The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-27 00:00:00

The Public Health.

(From the Registrar-General's Weekly Return.)
In the week that ended on Saturday, Dec. 22, the births
registered in London and 12 other large towns of the
United Kingdom were 4,47 G ; the deaths registered, 2,990.
The annual rate of mortality was 25 per 1,000 persona
living.

in London the births of 1,055 boys and 1,079 girls, in
all 2,131 children, were registered in the week. In, the
corresponding weeks of 10 years, 1856-65, the awrage
number, corrected for increase of population, was 1,964.
The deaths registered in London during the week were
1,377. It was the 51st week of the year, and the average
number of deaths for that week is, with a correction for
increase of population, 1,452. The deaths in the present
return are less by 75 than the estimated number.
Two deaths from cholera and 16 from diarrhoea wore
registered during the week.

A coachmaker's labourer, aged 59 years, died on the 17th
December at No. 10, Shouldhana-street, Marylebone, of
cholera (35 hours.)

The widow of a publican, aged 36 years, died on the
18th December at 16, Exmouth-street, Mile-end Old Town,
of choleraic diarrhoea (three days.)

Twenty-six deaths from small-pox, 30 from scarlatina,
43 from whooping-cough, and 55 from fever were regis-
tered in the week.

Phthisis proved fatal to 178 persons ; 171 deaths oc-
curred from. bronchitis, and 98 from pneumonia.

Five deaths were registered as resulting from injuries
caused by horses or carriages in the streets, and 7 children
tied from burns or scalds.

The annual rate of mortality last week was 23 per 1,000
in London, 29 in Edinburgh, and 24 in Dublin ; 22 in
Bristol, 21 in Birmingham, 33 in Liverpool, 32 in Man-
chester, 31 in Salford, 23 in Sheffield, 28 in Leeds, 20 in
Hull, 34 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and 29 in Glasgow.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean height
of the barometer in the week was 30,111 in. The barome-
trical reading increased from 2940 in. at the beginning of
the week to 30.36 on Thursday. The mean temperature
of the air in the week was 41.3 deg., which is 2.0 deg.
above the average of the same week in 50 years (as deter-
mined by Mr. Glaisher). The highest day temperature
53.5 deg. on Tuesday. The lowest night temperature was
29.3 deg. on Thursday. The entire range of temperature
in the week was therefore 23• i deg. The mean of the
highest temperatures of the water of the Thames was 424
deg. ; that of the lowest was 41.1 deg. The difference be-
tween the mean dew-point temperature and air tempera-
ture was 3.2 dog. The mean degree of humidity of the
air 82, complete saturation being represented by 100. Rain
fell to the amount of 0.05 in. The general direction of
the wind was south-west. According to a return fur-
nished by the engineer of the Metropolitan Board of
Works, the average daily quantity of sewage pumped into
the River Thames at the southern ()tidal' works, Cros-
ness, was 207,513 cubic metres.

