The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-08-08 00:00:00

STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

(From the Quarterly Return.)
It is gratifying to observe a very remarkable improve-
ment in the state of the public health. The number of
deaths registered in the three months ending June 30, was
46,552; which is less by 11,158 than were registered in
the winter quarter of the present year, and less by 5,033
than were registered in the corresponding quarter ending
the last day of June, 1847. The mortality of the coun-
try, after having been excessively high during the latter
half of the year 1846, the whole of 1847, and the first
quarter of 1848, is now little above the average of the
nine years 1839-47. The mortality, however, is still
much higher than it was in the spring quarter (April, May,
and June) of 1844, when the number of deaths was only
38,977 ; which, taking the increase of population into
account, implies a lower rate of mortality than has been
experienced in the spring season of any other year.
In London the deaths in the quarter were 12,945. The
deaths in the preceding quarter were 16,455 ; in the
quarter ending December, 1847, when influenza prevailed
19,605. Influenza has almost entirely disappeared ; it
was the cause of death in only 50 cases during the 13
weeks ending in June.
The improvement in the health of Liverpool is remark-
able ; while there were 4,809 deaths in the June quarter,
1847, there were only 1,907 deaths in the June quarter of
1848. In Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds there has
also been some improvement. Small pox and scarlatina
have been the prevailing epidemics throughout the coun-
t The deaths in London from diarrhrea, dysentery, and
cholera were 11, 23, 13, and 14, in the first four weeks ;
27, 31, 37, and 51 in the last four weeks of the quarter.
These three diseases are always most common in the
months of July, August, and September, when the
temperature is highest. The popular error which ascribes
them to fruit was referred to last year. That it in an
error is established by the fatality of these diseases to
infants at the breast, to the aged, to persons in prison and
public institutions who procure no fruit, and by many
such facts as the following, reported about the middle of
the last century, by Sir John Pringle, in his classical ac.•
count of the diseases of the campaign in Germany :
" Nearly h&j the men were ill or had recovered from
dysentery a few weeks after the battle of Dettingen, which
was fought on the 27th of June, 1743. The dysentery,
the constant and fatal epidemic of camps, began sooner
this season than it did in any succeeding campaign.
Now, as the usual time of its appearance is not before the
latter end of the summer or the beginning of autumn,
the cause has been unjustly imputed to eating fruit in
excess. But the circumstances here contradict that
opinion ; for this sickness began and raged before any
fruit was in season except strawberries (which from their
high price the men never tasted), and ended about the
time the grapes were ripe; which, growing in open vine-
yards, were freely eaten by everybody.
Fruit, potatoes, and green vegetables are essential parts
of the food of man; and it is only when taken to excess
that, like other articles of diet, they disorder the stomach.
There is as yet in England no trace of the epidemic of
cholera which is ravaging Russia from Moscow to St.
Petersburgh and ascending the Danube. It raged in the
summer of 1831, 17 years ago, at St. Petersburgh, reached
Sunderland in October, London in February, 1832, Paris
in March of the same year. Whether it will pursue the
same course now, travel at the same rate, and be less or
more fatal, must depend on a variety of circumstances.
If the visitation cannot be arrested it is greatly to be
wished that it should be deferred, for though enlightened
communities have before been too much in the habit of
postponing sanitary arrangements, and only commencing
them when the plague is actually destroying them—which
is very like admitting the enemy within the city walls and
then putting the fortifications in repair—it is certain that
the great capitals of the continent were never in a worse
condition to withstand an epidemic than they are at the
present time.
LIVERPOOL.—St. Thomas's District : Deaths 214, or
148 less than in the preceding quarter.—Mount Pleasant :
Deaths, including the Workhouse, 462, being 242 less than
in the last quarter, and 545 less than in the corresponding
quarter of last year.—lslington : Deaths 271; decrease in
quarter, 195.—St. Georges: Deaths 112, under the average.
WEST DERBY.—West Derby: Deaths 165; decrease,
71 on previous quarter.—Toxteth Park; Deaths 349 ;
decrease, 117 on previous quarter.

MR. SMITH O'BRIEN.

The history of this gentleman cannot fail to be inter-
estirg to the public at the present moment. He was born
at Dromoland, county of Clare, on the 17th of October,
1803, being the second son of Sir Edward O'Brien, fourth
Baronet (who died in 1837,) by the daughter and coheiress
of William Smith, Esq., of Cahirmoyle, county of
Limerick. The latter lady was a very rich heiress. The
issue of this marriage, in addition to the subject of our
notice, consisted of eight other children, including Sir
Lucius, the eldest son i Edward, born in 1806, and mar-
ried to the daughter a :17,1,2 V Dawson, Esq., late M.P.,
a scion of the noble house of Crernorne ; Robert, born in
1809, married to the daughter of Sir Aubrey de Vere ; the
Rev. H. O'Brien, married to the daughter of John God-
ley, Esq. •, Grace, unmarried ; Anne, married to the Rev.
Arthur Martineau ; Harriet, married to the Rev. Charles
Monsell, a relative of Mr. Monsell, M.P., the colleague
of Mr. Smith O'Brien in the representation of Limerick
county ; and Katherine Lucia, married to the Honourable
and Rev. Amyard Harris, brother of Earl Malmesbury,
one of the Prebendaries of Salisbury, and Rector of
Wilton.
The present head of the house of O'Brien, is the Mar-
quis Thomond, who adopts the latter form of orthography,
and he deduces his descent from the royal line of Tho-
mond, a race of princes which sprang from the celebrated
Brian Borraime, or Boru, who commenced his reign, in
1002. and terminated it with his life, near Clontarf, in
1014. Should the present Marquis die without male issue,
a circumstance not improbable, Sir Lucius O'Brien will
succeed him as Baron Luchiquin ; but not to the higher
titles, which will become extinct. In reference to the
existence of these titles, we may observe that, in 1543,
Murrogh O'Brien, the then head of the house, repaired
to England, and resigned his sovereignty to Edward VI,
and was in recompence created Earl of Thomond for life,
and Baron Luchiquin.
The second holder of the baronetcy, Sir Edward
O'Brien, was son of the Right Honourable Lucius
O'Brien, who died during the lifetime of his father, by
Catherine, daughter of Thomas Keightley, Esq., of Har-
i lingford, county of Herts, granddaughter 'of the first
Earl of Clarendon, and first cousin of Queens Mary and
Anne. In the latter points the records of the several
families agree.
Mr. O'Brien married about twelve years since the
daughter of Joseph Gabbett, Esq., of Limerick, by whom
he has had issue either six or seven children.
Mr. O'Brien is a graduate of Trinity College. Cam.
bridge ; when first returned for the family borough of
Ennis, in 1830, Mr. O'Brien was a Tory, and as such
opposed Mr. O'Connell in the case of the memorable
Clare election. He subsequently became a Whig, then a
Radical, and in 1843 he first joined the repeal ranks.
Since 1835 he has represented the county of Limerick.
On the last occasion he succeeded in defeating Mr. Caleb
Powell, the Old Ireland candidate, by twenty-four votes.
Mr. O'Brien fought a duel with the late Mr. Thomas
Steele, having exchanged two shots with that gentleman.
Sir Lucius O'Brien, elder brother, is Lord-Lieutenant of
the county of Clare. The dowager Lady O'Brien is still
living, and possesses a property of about £5,000 per
annum, to which her second son was always considered
to be the heir, but in other respects than as heir in pros-
pect, Mr. O'Brien never was wealthy. He has, when in
Ireland, taken up his residence at the seat of his mother.