The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-04-13 00:00:00

UNHEALTHINESS OF BIRKENHEAD.

It must be an unpleasant reflection to an inhabitant of
Birkenhead that, with all the enterprise which has been
bestowed upon the improvement of the locality, of which
the proceedings of last week afforded signal proof,- little
indeed has been effected to render it a healthy place of
residence for its rapidly increasing population. A fatal
influence seems to have been at work to counteract every
effort of the authorities to do their work effectually, and
to overcome the undoubted disadvantages of soil and po-
sition, under which Birkenhead labours.

Whilst the Commissioners have been laying out spa-
cious sfreets and sqUares, forming extensive sewers, pro-
viding parks for the recreation of the public, and making
provision for the proper surface cleansing of the entire
town, the jerry-builder and the cottage-owner have been
rearing the sources of future fever and expenditure of
money, health, and life itself.
The present condition of the locality, and the means to
be adopted for the removal of existing evils are ably
pointed out in a work recently published by J. Hunter
Robertson, Esq., M.D., of Birkenhead,* from which we
shall take the liberty of collating some important statisti-
cal facts and remarks.

The first circumstance which strikes us, in glancing
over Dr. Robertson's tables, is the rapid rate at which
mortality has been increasing in Birkenhead, during the
last six years, or within that period in which it ha. sus-
tained its principal increase of population. In 1841
Birkenhead contained a total number of inhabitants of
8227 ; and the average motality was 1 in 45 ; Liverpool
in the same year, with a population of 223,054 persons,
had an average mortality of lin 281. In 1845 the popu-
lation in Birkenhead was 14,900 and the mortality had
increased lin 3GI. The mortality in Liverpool in the
same year had fallen to lin 34. In 1846 the population
of Birkenhead had increased 18,210 souls ; andpari pas=
with such increase the average mortality had risen
to lin 28k. The average mortality of- Liverpool in the
same year was lin 26k. The increase in the latter case
may, in part, be attributed to the great influx of Irish
poor, and the suffering prevalent amongst our own unem-
ployed working classes.
The mortality by fever in Birkenhead appears to exceed
that of any other town, as is shown by the following com-
parative statement of the deaths in six of our principal
towns, to which Dr. Robertson has added those of Bir-
kenhead and Tranmere. In Birmingham, the proportion
of fever deaths to population annually is 1 in 917 ; Leeds,
parliamentary borough, 1 in 849; metropolis, 1 in 690;
Manchester, 1 in 498 ; Liverpool and West Derby, 1 in
488; Liverpool parish, 1 in 407 ' • Birkenhead, 1 in 313;
and Tranmere, lin 7441. The deaths from consumption
Dr. Robertson finds are in Birkenhead below the number
of all the other towns ; but adding the mortality from
puemonia and bronchitis, which is very high, Birkenhead
will stand about equal to our most unhealthy towns.
The amount of infantile mortality, Dr. Robertson says
with justice, forms the best test of the health of any loca-
lity, infants being more susceptible of atmospheric influ-
ence than others, besides being more constantly on the
spot ; and in this item Birkenhead possesses a startling
preeminence. " Out of 614 deaths in 1846, 370 are chil-
dren under 5 years of age, or 60,1 percent. ; in Tranmere,
the deaths were 152, and the deaths under 5 years, 91,
making 591 per cent. In Liverpool, as Dr. Duncan shows,
the mortality of children under that age is only 52 4-5 per
cent. The other five towns are greatly under Liverpool,
Birkenhead, and Tranmere. Dr. Robertson concludes
by stating that " infant mortality in Birkenhead is equal to,
if not greater than that of any other town in England."
We- must briefly glance at the causes to which Dr.
Robertson traces this unhealthy condition of the locality.
The first of these, strange to say, is the want of drainage.
Notwithstanding the fact that out of a total length of 29-
miles 110 yards of streets, 26 miles 860 yards of which are
fully sewered, and the remaining 2 miles 1,010 yards in
course of execution, little attention has been paid to house
drainage. On this head Dr. Robertson asks, " What
benefit is there in having a sewer running dOwn the. cen-
tre of a street, when in many of these streets not a single
drain rims from the houses into the said sewer? The
filth is accumulated in and around the houses, and so it
must remain, there not being a single outlet for its escape;
but still all is considered right, merely because the sewer
is there." The Commissioners, we learn, are taking
measures to procure a clause to render it compulsory
upon owners of property to make use of the sewers so
liberally afforded them. At any rate, one of the provisions
of the Health of Towns Bill, recently introduced by
Government, will reach this evil. To make house drain-
age effectual, however, the drains must be of the best
construction, and the sewers themselves flushed with a
powerful stream of water ; as during twelve hours of the
twenty-four, viz., during three. hours before and after
high water, every tide, the outfalls of the sewers are
covered.

T Tae other evils noticed partake of the character of
those by which other large towns are affected ; and
although we should gladly have found room for many of
the valuable details with which he has furnished us, our
spare warns us to conclude, which we do by cordially
recommending his work to the serious attention of the
public.
* Birkenhead, ifs present .sanatory Condition, by J Hunter
Robinson, M.D.
.

A DISSENTER'S CONSCIENCE.IALV*ty a'ro, a
Dissenter, who was called as a wit or* .
fore Lord Abitiger, refused on co -IE4/41* DAN . s
he. said) to take an oath. ":14(yolt.ane.,ToTt'ffe
ple
called Quakers?" said his !or 'iff.
take wen
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witness), but I carmen ..., ea).,,,,,.,, dt Nirmi
joined his lordship), Your ex XV. aiPtireflugt,di.,ylrpi.
4
(vociferated the e,onseientiou . 354 .) ..: ,- -7
hook!" co it is g,enerally I'OtV IfEliitiftrir77 ;
touch their pocket and you t A' ' " ."'• -,.7 . •