The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-25 00:00:00

A POPULAR ERROR.

A comparison of the mortality of London with that of
continental cities, has led to a general opinion, some-
what abruptly formed, that London is the healthiest city
in the world ; the recorded annual mortality being about
25 per 1,000, whereas in continental cities the ratio varies
from 30 to 40. Therefore, runs the popular belief,
London is the healthiest city in the world. And the
same philosophy carried a little farther, tends to rouse
suspicions as to the necessity for such an amount of
improvements
as ventilation, and other sanatory
as are now contemplated. The healthiest city in the
world, it is argued, least needs all this additional labour
and expenditure, since Utopia was not described to be
anywhere in these latitudes. Amidst all this jumping
from conclusion to conclusion, a rather important cir-
cumstance seems to have been hitherto overlooked.
However careful and reliable are the returns of the Re-
gistrar-General, they are by no means accurate guides
of health ; by which is implied the sanatory condition of
the living. And it may be seriously doubted whether
the pleasant fiction about the general healthiness of the
inhabitants of London is even founded upon fact. The
statistics recently published afford some significant evi-
dence on tho subject. They show that if only 24 per
cent, die in each year, 25 in every hundred, amongst one
class alone, are yearly so ill as to require gratuitous
medical treatment at hospitals and dispensaries. When
we remember that this number is exclusive of all those
treated as paupers, and of the whole of the middle and
upper classes of society who can afford to pay for medical
attendance, it seems somewhat premature to boast of
our healthiness.

And here exists a clue whereby we may readily ex.
plain what appears at first irreconcileable—that the
extent of sickness is not necessarily in exact relation to
the amount of mortality. The medical attendance gra-
tuitously bestowed on the sick poor of London far
exceeds that provided in any other city in the world.
There are 600 medical men constantly and officially
employed, without fee or reward, in staving off death
from the poor. Not one of these but can lay his baud
on many patients whose lives he has prolonged, and
others who only creep towards threescore years and ten
by the aid of constant patching up ; but at
good old age—illustrations of thethe
creakingdoors a
last die atb a
that
proverbially hang so long on their hinges, and
cracked panes and chipped teacup%,.s the secret of whose
escape from further harm consists in the greater care
bestowed on them.—Lancet.

LOLA MONTICS ---
AGAIN.—This well-known person, who
arrived by the Fulton from America, on her way to Paris,
is stated by the New York Times to be about to marry
once more. The bridegroom is the Prince Solkowski,
who is blessed with the following array of titles :
Prince of Bielitz, Count of Reissen, Count of Schonmi,
Count of Kobelin, and Count of Lessa. His estates,
which are very large, are situated in Upper Silesia. He
has been residing, however, for several years in the
northern part of this state on a farm which he purchased
and still owns. He is about forty years of age. There
have been no reasons assigned for his erratic course is
becoming a New York farmer. It is stated that whey
married he will return at once to Austria."