemic than they are at the
present time.
That much remains to be done in English towns is
evident from what is observed in London. It is one of
the best established truths in medical science—confirmed
by the experience of the army, the navy, the prisons,
the town and country districts of England, that pure
water and pure: air are necessaries of life; and in the
supply of these, London, though in a much better posi-
tion than other places, is still deficient. The vestry of
St. Marylebone, the largest and wealthiest parish in
London, to which we last year called attention, subse-
quently appointed a committee to inquire into the con-
dition of their constituents. The committee drew up a
valuable report in which they state among other things,
that " there are 538 streets or ways iu the parish of St.
Marylebone," and though formerly sceptical, and not
very well informed, their information is now satisfactory
and complete—" Your committee have through the pa-
rish surveyor obtained now, for the first time, a complete
knowledge of the state of the sewers of this great parish,
and they are compelled to declare that it is manifestly in-
sufficient for the wants of the locality, no fewer than 191
streets or ways in the parish being wholly without proper
sewerage, and ft great portion of the remainder defective
or incomplete. * * * Your committee have to report
another nuisance of a most pestilential character, over
which they have not the slightest control, viz., the gully
holes opening into the sewers. Of these there are no
less than 2,732 in the parish, and your committee feel
that the number of these pest holes has been increased,
as the streets were built without the slightest reference
to their previous situation and requirement, and
novxsiloidusresseoffnecwths.y"
There
u t
does any
" gully holes" should open under thtehenorses of
sewers may be so easily carried up the sides
people; when the gases generated inevitably in
anoyt in regard
adppettior to thbeeir any
of the pesea
the houses into the smoke. The committee
accounts for this state of things in its own wa " It
y:
chim-
neys, over
must be attributed entirely to the fact that the rate-
payers have no voice at the board of Commissioners of
Sewers." The water supply is pronounced defective.
The water is only " on" for about an' hour three days a
week. The report says—" The West Middlesex Cum•
pany who brought their water into the parish under the
express pretence of defeating monopoly, of giving a
cheaper and purer supply, after a few years entered into
an agreement with the other companies, parcelled out
the metropolis into districts, and placed the whole com-
munity at the mercy of this giant monopoly, both as re-
gards supply and price." It is always so; the supply of
water is a thing in which there can be no permanent
competition.
The committee throws all the blame which the sewers
and water supply suggests on other bodies; the vestry
has the control of the "dust" and cleansing. This,
though touched tenderly by the committee, is admitted
to be in an unsatisfactory condition.
"Regarding the removal of the dust, your committee
find, in many places through the parish, accumulations
i
"dint"—which unlessis
ofs dust in the yards and cellars of the houses, and there
ihootxhieoy os— are
re paa,did forthe so
refuse of
ovveeryhe same
general complaint of the dustmen refusing to re-
move
" dus
kitchen, and all
which
var
wore
varieties of putrefying vegetable and
animal matter,other
then only removed when
paid for in some way oro; and are even now never
removed at all, but at the ;request of the inhabitants,
who in the worst parts are
du
adduce
very intolerant of dirt.
These facts are not ad
sure on the vestry of St. Maryleboneto, who, as well as
their officers, have, since the
report
evinced a laudable anxiety todo of their committee,
to the
constituency and to improve the health of of tety the district.
istrict.
The report of Marylebone exhibits a fair
the condition of L.,ndon, and must undeceivetehaiosmeen who
of
suppose that the houses are drained, or that the rich
and middle classes, to say nothing of the poor of London,
are adequately supplied with the means of cleanliness
and enjoy the benefit of a pure, salubrious air. Other
towns iu England are comparatively in a worse condi-
tion; the continental cities are still more insalubrious,
and judging from the analogy of the last epidemio they
will suffer much more than London, but it is little satis-
faction to the inhabitants of London to run the risk of
dying by thousands while their neighbours die by tens of
thousands, when they know that the danger to their
health and lives may be diminished to a great extent by
simple and obvious precautions. It may be a difficult,
but it is assuredly not an impossible, problem in engi-
neering, to supply every house in London with abun-
dance of pure water, and to remove all dirt lay scaven-
gers and sweet drains; and these simple arrangements
would render it possible for the population to be cleanly.
A part of the mortality which men experience in
early life is perhaps inevitable; but this natural morta-
lity cannot exceed the mortality in 11011120 of the districts,
in England, comparatively healthy, where parts of the

population are exposed to privation and injuries of va-
rious kinds. Now, in parts of Surrey and Devonshire
about three or four in 10 children under five years of
age die annually; in Lewisham, the healthiest district of
London, the annual mortality is four and five in 10 an-
nually; in nearly every district in Loudon the mortality
of children is double the mortality in the country; io
many districts the mortality is triple the mortality which
some persons may consider natural to mankind. Of
1,000 men between the ages of 45 and 55 living in a
healthy district of England, about 12 die annually; in
nine districts of London the annual deaths among the
same number of men at the same age varies from 30
to 33.

