The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-11-10 00:00:00

STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

(From the Registrar-General's Return.)
The Quarterly Returns are obtained from 115 districts.
35 are in the metropolis, and the rest comprise, with some
agricultural districts, the principal towns and cities of
England. The population was 6,579,693 in 1841.
Fifty-one thousand two hundred and thirty-five deaths
were registered in the summer quarter ending Sept. 30th.
A number greater by 15,227 than the deaths (36,008) is
the corresponding quarter of last year. In the mild win-
ter quarter of this year ending March, 1846, the deaths
were nearly 5000 below the average ; in the spring quarter
(June) the mortality was slightly above the average; in-
testinal complaints then arose, and becoming epidemic,
have been the principal causes of the immense loss of
life on record.
While the deaths in London were little more than 14
per cent. above the return of 1815, the deaths rose from
23,166 to 38,826-or about 52 per cent. after a correction
for increase of population-in the towns and other dis-
tricts of the kingdom included in the return. In some of
the densely peopled towns:the mortality was doubled. The
deaths in the corresponding summer quarters of the past
and present year were in Maidstone 121, and 239; Port-
sea Island 239, and 433; Winchester 89 and 141 ; Oxford
89 and 194; Northampton 182, and 221 ; Bedford 182,
and 254 ; Bedford 182, and 234; Ipswich 119. and 240;
Norwich 306, and 451; Plymouth 191, and 279; Clifton
323, and 436 ; Worcester 106, and 173 ; Dudley 457, and
744 • Walsall 158, and 288 ; Wolverhampton 439, and 687;
Woistanton and Bursiem 164, and 313 ; Coventry 188 and
300; Nottingham 285, and 469; Lincoln 154, and 246.
No such mortality has been witnessed in Birmingham for
many years ; the deaths in 1815 were 694, in 1846 they
amounted to 1,627. In Liverpool and the adjacentrsof
dis-
trict of West Derby the deaths in the summer quarters
1 2,411
tOn
,
1845, and 1846, were 2,595, and 4,090 ; in Manchester,
and the contiguous districts of Salford and
persons died in 1845, and 4,248 in 1846
Stockport
Blackburn, Preston, Bury, Bolton,
Macclesfield, Chester,
Wigan, Prescot, Ashton,-and otber districts of Cheshire,
and Lancashire-suffered to an equal, or a greater extent.
The districts of Yorkshire did not escape ; 1039 persons
died in Sheffield, where only 445 died in the summer
quarter of 1845, and the mortality in any preceding sum-
mer since 1838 had never exceeded 647. Huddersfield,
Leeds, Hull, and York suffered severely. In Sunderland,
Gateshead, Tynemouth, and Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1171
deaths were recorded in the summer quarter of 1845, "
2313 in the corresponding quarter of 1816.
The proportion which the deaths bear to the P°P dis
chews the relative mortality of different districts, linn
important. Thus at the last census, the populatio eorl;
Anglesea was 38,105, the deaths in the last quarter w deaths
160 ; the population of Gateshead was 38,747, the deat
in the same quarter 473; the population of AbergavennY.
and Newton, 77,000, the deaths 378; the population. of
Sheffield 85,000, the deaths 1039. Again the populationof the seven Welsh districts was 273,000, the deaths In
the last quarter 1,465 ; the population of Manchester and
Salford 263,000, the deaths 3,149! The population of the
six districts of the South Eastern division was 218,000,
the deaths in the last quarter (ending September 30,) were
1,458 ; the population of Liverpool was '2'23,000, the deaths
in the same quarter 2,946
In the Annual Reports and Quarterly Returns the
causes of these differences in the mortality of the several
parts of the country, and the population have been dis-
cussed. The high mortality of towns has been traced to
crowded lodgings-dirty dwellings-personal uncleanliness
-the concentration of unhealthy emanations from narrow
streets without fresh air, water, or sewers.
which all The
kinds rapidity
of of decomposition, and the facility with refaction,
animal matter become tainted, and run into nut
enable us to understand, how in a summer like the past:
in which the temperature was unusually high, the disease s
reva en.
referable to an impure atmosphere should be so P
and fatal.
