The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-25 00:00:00

STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

126,682 deaths were registered in the quarter.
The mortality was at the rate of 2.512 per cent., or
rather more than 25 in 1,000. The number ofdeatbs
was less than the number of deaths in the winter of
last year by 4,200 ; and the rate of annual morta-
lity was less by lin 1,000. In both the winter
quarters the rate of mortality exceeded the average
rate prevailing during the winters of the last 10
years, which was 24.55, or nearly 24 in 1,000. In
the first quarter of the year 1858 the weather was
unusually severe ; in the first quarter of 1859 the
weather was unusually mild. In both quarters the
rate of mortality exceeded the average. Upon com-
paring the rate of mortality in 125 districts and 23
suh-districts comprising the chief towns, with the
average of 10 previous winters, it is found to have
slightly decreased—it was 26.47 ; it is 26.09 in
1,000. Upon the other hand, the mortality in the
remaining districts and sub-districts, comprising
chiefly small towns and country parishes, has in-
creased from 22.18 to 23.54 ; or the increase is 1.36
in 1,000.

It will be recollected that the sanitary meaasures
in Ely reduced the mortality of the town below
that prevailing in the surrounding parishes. And
such will probably be the course matters will take
unless sanitary measures are extended to the coun-
try as well as to the towns. The superior health of
the country arises mainly from the circumstance
that the population being widely disseminated, the
poisonous exhalations which are produced around
the dwellings are destroyed to a considerable ex-
tent by the atmosphere. Now the houses in the
suburbs of London and of the provincial towns are
generally built by the architects with cesspools,
which are not emptied daily, and which have not
the advantages of drainage; so that the beneficial
effects of the open country air in the daytime are
likely to be neutralised by the impurity of the night
exhalations in-doors.
The mortality of the quarter in England at the
rates prevailing in 63 of the healthiest districts
would be 17.64 in 1000 ; and if the mortality of the
whole population had been at that rate, the num-
ber of deaths Would have been 86,624 instead
of 121,682. Consequently 35,058 unnatural deaths
were registered in the 90 days. This implies not
only loss of national life, but loss of health and
English vigour, which it is desirable on every ac-
count to raise to the highest pitch in the present
days.
The mortality has prevailed With different degrees
of severity in -every division ; but the number of
deaths was much greater in every division except
London, than the deaths in the winter quarter of
1857 ; and less than the number of deaths during
the winter quarter of 1858 in every division except
the north and west midland divisions. The reason
of this will be apparentupon examinino• the returns
in detail.

Diphtheria has prevailed, with varying degrees
of severity, in different parts of the country. The
ravages of this disease deserve particular attention.
In the south-eastern division the deaths from all
causes amounted to 9,765. In Guildfordt the morta-
lity was unusually high ; hooping-cough and bron-
chitis have been prevalent, and some cases of fever
have been fatal. The cause of the high mortality in
Dorking is not explained. The deaths in Farn-
ham have apparently been raised by the Alder-
shott camp. Tonbridge, Maidstone, and Cranbrook
have experienced high rates of mortality; out of
45 deaths, 18 were caused by diphtheria, which
was exceedingly fatal in Brenchley and Horsmon-
den, two parishes in the Tonbridge district. In
Cranbrook, Tenterden, Ashford, Deal, and Dover
diphtheria proved fatal. The deaths in the sub-
district of St. Peter, Brighton, are 63 above the
average for the corresponding quarter of the last
five years. Zymotic diseases have prevailed, and
persons have died of scarlatina and diphtheria,
,lu of typhus and 13 of smallpox, none of the
latter ha,jn ; g Men vaccinated. In Worthing, where
sanitarY measures have been carried out, 83 deaths
occurred; in Brighton 459 ; the respective popu-
lations of the two districts having been 18,746
and 65,569 in 1851.
Assuming that the popu-
lation increased atnlearlY the same rates, the
mortality out of equal
populations was about as
four in Worthing to seven in Brighton. All the
facts tend to show that sanitary isa,ni
deathry improvement
is a question of life andto the popula-
tion of every town. Several districts
Shire suffered sev.e.rely smallpox preovfailileadmpat-

* From a return with which the Registrar-General-----------
has
been favoured by the Emigration Commissioners
number returned as of English origin was 5,56 'e the
the
birthplace of 2,380 was not distinguished. In thheil
aboveetatement a proportional number of these have been added
those returned as of English origin.
t The Su.perintendont Registrar's district is in all eases
referred to, except where otherwise stated.-

Southampton, scarlatina at Kingsclere. Reading
continues an unhealthy town ; in Windsor the
mortality has fallen.