IRISH AMELIORATION SOCIETY.
A meeting of the friends and promoters of the above
society was held on Wednesday, in the Hanover-square
Rooms. The origin and objects of this society are
thus touched upon in the preface to a small pamphlet
which was distributed at the meeting. After alluding
to the great distress at present existing in the sister
country, it goes on to say--"It is manifest to every one
who may give even a slight consideration to the sub-
ject, that for any relief to be permanent, it must be
directed to the amelioration of the moral and sock!. as
well as physical, condition of the people; and on arriving
at this conviction, the inquirer, however benevolent, is
staggered by the apparent impossibility of achieving
so gigantic an undertaking as effectually to relieve
the present distress, and produce that amelioration in
the condition of millions of beings reduced to the
extreme of misery. * * * * Moved
by these sentiments, several gentlemen have formed
themselves into a society, having the sanction and best
wishes of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, as well as of
hie two immediate predecessors, and several leading
members of the British Government, for the purpose of
attempting the accomplishment of this great end, by at-
tacking, at the same time, the two great evils under
which the Irish poor are now sinking—namely, the want
of stimulus to bodily exertion, and the want of means for
moral and social improvement."
The chief feature of the operation of the society
(which, it is expected, will be incorporated by Royal
charter,) consists in the employment of the people in
the preparation of peat fuel and charcoal, and by re-
moving the same, to effect the full reclamation of the
bog lands in Ireland. The means of effecting this
object are proposed to be procured by the formation of
a company subscribing a capital of 500,0001., in shares
of 101. each. The compilation before alluded to further
says :—" The promoters, whose names are a suffi-
cient guarantee for their sincerity, earnestly appeal to
the wellwishers of Ireland and the empire at large, to
make themselves acquainted with the objects they
contemplate, and to assist in effecting them. They do
do not ask alms for the idle--they only ask that those
who can well afford such aid should take one or more
shares of 10/. in this undertaking, and thus enable
the society gradually to establish 200 stations
in different parts of Ireland, each of which will
form a nucleus for an industrious, improving, and happy
community. They are sanguine of success in their
efibrts, if duly supported by the public; and they pledge
themselves to spare no exertion to place the society on
such a footing as to make that success certain. The
wealth to be derived from the peat bog is incalculable,
and cannot fail to be of great national benefit, inasmuch
as it is impossible to realise it without at the same tone
effecting the more important views of the Irish Ame-
lioration Society'—that of permanently improving the
moral and social condition of the poor of Ireland."
The room in which the assemblage took place was
hung round with maps, drawings, plans, sections, and
diagrams of lands, models, machinery, &c., illustrative
of the projects of the society. There was a large pro-
portion of ladies in attendance amongst the audience.
At about half-past two the chair was taken by
Lord DE AIiuLEY, who said it afforded him great
satisfaction to take the chair at a meeting which pro-
posed to submit for consideration a plan whose main
object was to benefit the mural and social condition
of the people of Ireland. He regretted that the
state of the public business was such at the pre-
sent moment as to withdraw from attendance on that
occasion many Irish Members of Parliament and
others who would have been present at their meeting.
It might seem a hopeless project for a society of private
gentlemen to undertake so important a task as that
which was contemplated, when the difficulties of the case
were consideed, and it was remembered that last year
Parliament -hal attempted and had failed to effect.
an object of that kind ; but the condition of the
people of Ireland was such that private enterprise
would be more likely to succeed in a matter of that
sort than where it was carried out under Govern-
ment machinery, and he thought the plan proposed
would hold out to the capitalists of this country the
prosperity of a successful investment of their money, at
the same time that employment would be afforded to a
large number of the labouring population of Ireland.—
(Hear, hear.) It was by means of the peat bogs of
Ireland that that object was to be accomplished. The
details of the plan would be submitted to the meeting by
one in every way competent to explain them—he meant
Mr. Rogers, the eminent engineer—and, therefore, it
was unnecessary for him to enter upon those details.
A vast field was opened in Ireland for the employ-
ment of the people in productive labour, and he felt
satisfied that that was the most effectual means of re-
moving many of the evils under which they laboured,
and of improving and raising the tone of the mind of
the lower classes in that country —(Hear, hear.) Hav-
ing been, he regretted, recently called upon to support
the Government in the passing of measures for the re-
pression of disturbance in Ireland, he rejoiced that so
early an opportunity was afforded to him of joining in a
project which would, he believed, help to rescue them
from that condition which was a stigma and a stain on
our national character.—(Hear.)
Mr. Rooens, civil engineer, then came forward, and
read the following sketch of the plan and objects of the
proposed society:—
" The report made to the Relief Commissioners of
Ireland upon the preparation of the peat of that country,
and its conversion into charcoal, shows from the experi-
ence of eminent practical authorities,. that it possesses
most desirable qualities for agricultural, manufacturing,
household, and general purposes.
" Peat fuel, prepared as proposed by patent process,
produces proportionately considerably more steam than
coal, in consequence of the diffusive property of its heat.
Its economy has been fully proved by the steamers
plying on the Shannon, and many engines worked in
other parts of Ireland; and boilers fired by it have been
found to last nearly double the usual time.
"For distillation, brewing, soap-boiling, sugar•re-
fining, and all similar operations, it is particularly suit-
able ; and for family use, its speedy ignition, and general
heat, strongly recommend it.
" Peat charcoal, as a fuel for the smelting and manufac-
ture of all metals, is of the utmost value, equalling, if not
surpassing the best wood charcoal, at a much lower price.
" This patent fuel may be made superior in density, yet
its cost will be about one-fourth of that of wood charcoal;
thus enabling the ironmaster to substitute it with con-
siderable advantage for that material ; and still more ad-
vantageously for coal, coke, &c., makng the iron twice
or thrice its present value, and the country entirely in-
dependent of foreign supplies.
" Iron of the finest description is
produced from it at
Ichoux, in the department of the Landes, France; at
Wadenhammer and Wachter. Neuaharnmer, Germany;
at Henske), Bohemia; at Konigsbrunn, Bavaria, Sec. And
the French commissioners. authors of the Voyage Me •
tallurgique en Angleterre,' state that peat is generally
used on the Continent for the manufacture of iron; and
that turf charcoal is fully equal, if not superior,
to wood
charcoal for all purposes of iron manufacture.'
"The untiring efforts of Lord Willoughby de Eresby
have accomplished the preparation of an admirable fuel,
even from the very inferior peat of Scotland and Wales;
and razors. surgical instruments, and the finest works in
steel made by it, have been found to be of the most
superior kind—this fact alone demonstrating its great
value.

