The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-15 00:00:00

HEALMIEr OF LONDON Draurt9 Till WEEK.

(From the .Registrar-General's Weekly Return.)
The deaths in London in the week that ended last Satur-
day exhibit a small increase on the respective numbers of
the two previous:weeks, which were 1026 and 1049. In the
present return they are 1084. For the corresponding weeks
of ten previous years (1850-9) the average number of deaths
is found to be, after correction for increase of population,
1192, compared with which the return for last week is less
by 108. This satisfactory result is obtained notwithstand-
ing the temperature of the air has been considerably lower
than it usually is in the first ten days of November. In the
corresponding week of ISSB the deaths rose to 1349, when
the mean temperature was 39 deg., which is only 1 deg.
less than it was last week.
The deaths from "developmental diseases of children,"
which were 29 in the previous week, rose last week to 42; those
from atrophy and debility, nearly all amongst children, also
rose from 41 to 53 ; the deaths from all causes of persons aged
60 years and upwards declined from 206 to 183. Hocping-
cough, which was fatal in 34 eases in the previous week,
rose to 44 last week. From scarlatina 47 deaths occurred last
week, and from diphtheria 12. There were five from small-
pox, all amongst children. A widow died at the age of 98
years. A cooper aged 42 years died from " ulceration of the
stomach, accelerated by herbs and powders administered by
a herbalist," according to the finding of a coroner's jury.
In reference to the death from phthisis of an assistant in a
chemical factory, it is added that his health had been im-
paired by the grinding of colours. A child, three years
old, was poisoned by " arsenical exhalations from the green
paper of a breakfast-room." That the use:of paper, thus
prepared, in covering the walls of apartments, especially
b:ldrooms, is highly dangerous, is a fact which by this time
should be universally known. The daughter of a tailor,
aged three years, was burnt by her clothes taking fire from
lucifer matches with which she was playing; the son of a
wharf labourer and the daughter of a labourer also died
from their clothes taking fire ; a fourth died from " burns
on the chest." A boy, aged one year, was fatally scalded
by drinking hot water out of a tea-kettle.
Last week the births of 890 boys and 801 girls, in all,
1,691 children, were registered in London. In the ten
corresponding weeks of the years 1850.59 the average
number was 1,636.
METROPOLITAN WATERS, OCT. 1860.

The composition of the London waters, according to the
analysis of Dr. Robert Dundas Thomson, F.R.S., is not
essentially different from that which they afforded in the
preceding month. The analysis of the Loch Katrine and
Manchester waters are given for the sake of comparing rain
waters collected immediately after th3ir fall, and secured
from sewage contamination with the waters of rivers or
open canals, which io some extent act as sewers, or are
liable to be rendered impure by the proximity of popula-
tion. The Great Yarmouth supply contains some peaty
matter in solution which might probably be removed by
modified arrangements.

Total impurity Organic im-
per gallon. purity.
grs. or de,g. grs. or deg.

Distilled water

i..,)eiiiatrine water, new supply
to Glasgow
Manchester Water Supply
Great Yarmouth Water Supply

THAMES COMPANIES.

Chelsea
Southwark
Lambeth

21'40
20.40
21-20
20'28
20'16

1.88
I'l2
2.08
0.84
1.24

Grand Junction
West Middlesex
OTHER COMPANIES.
New 20'08 112
River
East London
Kent
The table is read thus—Loch Katrine water contains in the
gallon 3.16 degrees or grains of foreign matter in solution, of
which *96 degrees or grains arc of vegetable or animal origin.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean height
of the barometer in the week was 30.114 in. The mean daily
reading was above 30 in. on five days of the week; The
barometer fell from 30.36 in. on Wednesday to 29.82 in. on
Saturday. The mean temperature of the air in the week
was 40.1 deg., which is 5 deg. below the average of the
same week in 43 years (as determined by Mr. Glaisher).
The mean daily temperature was below the average through-
out the week ; and the amount of this depression was gene-
rally from 5 deg to 7 deg. On Wednesday the thermometer
in the shade rose to 51.7 deg; its lowest point in the week
was 29.6 deg on Sunday. The extreme range in the week
was therefore 22.2 deg. The mean daily range was 12.5 deg.
The difference between the mean dew-point temperature and
air temperature was 2.5 deg. The mean degree of humidity
of the air was 91, complete saturation being represented by
100, which point was almost attained on Saturday, when the
humidity was 97. The wind was generally in the east ;in
the middle of the week it was in the north-east. The rain
in the week was 0.18 in, nearly all of which fell on Satur-
day, whey rains were frequent and heavy. The moan tem-
perature of the water of the Thames was 48.8 deg.

THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT AND

THE "PETER'S _PENCE."

The Minister of the Interior has just addressed
the following circular to all the prefects of France :

Paris, Nov. 10.

M. le Prefect,—The Imperial Government has in noway
fettered the efforts which have been made to assist the
financial operations of the Pontifical Government; it autho-
rised the negotiation in France of the loan which the Pope
decided to contract; it left the fullest liberty to the sym-
pathetic manifestations which exhibited themselves in in-
dividual offerings, and those offerings have reached Rome
without any obstacle. But the Government has never ad •
mitted that there could be founded, without its authority,
throughout the empire, and as a permanent institution,
committees or associations having for their object to or-
ganise, to stimulate, and to concentrate the collection of a
sort of tribute for the court of Rome.

In a circular dated May 5, 1860, his Excellency the Mi-
nister of Public Instruction and Worship reminded the
bishops what were the prescriptions and the traditions of the
French law upon this point. Nevertheless, some attempts
are being made in a sense altogether contrary to the direc-
tions of that circular, and documents which have become
public have announced the intention of forming an associa-
tion represented by committees acting together, obedient to
a common impulse, and constituting a kind of hidden insti-
tution organised in the bosom of the country.
The Government cannot tolerate this neglect of regula-
tions which it has laid down, this violation of laws which it
has resolved should be respected. I invite you conse-
quently, M. le Prefect, to warn the organisers and the
members of these committees, if they have commenced to
act in your department, that they must immediately dis-
solve, and you will inform them that if, notwithstanding
this notice, they persist in their enterprises, they will ex-
pose themselves to the penalties decreed by the law.
Individual donations to the Holy Father are, and will re-
main free ; but as to associations into the secret activity of
which political intrigues under the veil of religion may
very easily glide, their existence is unlawful until after the
authorisation of the government, and that authorisation
has not been granted them.—Receive, &c.,
The Minister Secretary of State in the Department
of the Interior, BILLAULT.