, 1865-07-11


office; Berlin is expected soon to supply
similar information; and Baron Hauss-
man, who has done so much 10 make
Paris pretty, will, it is hoped, inform us
Of what diseases the Parlsians die.
That no plague-cart now rolls through
our streets at night; that, despite the
wonderful growth Of the city and almost
Unreasonable development of toll, the
death rate is steadily kept down; that the
vlrulence of most diseases is becoming
abated, and that London is now, consider
ing its size and the density of its popuI8-
ton, one Of the healthieSt places in the
worId-are flcts of which our contempo-
rary PdiIrs may fairly be proud. The
bills Of mortality, like a hundred other
useful things, were first instituted in the
reign Of EIlzabeth-a time when the ma
tlonal peril was so great that it became
more than ever necessary to count the
numbers Of the people, aud TO see how
many tishtlng-folks were subIracted from
the r@oIl-call by intrmity or death. Small,
comparatively speaking, was the muster
then-Wlthlu the walls aud liberties of
London there were but a hundred and
thirty thousand souls; when last the peO-
pie were numbered, in 1861, the pnpula-
ton of the metropolis had reached the as
founding aggregate Of two millions aud
eight hundred thousand! Fairly to eSii-
mate what the present standard Of health
represents, we must remember that the
mighty city has not been built in accord
ance with any well-cOncelved and definite
pIan-that it has had, for ages, no NUM-
cIpaI organisation at all adequate to its
WantS-that, without official guidance,
training, or direction, it has cOnfuSedly,
chaoticaIly, %clumsily grown into It's present
magnitude. Had it been built from the
beginning with a definite scheme, and up
on a plan atfording suitable scope for ex-
p%ansion, ii might perhaps have been even
healthier than it is. Creditable, neverthe-
less, to the rough and ready common
sense OF the people is it that London, al
though left pretty much 10 lis own devices,
has done so well. There must, after iii,
be something in the air of The place that
conduces to vitality for the wearieSt
brain, however overtasked, never hen!s
until it is fairly beaten and worn out
the most afflicted heart keeps on a fierce
defiant pulSation, until it stops for ever.
Nowhere do men live so proudly, SO
swiftly, so indomitably. Intensely alive
is the city metropolitan. Fog crerps up
along the low reedy banks of the Thames,
and settles down thickly upon the mar
now streets; a raw rheum is in the air,
chilling and disheartening; over the
houses hang a mighty pail of smoke
from hundreds of ~thoroughfares the light
is virtually excluded ; but here, brood
ing in this close and horrible hive, never
slackening their toll, never faItering in
their courage, the people still labour
and live.
They labour and live but also they
die. we rhFaaEEe said that in many respects
the London bills of mC@eeernFivtyx. ne STaaiStac-
tory; they show as how much has been
done to improve the general health but
there are ugly items in the story. Take
the three months that ended in last De-
cember; 1866 deaths were registered
about 500 more than in the correspond
ing quarter of the previous y%ear--an adj
dition fairly TO be attributed TO the naiu-
raj increase of the population. In itself
the number is not alarmingly great, but
II1 - 49,