The population of Surrey exceeded that of Manchester:,
yet in 7 years 16,000 persons died in Manchester over and
above the deaths in Surrey, the mortality in which, fo,t
the poverty of the labourer, and slighter degrees of tT?
influences so fatal in Manchester, is higher than it should
be. There were 23,523 children under 5 years of age is
Surrey, and the deaths of children of that age were 7,3 ;
the children in Manchester were 21,152, the deaths 20,i 20-
In the seven years, 13,362 children in Manchester 3.1°°,7
fell a sacrifice to known causes, which it is believe,/ 103,"
be removed to a great extent ; and the victims 41 Live.'
pool were not less numersus. Other parts, and partica-
larlythe reot towns of
of h
o f England, p
ast
are
quarter
similarly
provearfl thatict e d .
The au n
othilt
effectual has been done to put a stop to the disease, ajhe
fering and death, in which so many thousands perish.
~
imrovernents Wetly of a showy, superficial outside cu-
racter have not reached the homes, and habits of the Pejn";
ple. The house and children of a labouring man call °Ps
be kept clean and healthy by the assiduous labour o',- -'4
well-trained, industrious wife, as any one who has
the least attention to the subject is aware. This is (We'd
looked in Lancashire, where the woman is often engag,l4,
in labour from home. The consequence is, that thousao"ia
not only of the children, but of the, men and w°°,4,o
themselves perish, of the diseases formerly so fatal for 1.4"
same reasons in barracks, camps, gaols, and ships. e
The supply of water, and the removal of refuse from t'it,
surface, or of matters in solution and suspension throuug':
the sewers, are " simple engineering questions, the s e
on known
.. is certain, while the cost can be estimated .n _
data." The wealthiest and most populous
cess of which," the words of Mr. Smith of son,
Metropolis-Marylebone-is an example of the imperfen!
present
state in which these questions are solved in the
state of the law. The parish, on an area of 1.490 acres,
had 14,169 inhabited houses, and 138,161 inhabitants,
1841: The annual value of property rated for the relief,
of the poor in the same year was £815,279-X57 to eec,,i
parish tucv,
house. Yet a consid?rable part of the parish is wit"ii-e
sewers, or any direct open communications with toa
sewers. It is said, though the information on this he s,
is imperfect, that half the houses in the parish have cell.,
pools, many of which remain unemptied from year to Y,i,
The vestry, under the local act, is empowered " to 0'"
nate persons to carry out the dust, dirt, cinders or ashes'
,of
yet no effectual arrangements are made for the remov,3'..3
decaying animal and vegetable matters-the "
" noxious matters" which are really prejudicial to hellielt
The contracts only apply specifically to " ashes," ter•
are innoxious. 897 persons died in the parish last quaLota
The condition of other parishes, may be conjectured "
this specimen. the
In all the subdistricts of Liverpool and West Derby 30,
number of deaths in the quarter ending September„rtee
was considerably greater than the corresponding (10' the
of 1845, occasioned in every instance principally by the
prevalence of diarrhoea. In St. Martin's district rter
deaths were 700, being 325 more than in the same 03011
of last year, and nearly 100 per cent above the ge„o-46:'
filth' itui3,
average. In Mount Pleasant district the deaths werttef,'
being the largest number ever registered in any qu'„tbel
and 125 above the same quarter in last year. In the
set.,
districts the deaths were greater by nearly 50 per ess'i
and in some cases nearly 100 per cent. In St. Th°,ffsery,
district, out of 370 deaths 149 died of diarrhoea and 0.% a 0.
try. In Islington district, out of 395 deaths 109 elfe,
diarrhoea. There were a few cases of cholera io Sfit
tin's district, 12 in Dale-street district, 3 in West,',.dicet
6 in Everton, and several in Toxteth-park. Pt, Ist
seems to have been painfully prevalent during trt, Ist
quarter among children. In Mount Pleasant districo it,
children from the age of 2 weeks to 5 years, died fgfroel,
and only 11 adults. In Wavertree, out of 42 deat"undel
dysentry and inflammation of the bowels, 25 well.,eit
10 years of age. The mortality in Toateth-r"sposl
chiefly among children. In the last named district,holeeta
pox caused 9 deaths, and diarrhwa dysentry, and
184.