In the- South Midland counties 7,235 persons
died ; the deaths in every county, except North-
ampton, being below the deaths in the previous
year. Newport Pagnell, Chipping Norton, Ket-
tering, Wellinborough, and several other districts
have experienced a high rate of mortality. In the
Northampton district, with a population of 33,857
in 1851, the deaths amounted to 306. The deaths
in the two previous winter quarters, 1857-58,
amounted to 239 and 231; so the mortality is ex-
cessively high, and above the average. Measles
and whooping-cough have prevailed. It appears
that there has been a strike in the town. In the
Cambridge district 159 deaths were registered ; in
the Ely district 118 ; the population of the two
districts in 1851 having been 27,815 and 22,896; so
that the mortality of Cambridge is greatly in excess
of the mortality of Ely. In the years 1841-50
the mortality of the population of Cambridge was
at the rate of 23 in 1,000 ; hence taking the
excess over 17, the rate prevailing in healthy dis-
tricts, it exhibited six degrees of insalubrity, and
during the ten years the unnatural deaths amounted
to 1.568. How long is this state of things to continue
in the seat of one of the great Universities of the
country ? Science has here a wide field of useful-
ness before it. It has the great opportunity of
saving many lives, and at the same time of
applying its principles. By the energy of one of
the departed ornaments of the University, Ely has
been rendered comparatively healthy. And from
Ely Cambridge has now evidently, much to
learn. It is a matter of national importance
that the places where some of the principal youths
of the country are educated should be healthy.
Why are not the schools of medicine in the Univer-
sities schools of health ? Why are not the
undergraduates taught practically the conditions
most favourable to human development ? Why
are there not tables of mortality at Cambridge
and Oxford, as well as in London, pointing
out monthly, the effects of all the noxious agencies
infesting the houses, colleges, and streets ?
This would be teaching by example, and could
not fail to leave permanent impressions on the
minds of many men who will have unusual means
of directing public opinion. _ _ _

In the Eastern Counties the registered deaths
amounted to 6,211, or were less by 1,380 than the
deaths in the first quarter of last year. Rochford,
in Essex, experienced a high rate of mortality ; 91
persons died. The registrar of Great Wakering,
one of the sub-districts, explains this in his note :

" The deaths have greatly exceeded the average, in conse-
quence of the fatality of diphtheria among infants
especially in the island of Foulness. Many ditches there
are in a very filthy state, and the e!i uvium arising from
some is intolerably offensive. Ague also has been more
prevalent, snore severe and obstinate, during the last two.
years, than I have ever known it in a period of 3.5 years."
Some general measure is desired to deal with the
drainage of all the marshes on the banks of the
Thames.

Parts of Maldon, Dunmow, and Saffron Walden,
in Essex, have suffered from diphtheria ; so have
parts of the districts of Cosford, Tunstead, Erpin-
ham, Aylsham, Blofield, and Loddon, in Suffolk
and Norfolk.

10,798 persons died in the south-western coun-
ties, but the mortality was lower than it was last
year. Diphtheria is still prevalent at Christian
Malford, in Wilts. Trowbridge has also suffered
from that and other diseases. Plymouth and the
surrounding districts have suffered severely. , The
registrar, in explaining the excess in the number
of deaths in East Stonehouse, says that 16 Turks
died in the quarter. Four persons in Parkham
died of scarlatina in one house. The deaths in
Launceston and in Redruth have exceeded
the average from diphtheria, smallpox, measles,
and diseases of the respiratory organs. Epidemic
sore throat prevailed, and three cases of diphtheria
were fatal in a sub-district of Taunton, Somerset-
shire. 27 deaths from smallpox occurred in Bridge-
water. Scarlatina and diphtheria attacked nearly
every person in Chew Magna, Clutton.