TILE FERGUSON BE,QUEST.—A great stir is being
made in Scotland just now about the administration
of a fund left for religious purposes, some time since, called
the Ferguson Bequest, and the Glasgow herald gives some
interesting particulars of the individual by whom it was
devised. Mr. Ferguson had no claim to the title of phi-
lanthropist till he was on his death-bed. His chief plea-
sure iu life seems to have consisted in amassing an immense
fortune, and something of niggardliness marked his con-
duct in that not very amiable pursuit. When worth
hundreds of thousands he could squabble like a boggar for
a sixpence. Ho was too grasping to enjoy his wealth ;
but he seems also to have been of too shrewd a disposition
to be able to feel all the raptures of the miser. He used
to say to his friends, " I am a poor rich man—burdened
with money, but I have nothing else." He was in the act
of signing a check for £lO,OOO when he was struck with
paralysis, and the check remained after his death with only
half of his signature appended. He remembered on his
deathbed the poor relations whom he had forgotten during
his lifetime, and he made amends for his neglect of the in-
terests of religion and charity by souse noble bequests. Up-
wards of 100 private persons, some of them already in good
circumstances, shared in his wealth; but the sudden trans-
formations which took place among many of them from
poverty to affluence were both astonishing and amusing,
Day labourers, masons, grocers, and, in one case, a poor
hawker of fish, became possessors of thousands. More than
half a million of money was thus disposed of. Mr. Fergu-
son's great religious bequest somehow looks like a lump
sum paid to Heaven for oversights during a long, intensely
worldly, and even mean sort of life. He was not what is
called a religious man. So.ne have asserted that he was a
member of the Church of Scotland; but the Herald be-
lieves it would be more correct to say that he had not Leen
within the walls of a church for 40 years before his death.
When near the close of his life the stoical indifference " to
these things" broke down somem hat, but, too proud to go
toat
thechu timerch
, he
pareetaucahlliyng on
ned
tahemisnuisnteltyof
eveninsslrvin lrvine hino was
the
streets to come opposite his door and deliver his sermon
there. And this "poor rich man," wrapped up in shawls,
sat in the lobby andlistened to it. This was the man who
left about £400,000 for the spread of the Gospel, who made
it a condition that the trustees should be communicants of
the Churches which they represented, and who was spe-
cially careful to note in his will that the books of the fund
should be balanced every year, on the 31st of December,
except when that day fell upon a Sunday.—Pall Mall
Gazette.

MYSTERIOUS DEATII IN NOR FOLE.—Yesterday
an inquest was held at Postwick, Norfolk, on the body of
Mr. Christopher Robinson, whose lifeless body was dis-
covered on Sunday morning in a field in this village. The
jury returned as their verdict that the deceased terminated
his existence while labouring under temporary insanity.
The dreadful wounds which the deceased appears to have
inflicted on himself led at first to the inference that he bad
been murdered.

DEATH STOPPING A PROSECUTION.—A charge of
larceny should have been preferred against John Martin,
an old man, and Clara Martin, a girl of 19, who claimed to
b.) man and wife, before the magistrates at Kirby Moorside
last week, but the prosecutor droppeddown dead. The pri-
soner; however, were taken to Helmsley, and brought up
on another charge, and on Saturday were committed for
trial. When arrested at Malton the mau was wearing four
shirts and the woman five chemises and a shirt, all stolen,
mostly from Ness, North Riding.
THE DOG OF THE REGI3IENT.—AnimaIs are inva-
riably great pets with soldiers. In Austria almost
every regiment has a dog, and wo of course had ours.
Hector has his peculiarities ; he was attached to no ono in
particular, but always recognised a Jager by a friendly
wag of his stump of a tail. He was a short brown-haired
beast, of no particular breed, and first joined us in the
battle of St. Lucia. Whence he came no one knew, but
ho was over to be seen in the thickest of the light and
firing, and before the end of it was severely wounded. Ho
was considered to have shown great bravery, and was im-
mediately voted into the Jager corps, and au honorary
member of each mess-table. From that time, whichever
mess Hector graced with his presence at the dinner hour
tn
wellwith
u u
d e the
rs
tooto others e rs
and— (and he never failed to turn up at one or the other), the
afteracoporko,ee tldiiild,
g called allotting;Nveh always made one for
the
Hector,
proceeding
perfectly turn out
listened for. Whenever any of the Jagers were mustered
for parade Hector always turned out and took up his posi-
tion behind the commanding officer and in front of the
staff trumpeter. On the occasion to which I have alluded,
i.e., our final separation from the old companies, Hector,
seeing that some movement was in contemplation, hurried
on to the ground, but was not noticed until the last mo-
ment, when some of the men called him to accompany
them back to quarters, while we called him to go forward
with us. The dog looked first at one and then at the other,
with a profoundly reflective air; but observing that we
were in full marching order, while the others were only in
fatigue dress, ho decided, to our great joy, that duty re-
quired him to cast in his lot with us, and accordingly
trotted cheerfully by our side in that long day's march.
Those who hold the doctrine of the metempsychosis of
souls would have little difficulty in believing that the spirit
ofabrave,
active, and most thoughtful officer was impri-
soned in Hector's poor uncouth form.—Reminiscences of an
English Cadet, in theAu4nan @rice, in the " cormin 31023.
tine" for January.