" Smiths, iron-ship builders, engineers, millwrights,
boiler makers, gunsmiths, &c., will derive both benefit
and profit from its use in their smithies, as it imparts
superior strength and malleability to iron in the forging;
and its cost, when the calorific effect is calculated, will
not exceed that of the usual smith's coal.
" The produce from lead and other ores smelted by it
is greatly increased in quantity and purity;' and copper,
brass, zinc, tin, &e., will be rendered niore ductile, and
otherw►se much improved by its use. •
" For kiln purposes, in drying grain, malt, hops,
pease, beans, &c., and in every instance where a pure
and powerful heat is desirable, it will be found peculiarly
economical.

" Asa fertiliser, or manure, its valuable qualities have
been fully pointed out in the published report above re-
ferred to. _ _ _

_,...._ _,...
" The Royal Agricultural Society of England have
since awarded a prize for an essay on its use and ad.
vantages. Baron Liebig, M. Lucas, and Professor
Lindley, Agricultural Gazette, Farmers' Gazette, Far-
mers' Journal, Farmers' Magazine, Gardeners' Chronicle,
Literary Gazette, the Mark-lane Express, &c., all concur
in its great value as a manure.
" For sanitary purposes, prepared peat charcoal has
been recently proved to be the best disinfecter, absorber,
and deodoriser known, its effect being instantaneous and
continuous.
" Drainage-tiles of a superior and lasting description
have been made of peat. A recent communication from
about
uJames Russell, Esq., Dunlowey, Donegal (an English
gtieraan
possessingl.aprgeer
I,proicipoe.rty in Ireland). States
' he cost tO
" The peat bogs of Ireland extend over 3,000,000 acres.
It is the object of the society to prepare from
these, by means of the overplus labour of the
country, an article which must command almost
un-
limited sale,
the
while general employment will be given
to the inhabitants, and the land reclaimed for
profitable cultivation. The drainage of the bogs is
shown to be neither difficult nor expensive, by the re-
ports of ' the Commissioners appointed to inquire into
the nature and extent of the several bogs in Ireland,
and the practicability of draining and cultivating them;'
and the society have already agreed with the Marquis
of Sligo and Lord de Freyne for large tracts o. f
bog
land, admirably situated in the counties of Mayo and
Roscommon, and are in communication with landed pro-
prietors in several other counties on the subject.
" It is intended that the plan of operation shall be
upon the principle laid down in the report to the relief
commissioners—namely, by 6 task work' and ' money
payments.'
" The society purpose establishing, in desirable posi-
tions throughout the country, stations for the final
drying and preparation of peat and its conversion into
charcoal, having at each one confidential officer, to be
aided by a sufficient number of lab ouringassistants, paying
at once in money a given sum per measure for all Peat
brought in for sale by the peasantry, on their piling it
in the drying-houses. And with the view more fully to
promote the objects of the society, it is proposed to rent
or purchase bog land, on which the peasantry shall be
employed, to be paid in like manner, the society pro,.