The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-25 00:00:00

STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

104,339 persons died in the last quarter. This
number is 6,079 in excess of the deaths-98,260
in the corresponding summer quarter of last year ;
and the rate of mortality, 2.003 per cent., is below
the average (2.138); the excess in that average
being due to the epidemics of cholera.
A certain number of the deaths in the quarter
may be set down as natural deaths, a7:.d they would
not have exceeded 73,533 if the mortality in 63 dis-
tricts of England, by no means in unexceptionable
sanitary condition, be taken as the standard. The
30,806 deaths in excess of that number are unnatu-
ral deaths, the results of causes which it is the duty
of every member of the community to endeavour to
TClll.ove.

It is a remarkable fact that the mortality of the
quarter in the small towns and the country parishes
was above their average, to the extent of more than
one death annually out of every 1,000 living. A
still greater excess might have been expected in the
large town districts, whereas the reverse was ob-
served—the mortality having been at the rate of
2 in 1,000 less than the average. The summer mor-
tality in the town districts was formerly to that of
the rest of the country as 20• to 18; in the last quar-
ter it was 23 to IQ ; and the difference will un-
doubtedly be still less considerable when all the
dense districts are supplied with pure water, and
with the means of returning ail their refuse to the
fields as manure in an innoxious state.
The deaths in London during the quarter exceeded
• the average. The high temperature facilitated the
decomposition of the-impure refuse under the houses,
in the streets, and in the river. Diarrhcea was un-
-
usually fatal all over the London area; scarlatina
and diphtheria were epidemic. In the surround-
ing divisions the mortality was also above the ave.;
rage, as there the same diseases prevailed, with
variable degrees of severity. In Kent diphtheria
was the cause of several deaths in Brenchley, near
Tonbridge, Aldington, Winghasn, . and Deal. in
New Romney, of the Romney Marsh district, re-
mittent fever was prevalent and fatal ; to 9 births
there were 31 deaths. The deaths in Brighton
amounted to 423; in the Worthing district to 84.
The Broadwater Registrar says :
"The deaths are 20 per cent. below the average,
very few having occurred in the town of Worthing
—namely, only 17 out of a population, including
visitors, of 8,000. The deaths in the precious quar-
ter were only 30. I attribute this result principally
to the complete sanitary measures carried out in the
town, under the supervision of the Board of Health."
When will all the English watering_ places carry
out " complete sanitary measures," and thus assert
their superiority over foreign places of resort ?
The districts of Portsea Island and of Alverstoke
are not naturally healthy ; the sites are low, and the
water is probably impure, but measures might be
adopted for diminishing the great number of deaths
from such diseases as diarrhea. The sanitary state
of the rising town of Southampton is not satisfactory,
—240 persons died in the district. North-
ampton and its neighbourhood are still suffering
from epidemics. The few districts around Wisbeach
have not experienced high rates of mortality; but
fever and diarrhea have been very prevalent in
some parishes. The excess of mortality in the First
Ward, Colchester, is ascribed by the registrar " to
fever of a typhoid type, chiefly among patients in
the Camp Hospital, to diarrhea, and to phthisis."
The mortality in the Norwich district is lower than
it was; but diarrhoea was common and fatal. In
the East \Vymcr sub-district "the large number of
deaths (18) from atrophy seems, on inquiry, to de-
pend on improper food, from the mothers not suck-
ling their children, as they say it would interfere
too much with their work."
In the South-Western division, Wilts, Dorset,
and Devon suffered an unusually high rate of mor-
tality. Scarlatina, diphtheria, and smallpox have
proved fatal in many cases. " Sall:tans arrange-
ments are far from good in many houses," not only
of Abbotsbury, where three deaths oecurred in one
house over drains in the worst posSible condition,
hut it is to be feared in many other parts of these
great counties.
In the West Midland Counties the deaths
amounted to 12,673. The health of several of Staf-
ford districts is still bad. tlease,. scailitina, diar-
rhoea, and. typhus have been fatal ; in several houses
of iiiiston two and three children have been carried
off by
rat fear," .tRi i;.s the -;ristrar, " that
often little notice is taken of ilinoss
sylnotoTas appear, when medical i.;(/
Persuus first, apply to a druggist,
a med:ca,t mar.,but not, till the flay before death."
The. N-o:•th si lan d Count i„ aaaesuff,,red v:.ri-
ous par from diphtheria ; the low laar,ity di:-triets
have hi en severely visited, but the deaths (6.167)
do not i. G ply in the county aggregates higher rate:i
of mortal ;ty than usual.-
In Lar:cashire and Cheshiee ;deaths (15,500)
are in nu slbers beloas those registered in the sum-
mer nUarsslrs of the two preceding years. -The
mortality below that of preceding years in LivQr-
pool, and w ill. be still lower when all the required
sanitary -works are efzrzied out.
In Yorlisia.:;.re 10,983 deaths sysere registered. The
rate of mm mto lity is lower-than it was. Yorkshire,
lying betw, ). II the Humber and the Tees—lofty
moorlands as 11 the German Ocean—is now occupied

