The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-10-08 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

If, therefore, the table No. 4, in p. 36 of the report ba
inspected, it will be found that nut of 100,000 born in Li-
verpool, 52,198 would be living at fire years old, and
48,211 at ten years old ; the even chance, therefore, lies
between those two ages of five and ten, and the probable
duration of life, therefore, is estimated to be seven or
eight. In Surrey, 52,060 are living at 50, and 48,386 at
55 ; the even chance, therefore, lies between the two ages,
and is estimated at 53.

The comparative mean duration or expectation of life,
however, does not differ so enormously. It is 45 years in
Surrey ; 37 years in the metropolis ; and 26 years in Li-
verpool. At 50, the expectation of lifein Surrey is 21
years; in Liverpool, only 16.
If the cause of such excessive mortality be asked, it will
probably be found to be the prevalence. of diseases ( f the
respiratory organs, and typhus fever.
i Out of 3,852 re-
corded deaths of males in Liverpool, n 1841, 1,284 were
from diseases of the respiratory organs, 713 from pthisis.
Out of 2,922 deaths of males recorded in Manchester, 836
were from diseases of the respiratory organs, and 464 from
pthisis. To preserve the proportion, the deaths in Man-
chester should have been 970 from respiratory diseases,
and 540 from pthisis.
In Lincolnshire, a marshy county, out of 3,871 record-
ed deaths, only 730 were from respiratory diseases, and
428 from pthisis; showing an excess, in Liverpool, of 550
and 285. The deaths from typhus, in Liverpool, were
402; in Manchester, 215. The mortality among infants
is also enormous ; out of 100,000 born, 25,290 might be
calculated to die under one year old, and more than half
under ten years old. The deaths from convulsions seem
to be very numerous. It may be said that these figures
are erroneous, and they possibly may not be perfectly ac-
curate ; but if they are erroneous here, they are with equal
probability erroneous in Surrey and the metropolis, and
in the comparison the error in one place will counteract
tho:e in the other. It may again be said that if the figures
are accurate, the conclusions are erroneous ; but if this be
the case, no correct conclusions can be drawn from life-
tables at all, and the calculations for benefit societies and
the payment of life annuities cannot be depended upon. It
will also be said that the position of Liverpool is very pe-
culiar, and that its excessive mortality (if it really is ex-
cessive,) may be ascribed to causes not affecting the salu-
brity of its air. Let us hope that this is to a certain ex-
tent true, for it would not be very agreeable to believe
and to say the truth is really credible, that the air should
be so pestilentially unwholesome as its apparently exces-
sive mortality would seem to prove; and its position as a
sea-port and a door of ingress and egress for labourers
may help to swell the tables. The province of wisdom,
however, is, not to suggest doubts as to the existence of
probable evils, or ascribe them to causes beyond the reach
of human control, but impartially to investigate the truth,
and, if possible, discover and apply a remedy ; and the
public authorities of this town are exercising a wise and
humane discretion, by the abolition of cellars and the bet-
ter drainage of the town, wherever it can be properly
drained. The question would be interlining to
of the community, even on selfish grounds, and even if it
were not the duty of the rich to look after the poor. From
Mr. Chadwick's sanatory report it will appear, by the
following table, that the excessive mortality of Liverpool
is not confined to the labouring classes :

GENERAL
TOWNS. AVERAGE AGE AT DEATH.
AVERAGE.
Gentry. Tradesmen. Labourers.
Bath ..
Metropolitan Unions 44 21 22 22
Manchester....
Liverpool
In this respect, therefore, all the inhabitants of this
vast town are, strictly speaking, members one of another;
the head cannot say to the feet 1 have no need of you, but
if one member suffer, all the members stiffer with it: and
as in the natural hotly there is in all it. parts a perfect
sympathy, by which the healthy state of tht one preserves
the other in ease and comfort, so in our body politic there
ought to be, and will be in all wise members of it, a mu-
tual desire for each other's welfare.

Th. following notice of motion was given for the next
meeting by Mr. 13REmsEn, viz. :—" That a committee be
appointed to take into coneidera'ion the propriety of pur-
chasing al* land in front of the Industrial ficlmol, and
to cosier with R. Earle, Esq., the agent of Lord Derby.
Mr. HENDERSON moved that the following informa-
tion he 'applied at the next meeting :—" The number of
paid •ifiaws* attached to the workhouse in the years 1811,
1842, 1843, and 1844, from the 25th of Marci in each
year ; also, the average number of paupers in the house
during those periods.
The board adjourned to the 15th instant.