The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-11 00:00:00

THE PUBLIC HEALTH IN THE

PAST QUARTER.
(From the Report of the Registrar-General.)
"The quarterly returns are obtained from 115 districts,
sub-divided into 576 sub-districts; 34 districts are placed
under the metropolis, and the remaining 81 disiricts com-
prise, with some agricultural districts, the principal towns
and cities in England. The population was 6,578,912 in
1841."

The public health during the past quarter, ending Sept.
30, was good; for the deaths, notwithstanding the increase
of the population, were only 36,008, or 1,870 less than the
average of the corresponding quarters of five former years
(1840-44). This favourable state of things was general.
and was observed in the majority of the town districts of
the kingdom. The southern coast has been unusually
healthy through tha summer; the deaths in Brighton, on an
average 262, were only 219; in the Isle of Wight, the
deaths, on an average 183, were 121; in the Pprtsea Island
(Portsmouth), the deaths, on an average 299, were 239 ; in
Exeter, the deaths, on an average 200, were 160; in Ply
mouth, the deaths, on an average 224, were 191; in Pen-
zance,, the deaths, on an average 292, were only 166 in the
quarter ending Sept. 30, 1845.
The mortality has been below the average in every district
round the south-eastern and southern coast, from London to
the Land's End ; yet the average mortality itself is low
throughout that part of the country. In the last report
(p. 1) it will be seen that only 1-9 per cent., or 1 in 52, of
the inhabitants die annually in the south-eastern and south-
western divisions, while the annual mortality of the whole
kingdom i 3 1 in 45.

lii Austria, including the northern parts of Italy, the an-
nual mortality is one in 33; and the mortality throughout
Italy is not less than in Austria, In the cities of Italy the
mortality, according to official documents, varies from 3 to 4
per cent. In France the annual mortality is lin 42.
The mortality was above the average of the corresponding
quarter in the following districts :—Nortbampton, Bedford,
Yarmouth, Kidderminster, Leicester, Rochdale, Halifax,
Bradford, Pontypool, Newtown, Holywell, and Anglesey.
Leicester is an unhealthy district; the average mortality
is high; the average number of deaths in the summer
quarter is 325, and in the last quarter no less than 457
deaths were;registered. The registrar of the east district re-
marks—" Since that time (1840) vaccination seems to have
been totally neglected ; hence the great increase of deaths
for this and the preceding quarter. I have registered 73
deaths from natural small-pox, and only four persons that
have been vaccinated, and those only very doubtful. Measles
has been very fatal ; I have registered 57 death from that
edidemic."

The fatality of small-pox is mentioned by the registrars
of Yarmouth, Northampton, Wolverhampton, Birmingham,
Coventry, Basford, Liverpool, Bury, Prescott, and other
districts,' in their remarks.

Metropolis-76 deaths from small-pox were registered in
the quarter; the average is 130. In the week ending Sep-
tember 13, no death from small-pox was registered. Such an
exemption has never before been observed !Anal the new
tables were published. Measles has been epidemic; 6BB
deaths have occurred from that disease. Ilooping-cough has
been prevalent. Of scarlatina only 194 persons, chiefly chil-
dren, died; the avearge is 476. Only two deaths from priva-
tion were returned ; the average of the quarter is five.
The weather presented this remarkable peculiarity, that
the mean temperature of every week of the 13 was below the
average. The mean temperature of the quarter at Green-
wich was 57 degrees 1; which is nearly four degrees below
the average of the season. The mouth of August was five
degrees below the temperature of the same month on an
average of 25 years. Seven inches of rain fell at the Ob-
servatory. The results varied considerably in other parts of
the country.

The temperature of summer last year (1844) was two de-
grees below the average; but the state of the crops, and par-
ticularly of the potato crop in 1845, and its possible effects on
the public health, render a comparison of the whole meteoro-
logical phenomena of 1844 and 1845 important.

EXPLOSION OF FIRE-DAMP AT ST. HELEN'S.-
Shortly after five o'clock on the morning of Wednesday last, the
coal-pit No. 13, belonging to Messrs. Turner and Evans, Hay-
dock, near St. Helen's, caught fire, and a terrific explosion took
place, tearing up the gearing at the mouth of the pit. The night.
men had all just arrived at the top of the pit, and a considerable
number of the dayman had dascended : in fact, one or more of
them were suspended by the rope at the time the explosion oc-
curred. Had it happened a few minutes later, about forty would
have been in the pit. As soon as they were enabled they went
down to see the extent of the mischief, when they discovered
nine dead bodies, amongst whom was that of a boy, who was
dreadfully mutilated. Ten others were got up alive, some
of whom ale shockingly burnt, and are not expected to re-
cover. The real cause of the casualty has not yet been ascertained,
but it is strongly conjectured that a boy, who had only recently
been employed in the pit, had carelessly gone to some newly ex-
plored part with an uncovere I light, thus causing the explosion.
The following are the names of those killed :—Robert Valentine,
aged 20, single : Edward Valentine, 14 ; Richard Urmston, 32,
married, three children ; Richard Urmston, 11 ; John Harrison.
21, single ;' James Greenough, 18, single; Samuel Low, 15 ; J.
Knowle, 15; Peter Fairhurst, 29, married, one child. The fol-
lowing severely burnt:—Joseph Rutter, 21, single; W. Harrison,
15 ; James Leatherbarrow, 21, married, two children ; H. Hill, 15;
Peter Leatherland, 21, single; Henry Winstanley, 19, single;
Ralph Ellam, 21, single : Richard Unsworth, 18, single.—l
ivcr-
poolCbronicle.
PLANTING POTATOES IN NOVEMBER.-At a meet-
ing of the Hereford Allotment Society, the Rev. R. Wood
Kyle gave the following directions for planting potatoes in
November. Open a shallow drill, four inches deep, in which
lay potatoes about fifteen inches asunder, and the size of a
lien's egg. Cover the drill with a layer of manure about
three or four inches thick, pile up the mould over this to
the height of two feet, and thus leave them until the last
week in March ; about that time scrape off the mould the
depth of four inches, and in three or four weeks afterwards
the potatoes will appear above ground. By this plan the
(rest does not injure the plant, which, as it grows, must
be continually moulding up in the same way as celery, so
long as a grain of mould will stick to it; as many as thirty-
seven large potatoes will grow from one root by this
method. Where the soil is light and capable of being
moved by the potato in the act of growing, success has
always attended this plan. It might be less certain in a
stiff undrained soil.

LORD MAyofi's DAY.—A novel feature was intro-
duced this year into the procession, by the attendance of the Society
of finardians for the Protection of Trade, of which the Lord Mayor
is one of the presidents. This is the most ancient society of its
kind, having been established in 1776. _ _

It is said that Captain Lindsay, the Honourable
Btember for yfigany will next month Ipacl to the hymeneal altar
the beautiful daughter of the rani of Alexborough.—Liverpoot
Journat