jitii:,,ccondur

too late.
artorwards to

by nearly 2,000,000 people, living much in aggro-1
gated
masses, but with families characteristically
distributed in 400,000 separate dwellings. The va-
rieties of the geological strata—the coal and iron of
the earth—the plains and hills, feeding_ flocks of
sheep and horses—the rapid hill streams, and the
smooth waters easily made navigable far away into
the interior from the Humber—the positionbetween
Lancashire and. Germany—between Ireland and the
north of Europe—onabled a hardy intelligent race
of men not only to obtain all the ordinary products
of the English soil, but to found the chief manufac-
tories of woollen goods in the world. The men of the
West Riding became the clothiers of mankind ; and
so intent were they on their work, that the
health of the workpeople was sacrificed, and the
race in a few generations must have degene-
rated. But a reaction set in; Lord Shaftesbury's
Bill, limiting the hours of children's labour, was
first agitated at Bradford, and promoted actively by
some of the heads of the leading firms. The first
temperance society, it is said, was formed in this
centre. As substitutes for insalubrious processes,
exquisite pieces of mechanism not only card, but
comb the wool, spin it, weave it, dye it, and finally
convert the fleeces of England, with the fleeces of
Germany, and the finer wools of Australia, either
alone, or combined with cotton, silk, and alpaca, into
the finest textures, which vie in beauty and utility
with the furs of animals, or the gayer plumage of
birds. The workpcople are now in average town
health, and, through the incessant noises of machi-
nery, are often heard, as the day declines, pleasant
voices; singing the concerted songs of the Bradford
, I minstrels.

The mortality of Yorkshire, during the 10 years
1841-50, was at the rate of 25 in 1,000 ; so 6 in 1,000
died in excess of the deaths out of the same numbers
living in comparatively healthy districts ; and the
unnatural deaths in the 10 years amounted to
101,195. The loss of life in Yorkshire was un-
equally distributed ; in the North Riding the mon
,tality was at the rate of 19, in the east Riding
(with York) 24, and in the West Itidine, 23 in
1,000. The climate of Yorkshire is not naturally
unhealthy ; in:the Guisboreugh district the morta-
lity. was at the low rate of 16 in 1,000, in Easing-
wold it was 17, in eight districts it was 18 ; upon
the other hand the mortality in the Hull district
was at the rate of 31 in 1,000, Sculcoates 23, Leeds
district 30, Hunslet (including parts of the borough
of Leeds) 23 ; Bradford 25 in 1,000.
As Yorkshire chimneys do not yet consume their
own smoke it covers whole districts, and is neces-
sarily consumed by the people—its producers say
with medicinal effect, which may, however, well be
questioned. If we suppose for a moment all the
causes of mortality suddenly to become visible like
smoke over Yorkshire,- then the disease particles
will be seen to hang densaly over Hull, Sheffield,
Leeds, York, and their environs, less densely over
the southern and the eastern districts of the coast,
clearing as you ascend the rivers to their sources in
-the moors, and almost disappearing over Easing-
wold and the Guisborough district by the side of
the sea and the waters of the Tees.
Bradford has commenced various works which
have already reduced the mortality; in the
fourteen years, 1841-54, the people of the
Bradford district died at the rate of 26 in 1.000 an-
nually, while the mortality during the three years
1855-57 has been nearly at the rate of 21 in 1,000,
Mr. Hudson, the town clerk, has shown at the meet-
ing of the National Association that a part of this
satisfactory result is fairly referable to sanitary
measures. The full water•supply, and the rapid
removal of the entire refuse of the town to the sur-
rounding land, are still on hand ; and, when these
salutary measures are achieved, and others that an
intelligent medical health officer will suggest, Brad-
ford will realize benefits which all the county will
desire to share. The race of Yorkshire men, in-
stead of degenerating, will then every year grow
finer, more vigorous, more intelligent, better.