The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-04 00:00:00

THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

(From the Registrar-General's treekly Return.)
In the week that ended on Saturday, Sept. 28,
4,607 births and 2,857 detths were registered in
London and in twelve other large towns of the
United Kingdom. The annual rate of mortality was
24 per 1,000 persons living.
The annual rate of mortality last week was 20
per 1,000 in London, 23 in Edinburgh, and 22 in
Dublin ; 16 in Bristol, 26 in Birmingham, 31 in
Liverpool, 38 in Manchester, 29 in Salford, 26 in
Sheffield, 32 in Leeds, 29 in Hull, 34 in Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, and 25 in Glasgow. The rate in
Vienna was 23 per 1,000 during the week ending
the 21st inst., when the mean temperature was 6.2
deg. Fahrenheit higher than in the same week iu
London, where the rate was 19.

The mortality from diarrhoea in the ten large
English towns continues to decrease, but is still con-
siderably greater than is usual so late in the year.
The total deaths referred to this disease in the ten
towns, which in the three previous weeks had been
507, 577, and 436 fell last week to 336, of which
108 occurred in London, 62 in Manchester and Sal-
ford, 58 in Birmingham, 26 in Sheffield, and 25 in
Liverpool. The annual death-rate per 1,000 from
this cause during the week was 2 in London and
Bristol, 3 in Liverpool, 5 in Leeds and Newcastle,
6 in Sheffield, 7 in Manchester and Salford and Hull,
and highest, 9 per 1,000, in Birmingham. Scarla-
tina was fatally prevalent in Manchester, Liverpool,
and Birmingham.

In London the births of 1,122 boys and 1,014
girls, in all 2,136 children, were registered in the
week. In the corresponding weeks of ten years,
1857-66, the average number, corrected for increase
of population, is 2,044.

The deaths registered in Loudon during the week
were 1,194. It was the 39th week of the year ;
and the average number of deaths for that week is,
with a correction for increase of population, 1,273.
The deaths in the present return are less by 79 than
the estimated number.

The deaths from zymotic diseases last week were
324. The deaths of 103 children and 5 adults from
diarrhoea were registered last week ; 10 cases oc-
curred in the west, 25 in the north, 18 in the cen-
tral, 27 in the east, and 28 in the south dis-
tricts. The deaths from diarrhea during the
last few four weeks have been 198, 203, 114,
and in the present return 108. The deaths of 15
persons from cholera or choleraic diarrhoea were
registered last week ; 1 in Kensington Town,
2 in Chelsea, 1 in St. Margaret, Westminster ; 1 in
South Hackney, 1 in St. Andrew, Holborn ; 1 in
St. Botolph, East London ; 1 Holywell, Shoreditch ;
1 in Bethnal-green, 1 in Whitechapel, 1 in Mile-
end Old Town, 1 in Battersea, 1 in Camberwell, 1
in Greenwich, and lin Woolwich. In the corre-
sponding week of last year the deaths from diarrhoea,
were 67, and from cholera 177. The deaths regis-
tered last week from smallpox were 17, from measles
14, from scarlatina 32, from diphtheria 7, from
whooping-cough 26, and from typhus 26. Four
deaths from typhus occurred in Westminster; from
scarlatina, 5 in St. Pancras, and 6 in Clerkenwell
The deaths from phthisis were 138, from bronchitis
67, from pneumonia 41, and from heart disease 42.

By Dr. Frankland's analysis of the water supplied
by the London companies it appears that the New
River water contained in 100,000 tons 24 tons of
extraneous matter; the East London 25, the West
Middlesex 25, the other companies still more,
and the Kent 40 tons of stuff of various kinds.
The previous sewage contamination of the waters at
the time of the analysis had been converted into
comparatively innocuous inorganic compounds. By
this test the Southwark and Vauxhall waters were
then the best, and the New River and Kent waters
the worst of the eight.

COPPER IN NATAL.

By far the most important mineralogical discovery
yet made in this colony is that which has come to
light during the present week. Hitherto the dis-
coveries of copper have been out of the colony and
at some distance from our port. Griqualand, on
the south, and Zululand, on the north, were the
nearest localities where mineral wealth was known
substantially to exist. It may be remembered that
the mines in the first of these places owed their
discovery to the rude green paint used by the na-
tives for discoloring their faces. The attention. of
Mr. Shepstone, Secretary for Native Affairs, was
attracted by this circumstance to a similar inci-
dent, noticed by him 18 years ago within the
boundaries of Natal. In course of time he suc-
ceeded in identifying the exact locality, and Mr.
Warne, a practical miner of 30 years' expe-
rience, has just returned from a nine days' pro-
specting trip, bringing with him about three cwt.
of metalliferous rock, consisting chiefly of carbonate
of copper mixed with quartz and friable clay. These
specimens are poor, being from near the surface,
but they give every promise of a richer yield be-
neath. These are taken from a vein eight feet wide,
running from north east to south west, and probably
extending for some distance, as similar indications
have been found at other places. The most impor-
tant feature of the discovery, however, is its near-
ness to the coast, the lode not being more than
seven miles from the sea, and little more than that
distance in the tidal rise of the Umkornazi, where
the river becomes navigable and accessible by small
vessels. A township has already been laid out at
this little harbour, which is only 30 miles south of
Durham. The distance of the lode by land is only
about 27 miles, 13 of which is a dead level. It is
impossible to overrate the value of this discovery to
the colony in general, and to Durham in particular,
should the lode prove, as is fully expected, to con-
tain rich copper ore. We may state that the land
all round is set apart for the use of the natives, and
Government will, therefore, have the disposal of the
affair in their own hands. In all probability these
mineral indications are but precursors of further dis-
coveries. They occur in a range of hills which runs
parallel with the coast from the Amapondaland,
through Natal into Zululand. We know that at
the southern extremity copper of fine quality exists.
We now find that copper is to be found at a
higher point near the Ilovo. Rumours of similar
traces have been spoken of in the Inanda ,
yet more to the north. An intelligent travel-
ler tells us that just over the Tugela in Zulu-
land, a race of ancient native smelters still reside.
These people were spared during the massacres of
Chaka on account of their usefulness, and the ap-
pearance of the country in that direction indicates
great mineral richness. It is not extravagant, there-
fore, to believe that the time has arrived when the
hidden treasures of the rocks in this part of the
world, so long concealed, are at last about to be ex-
plored and ascertained. Government has placed
£l,OOO on the estimates for next year in aid of
mineralogical explorations. We may mention, by
the way, that an outcrop of coal shale has been ob-
served near the Ilovo.—Natal Mercury, Aug. 10.

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