Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-01-31
How the Country Saves the CITY.

At a recent meeting of the Social Science
Association Of Philadelphia paper was read
by DR.. John Stockton HOugh on the relative
influence of city and country fife or morality,
health, fecundity, longevity, and mortality, in
which he presented great array of curious sta
tistics, gathered from official reports in Europe
and America, to show that tho crowding of
people in great cities is preiudical to health,
morals, and long life. Some of the statistics
presented in support of this view are striking,
II not startling. 1t appears to be established by
incontrovertible facts that large cities would
become depopulated in the course OF time were
il not for accessions to their population from the
SAYS that there were 1873 deaths to every 100
births i'll Rome in the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century; in Amsterdam, III deaths to
every 100 births; in Berlin, for the five wears
ending 1850, 1871 deaths to every 100 births; in
London, for twenty six years, at about the same
period, IA 90 deaths TO every 100 births. In the
Whole of the United States, in 1870, there was
only one death to every 9..,I Inhabitants, while
in this city, in the same year, there was one
death TO every 1913, and in Philadelphia
from 1881 to ISL, one death to every 39.i
inhabitants. General Walker, late superin-
tendent Of the census, gives the mean ay-
ersge of human lifS in the whole United States
at 81 years, while in New York and Philadei.
thia 1t is only % years, or i6 years less. A very
great proportion OF the mortality in the large
cities is among children under five years Of
ase In this city during the forty-nIne years
eIding 1883, 5O.i9 per cent of the deaths were
OF children under Ave years. No such high
rate of infant mortality exists in the rural
districts. Diseases of the lungs are twice as
fatal in great cities as in the country, and dis
eases of the nervous system hve-and- half
times as fatal. 1t is said that in London deaths
exceed the births by 10000 annually, and
this difference would be much greater were it
not for the great number of strangers who an
A nually take up their residence in that metropo-
Ills. from this and other ascertaned facts Dr
Stockton Hough concludes that IL all the in
habitants of the world were living in cities of
the magnitude Of London the whole human
race would become extinct in century or two,
while If the entire population of the world should
be concentrated in a single city little more than
century would suffice to annihilate the race.
The unhealthiness Of various callings in towns
as compared with open air labor in the country
is shown by the fact that in London the average
age OF tradesmen at the time of death, as given
by DR.. Morgan, is % years, and of mechanics %
years, while in Hertfordshire the average age of
farmers at death is AZ years, and of agricultural
laborers 30 years. The greatest excess of NOR
tality in large cities is among the poor, which is
owing not only to 0vercrowding, but to scantv
and inferior food, often Improperly prepared,
and to the use OF poisonous liquors. In view of
all these facts, We take occasion again to direct
attention to the necessity we have so often
urged for making provision for the establish
ment OF cheap homes for the work king classes
within reasonable distance of New York,
where they can bring up their families in the
pure country air, with railroad facilities for
reaching them quietly and at low rates of fare.
NeU York Sun.