16,144 deaths were registered in the West Mid-
land division ; 8,955 in the North Midland divi-
sion. In these two divisions the deaths exceefled
the deaths in the severe winter quarter of 1858.
In many districts of Gloucestershire, including
Stroud and Cheltenham, the mortality was high ;
diphtheria and scarlatina prevailed in this county,
in Hereford, and in Shropshire. Three deaths
from diphtheria occurred to children in one family
in the Condover sub-district ; the cesspools con-
nected with the cottages are generally in a bad
state. The sanitary state of Staffordshire is very
unsatisfactory, and the mortality has been exces-
sively high. Diphtheria and scalatina have pre-
vailed in many of its districts ; and in Stourbridge,
and in Foleshill, where the mortality has also been
very high.
Ashby-de:la-Zouch, Leicester, and several dis-

triets in Ledestershire, have suffered from epide•
mics ; 150 cases of measles and scarlatina occurred
in the village of Sutton Bonnington alone. Diph-
theria was prevalent in Lincoln, where typhoid
fever also prevailed ; six persons died from it in one
family. Their residence is a mile from the village,
a solitary farmhouse, and no special cause of the
attack has been ascertained ; but the adequacy of
the inquiry may be questioned. Diphtheria has
prevailed in many districts of Lincolnshire, Not-
tinghamshire, and Derbyshire, which have all ex-
perienced heavy rates of mortality.
19,431 deaths were registered in the counties of
Chester and Lan:aster; nearly as many were re-
gistered in the last winter quarter. Diphtheria,
scarlatina, measles, and typhoid fever, have pre-
vailed in many districts.
The 12,304 deaths in Yorkshire imply a heavy
rate of mortality. Scarlatina and diphtheria occur
over and over again in the " notes." Sheffield con-
tinues to suffer severely from these and other epi-
demics.

Of the Northern counties, in which 6,590 persons
died, Durham appears to have suffered most severely
from various kinds of zymotic diseases ; scarlatina
and diphtheria occupying conspicuous places in the
registers. _ _

Diphtheria has spread over the remotest parts of
Wales. We find it in Haverfordwest, in Cardiff,
and in Corwen. The deaths in the Principality
from a'.l causes amounted to 8,250.

It is a melancholy task to record the fatality of
diseases arising through the neglect of sanitary
arrangements in this and in other countries ; and to
observe so much activity in inventing opportunities
of destruction, with so much apathy in applying
measures already invented for promoting the well-
being of the population. Man is the only animal,
Pliny says bitterly, that takes a pleasure in the de-
struction of his own species. Surely somebody will
one day arise to teach the world the truer pleasure
of saving mankind !

(From the Registrar-General's Weekly Return.)

The total deaths registered in London, which were
,207 in the last week of April, have constantly de-
creased in the three weeks of the current month,
and in the week that ended last Saturday they were
1,057. In the ten years 1849-58 the average number
of deaths in the weeks corresponding with last week
was 1,041 ; but, as the deaths returned for last week
occurred in a population which has increased, they
should be compared with the average raised in pro-
portion to that increase—namely, with 1,14.5. The
comparison shows that the deaths that occurred
last week were less by 88 than the number that would
have occurred if a mortality equal to the average
rate for the third week of May had prevailed.
The births of last week exceeded the deaths of
the same period by 612.
The present returns, in connexion with those of
previous weeks, show the deaths from smallpox in
several sub-districts, and a certain though not
strong or uniform tendency of this disease to in-
crease. Last week it was fatal in 23 cases, 19 of
which occurred to children under 10 years of age ;
nine occurred to infants less than a year old.
Four children died from it in the sub-district of
Bethnal-green ; and the Registrar of St. Mary,
Newington, who returns two cases, states that it is
very prevalent in his sub-district. The deaths from
scarlatina, which were 57, 55, and 47 respectively
in three previous week, declined last week to 39, of
which six occurred in Lambeth, and three in Plum-'
stead. Besides the 39 cases of scarlatina, there were
16 of diphthetia, which has not declined concur-
rently with the former disease. The deaths from
diphtheria occurred as follow :—One in Ladbroke-
villas, Kensington ; one at 8, Thayer-street, Mary-
lebone ; one in Upper Avenue-road, Hampstead ;
one at 34, London-street, St. Pancras ; one at 9,
Cambridge-row, Camden-town ; one at 10, Ander-
son's-road, Homerton ; one at 41, King-street (St.
Anne, Soho) ; one at 30, Ann's-place, Hackney-
road ; two in one famlily at 35, Coventry-street,
Bethnal-green ; one at 8, Worship-square, Shore-
ditch; one at 1, Martha-street, Haggerstone East;
one at 18, Price's-street, St. Saviours ; one at 67,
Nelson-square; one at 36, Felix-street, Lambeth;
and one at 13, Vauxhall-place. There-were eight
deaths in the week from erysipelas, three of which
occurred to infants. Three children and two adults
died from syphilis. Two persons died of ischuria.
Of 47 violent deaths 39 were by accident or negli-
gence, four by murder (three of these-infanticide),
and four by suicide. A widow 44141 the 19th
inst. at 15, Wellington-street, S at the
age, as stated, of 100 years. - -
Last week the births' of, 859 boys and 0 girls,
in all, 1,669 childron, viditq registered in ondon.
In the ten correspondin., of the years 1849-
58 the average numbei- .
At the Royal Observa ory, reenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29-668 in.
The barometer fell from 29.92 in. on Sundayto 21.55
in. on Thursday,those points being the highest and

