The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-18 00:00:00

DEATH OF DR. SOUTHWOOD 5.1.11111.

It is our painful duty to record the death of the
eminent physician and father of sanitary reform,
Dr. Southwood Smith, who died at Florence on the
10th inst., after six days' illness, from bronchitis
Southwood Smith was born at Martock, in Somer-
setshire, on the 21st December, 1788, and was
therefore at his decease within eleven days of com-
pleting his 734 year, though from the length of
time his name has been before the world, he was
generally thought much older. Originally educated
for the Christian ministry, the name of Southwood
Smith was early brought into repute as the author
of "Illustrations of the Divine Government," which.
passed through several editions. The duties of the
pastoral office having brought him much in contact
with the poor, his penetrating and benevolent mind
readily perceived how greatly physical suffering
contributes to moral degradation, and he entered
upon the study of medicine at Edinburgh, with a
view to administer healing to the body whilst con-
veying spiritual consolation and admonition to the
soul. Accordingly, for some time after receiving
his diploma, Dr. Southwood Smith united the offi-
ces of pastor and physician at Yeovil. Employed
in this manner, the miserable condition of the
dwellings of the poor became firmly associated in
his mind with the undue prevalence of preventible
disease, especially of fever.
Dr. Southwood Smith's next publication was a
work on " The Philosophy of Health," which
reached a tenth edition.

It has fallen to the lot of few to accomplish such
extensive services for the public benefit as have
been subsequently rendered by Dr. Southwood
Smith. He was the chief originator of the science
of Preventive Medicine as systematically applied in
this country, and the clearness and force of his writ-
ings made him very successful in popularising the
leading principles of national ilealth.

Appointed physician to the London Fever Hos-
pital and the Eastern Dispensary in 1824, Dr. Smith
spent several years in the wards of the one and
visiting patients of the other in their squalid abodes;
at the same time embodying the results of his ob-
servations in a work described by the M edical
Chirurgical Review as " the best work on fever that
ever flowed from the pen of physician in any age
or country." He there proved that epidemic fever
is the great pauperiser of the land, and that it is
preventible : and it has been truly said, that " the
man whose zeal and energy brought these facts to
light deserves to be ranked in the number of his
country's benefactors."

Called, during a violent typhus epidemic in 1837,
to the assistance of the Poor-law Commissioners, he
presented two valuable reports on the causes of
sickness among the poor, which are capable of pre-
vention. In 1839 he was chiefly instrumental in
forming the " Health of Towns Association," ma-
terially aided a committee of the House of Commons
on the same subject in 1840, and served during the
same year on the Children's Employment Commis-
sion.

In 1842 he took an active part in founding the
" Metropolitan Association for Improving the
Dwellings of the Industrious Classes." From the
first, indeed, he had laboured to impress on the
public mind the now admitted truth, that a cer-
tain amount of physical comfort is necessary
to morality and religion : " that," in his own
words, " moral degradation is indissolubly united
with physical squalor—moral impurity with
bodily impurity—and that it is only when the
house ceases to be a sty, and is rendered capable of
becoming a home, that it can receive with any
hope of benefit the schoolmaster and the minister of
religion." In 1844 he gave most impressive evidence
before a commission for inquiring into the health of
towns, and in 1847 was appointed on the Metropo-
litan Sanitary Commission. In 1848 the " Public
Health" and " Nuisances" Acts were passed, when
Dr. Smith was appointed medical member of the
General Board of Health, but for nearly 12 months
his services were rendered gratuitously. In 1850,
however, he was appointed permanently to the
board, and altogether relinquished professional
practice.

Of• his labours as a member of the Board of
Health, his reports on cholera, his notifications re-
lative to that pestilence, and especially his intro-
duction of the system of house-to-house visitation,
bear witness. But he at the same time established
additional and irresistible claims to public gratitude
by the authorship of the " two admirable Reports
on Quarantine, which have obtained a world-wide
celebt ity."

" If (said Dean Peacock) Dr. Southwood Smith
had no other claims on the lasting gratitude of the
nation, I would refer to his Reports on Quarantine
as quite sufficient to establish them. They have
contributed more than any other publications on
this subject to dissipate the gross and mischievous
delusions upon which these regulations are founded
and which are known to be so injurious to the free
commercial intercourse and prosperity of nations."
For some considerable time prior to his decease
Dr. Southwood Smith had been actively engaged in
preparing an entirely new and complete edition of
" The Philosophy of Health." Another edition of
"The Divine Government" was also in preparation,
and in all probability both these works will shortly
be republished.

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING 2HE WEEK.

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

The mortality of London declined considerably in
the first week of December, and it showed a further
but not an important reduction in the week that
ended last Saturday. The number of deaths re-
corded in the present return is 1,283. If the rate
of mortality had been equal to that which is ob-
tained by calculation from the return of correspond-
ing weeks in ten previous years (1851-60), the
deaths instead of the number just stated, would
have been 1,384.
In the last three weeks the deaths from scarla-
tina were 81, 70, and 78, having been less numerous
than they were in the greater part of November,
when they averaged more than a hundred weekly.
Diphtheria was fatal in 15 cases last week. Three
deaths from scarlatina occurred in each of the fol-
lowing sub-districts ;—Somers-town, Islington
west, Hackney, St. Andrew Eastern ; there were
5 in Lambeth Church (first and second sub-districts),
and 4 in Norwood.

Among diseases of the zymotic class scarlatina
was the most fatal; typhus, which numbered 59
deaths, was fatal in the next degree. Under this
latter head are classed 39 cases returned as typhus
or typhoid fever, 10 cases of " fever," 4 of gastric
fever, 3 of low fever, 2 of continued and 1 of infan-
tile fever. Whooping-cough was recorded in 55
cases, measles in 25, small pox in 4.
A looking-glass silverer died at the age of 34
years from " mercurial palsy (4 years) bronchitis."
The widow of a grocer died in Mansell-street,
Goodman's-fields, at the great age of 99 years. A
boy, aged 7 years, in Rotherhithe, received " mortal
burns from sinking into a pot of molten lead, and
by his clothes taking fire therefrom." He lived
two days after the accident.
Last week the births of 924 boys and 876 girls, in
all 1,800 children, were registered in London. In
the 10 corresponding weeks of the years 1851-60
the average number was 1,704.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29,685 in.
The barometrical readings fell to 20.28 in. on Fri-
day, and rose to 29.97 in. on Saturday. The mean
temperature of the air in the week was 484 deg.,
which is 7,9 deg. above the average of the same
week in 43 years (as determined by Mr. Glaisher.)
The mean daily temperature was above the average
during the whole of the week, and on Thursday and
Friday this excess was 10 deg. and 11 deg. The
highest day temperature was 54 deg., on Monday.
The lowest night temperature was 39.5 deg., on
Saturday. The range of the thermometer in the
week was therefore 14.5 deg. The mean daily
range was 8.7 deg.
The difference between the
mean dew-point temperature and air temperature
was 3.6 deg. The mean degree of humidity of the
air was 89, complete saturation being represented
by 100. The wind blew from the south-west. The
amount of rain was 0.39 in,, of which 0.25 in. fell
on Sunday.

A woman named Therlin, employed in the large
of a steam-engine,
washing establishment of MM. Brabant, at Cambrai (Nord),
three days ago ;Tnprudently approached too near the ellkft
which was in motion, and her clothes
being caught, she was drawn in and crushed to death,
Another woman, named Lebruß,employed on the premises,
seeing the accident, rushed forward to endeavour to saveher
companion, and would also have shared her fate but for the
exertions of the engine-man, who stopped the machine and
got her out, but with a broken wrist and some brWses.