lowest in the week. The mean temperature of the '
week was 52.6 deg., which is 04 deg. below the
average of the same week in 43 years (as determined
by Mr. Glaishier). The thermometer in the shade
attained its lowest point (39.7 deg.) on Sunday, and
its highest (67.9 deg.) on Thursday. The range of the
week was therefore 28.2 deg. ; the mean daily range
was 13.9 deg. On Sunday the range was 24.3 deg.; on
Tuesday it was only 4 deg. The difference between
the mean dew-point temperature and air tempe-
rature was 4.4 deg. The mean degree of humidity
of the air was 88 ; on Wednesday the humidity
was 99, approaching complete saturation. The
mean temperature of the Water of the Thames was
55.9 deg. The wind blew invariably from the
north-east, which has also been the prevailing
direction since the beginning of the month. Rain
fell to the amount of 1.60 in., the proportion of
which that fell on Friday was 0.77 in. There was
Ia thunderstorm on the evening of Thursday.

THE RESULT OF THE ELECTIONS.

(From the Times.)

Now that the election is over, it is time to ask,
what has been gained by Lord John Russell's
Resolution ? We may ask the question with
utter impartiality, for that resolution was no
child of ours, and from the first moment we
declined all share in the responsibility. It is not
taxing the recollection of our readers very severely
to remind them that we strongly advocated an
entirely different treatment of the Ministerial
Reform Bill. Considering the quarter from which
it cadte, we regarded it as an immense concession,
and capable of being amended into a useful mea-
sure. Insufficient, indeed, it was, and in some points
dishonest. That was the inevitable misfortune of
a Conservative Reform Bill, for it was evident
that the measure must first be accepted by the
Conservatives before it could even be proposed
to the Liberals. But, in our general estimate of
the bill, we rested rather on the £lO county fran-
chise and the recognition of popular rights involved
in the other new franchises than on the maintenance
of the £lO franchise for boroughs, and the restric-
tion of borough freeholders to their own boroughs.
It certainly did seem to us that the House of Com-
mons was committed to give the bill a fair trial,
and that if it meant only to throw out the
Government the right time to act was on the
Address, or before the introduction of the mea-
sure, or at all events on the second reading.
Lord John Russell, however, is a great consti-
tutional authority. If the turn of things is at
all in his favour, he speaks and acts with irre-
sistible weight. Like the country physician called
in to give dignity to the last days of the gouty
baronet, Lord John Russell has a vocation for
splendid failures. Nobody can smash his cause
with such heroic grace and facility.
In the name of common sense, of Cocker, and
of all that is calculable, what has been gained
by this precious Resolution ? It is vain now
to question the dissolution.. Time may come
when, among the crimes and errors of all
parties, these ;too . may have a place, and even
Conservatives may lament an appeal to the
people in favour of the less, as against the
greater, Reform. Viewing the matter as one of
constitutional right and the usual party licence, we
must admit that Lord Derby did no more than
his opponents would have done in his place, and
the responsibility of all that has followed dates
from the first declaration of war—Lord John's
Resolution. The object, doubtless, was to unite
parties; but what the union was to be for, and
where the boat was to land its united cargo, would
seem to have been the last matter taken into
account. As, then, the Resolution has done it
all, let us ask, with all due reverence, " What
has it done ?" Se far as regards the balance
of parties, it has given Lord Derby 26 seats, or
52 votes on a division. That is so much gain,
and is not to be explained away. .:We cannot help
looking back to the very hard-fought battle, on a
very definite issue, which Lord Derby lost by 39
votes, and with that recent instance we cannot but
think Lord Derby has every reason to rejoice with
a gain of 52 votes on a division. It is true that Lord
Palmerston could honestly count 30 votes that
would have mustered to his lead, though they held
back from Lord John Russell's ; but such caprices of
feeling there will be on- all occasions, under every
leader, and, if Lord John Russell could not muster
all the Liberals, neither could Lord Palmerston
be sure of doing so. For other matters of party
significance, we should thing that Lord Derby
prays devoutly that Lord John Russell may
always direct and confound the politics of the
Liberal cause. Lord John has shelved for this
year, we apprehend, the disagreeable question of
Parliamentary Reform ; he has reinstated the
Conservatives in greatly increared force, with at
least one quarter more office and salary than
they ever hoped for, and so late in the year that
they can do nothing even if they wished; and
he has relieved them from the fearful respon-
sibility- of a year wasted in doing nothing at all.
With Lord J. Russell's invincible self-complacency
we could not hope to interfere, but many a man
has accepted a peerage for less.
Though to Lord John Russell himself it may
be rather a novel view of the question, we
cannot see how the public interest stands better
now than it did at the beginning of the session.
The whole year has been lost to the country. Be
Parliamentary government a good thing or a bad
thing, there has been none of it—there will be
none of it this year. The Queen's Speech is fixed
for June 7, and whether the Opposition should
decline to give battle, or, giving battle, should win
the day, nothing will be done beyond the barest
formalities before the inevitable hour of separation
in August. For several years past little has been
done, but this year absolutely nothing. With a
great war blazing up before our eyes, and with the
old stories of French and Austrians that enlivened
the existence of our fathers re-enacted to the
life, it is quite possible that the nation may some-
what abate its interest in Parliamentary debates
and domestic legislation. A Tory Cabinet and wars
all around us are an association of ideas for which
Englishmen are but too well prepared. It is
quite possible they may fall into it as into the
very cradle in which they were nurtured. There
is a sort of lullaby in the recurrence of precisely
similar circumstances, and men have been cozened
out of their very power of choice and action by
being put in the old harness, or sent sliding down
the old groove. Whether Derby, Malmesbury, and
Disraeli would make up one Pitt is a matter for
national taste and understanding, but nobody ex-
pects the revival to be quite equal to the original.
Supposing, however, what in point of fact is the
more likely alternative, that Lord Derby should be
beaten somewhere about Waterloo day by a narrow
majority, we should then find ourselves with a
Liberal party " in power" indeed, but with fewer
votes by 50 than it had at the beginning of the
year, and with 300 instead of 250 Conservatives
dead against them. -Whatever • difficulties there
were before in Parliamentary government, these
would be immensely aggravated by the results of
the election.

It would be a great satisfaction to us if Lord
John Russell could show his move an advantage.
To us it seems as mere a blunder as any tyro in
politics could commit in a moment of rash confi-
dence. Had our advice been taken, and the bill
been passed, we will not say improved, but largely
chastised, so long as the £lO county franchise was
left it would have been impossible for a Conserva-
tive Government to go to the country and expect
to gain more county seats. But let it not be sup-
posed that Government has quiet days in store.
Adversity makes strange bed-fellows, and Lord
Palmerston and Lord John Russell will no doubt
co-operate to restore what their differences have
overthrown. They will act together, whether in
Opposition or in office, and, if election pledges are
to be trusted, they have a good majority over
the Conservative 300. Mr. Bright's intentions are
a mystery perhaps even to himself, but the inde-
pendent party may not be so satisfied with this
gentleman's lead as to follow him into a deliberate
alliance with the Conservative Cabinet. In all
probability we shall have a question of confidence;
and if proper care be taken, and votes ascertained
in time, there can hardly fail to be a majority
against Government, followed by a resignation.
What we lament is that the Liberals should return
to power with an aggravation of the difficulties
which drove them from it. If their divisions left
them before at the mercy of an independent party,
steady to no other game but its own advancement,
much more so will it be now. We cannot flatter
ourselves that the events which have reconciled
Palmerston and Russell will make Bright less
assuming and confident. Whatever mischief he did
before he can do now; and whatever he can do to
stop Government on ordinary principles he most
probably will. What, then, have we gained by the
resolution which gave Lord Derby a fair pretence
for going to the country ? We have gained only the
moral lesson for the Liberal chiefs, and we only
regret that at their respectable time of life they
should require such a lesson, and have to learn to be
wise at such a cost to themselves and their country.

(From the Daily News.)
A Tory Government is on the point of perishing
by the sword which with its own hands was drawn
against Reform. It will not be permitted to put up
that sword ino its sheath again when the time has
come for it to face the encounter it wilfully provoked,
and when the penal dissolution is found to be a
two-edged weapon in the hands of implacable an-
tagonists. A few weeks will show whether a re-
united Liberal party is disposed to ratify with its
deliberate and decisive approval a desperate though
defeated attempt to debauch the conscience of the