The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1874-02-19
VIOLENT DEATHS.
Proportions IN Grcnt Britain and this
Country.

trOpOrttOhS H SfcNt bflthth anu Nhis
Country.
We read with alarm that in India
between 10000 and 10000 persons
annually fall victims to the bites of
yenomous reptiles or the depredations
of man-eating tigers, or other ferocious
beasts. The astonishment which these
facts create appears to indicate nm
impression that it wonld be i'm
possible to point to anything analo.
gous or parallel in more civilized lands.
Yet during the census year OF 1871, in
England and Wales 1G,993 persons met
death by violence, while during the
census year of 1870 the number of such
deaths in this country was 17,5l7.
The risk of such details for each in
dividual in England and Wales may al
so be examined. The population be-
ing %, $50, 900, 1898 of the number
having died of violence in the year 1871,
it follows that out of every ten thou
sand persons living from seven to eight
met their deaths from this class of
causes. And as the proportions have
not varied materially of late years, this
may be taken rs representing the aver
age chance persons i'll that country
stand of coming by such deaths. In
India, with its population of 23O, 900,
600, the chance is that only one person
ont of every 10000 living should die of
serpent bite, or from injuries inflicted
by wild animals so that an English
man runs from seven to eight times a
greater risk of q violent death than m
East Indian does from the particular
causes Just mentioned,
The chances of like fatality in this
country is something in the ratio Of II,
600 to i0,000,00 or thoreabogts, which
would make a rate of A to in each 10, =
600, n circumstance which would tend
to show that, in proportion as popula-
tion is concentrated, violent deaths in
crease. The English returns show n
riblcuuiformity in the class of deaths
in question. Thus in 1870 the total
number was 16, 593; in 1869 it was &c.
497; it was lG,9GS in 1868; 1856
in 1857; 26,9l5 in 1866; 1874 in
1865 and 17,0lS in 1864. Taking the
twenty years from 1850 to 1869, it APP
pears that out of every million Eng
lish people living during that period,
764 have every year come to an untime-
" end from one or other form of viz
lence.
The average was highest in the year
1865, when the proportion was S35 out
of every million. 1t was lowest in
1857, when the proportion per million
living fell to 725. Old age, the only
cause of death that can be considered
the natural one, is less than twice as IA
tai as violence.
Ont of million deaths among Eng
lshmcn. decay of nntnro after a full
spent iiie accounts for no more than
IS, 527, as against 30, 4G5 referable tc
violent causes. Only ,iO7 ont of every
million Euglishmen die in the course
of year from old age, while within
the same period the terrible certainty
of violent death awaits 76l of the mil
lion. On the other hand deaths from
are are scarce in our census returns
In the census year 1871, they aggrega
ted 3 ,4l9. From these figures, it would
appear between seventeen and eighteel
persons now in health will die by VIC
lence during the present year in TIN
land. I'm 1870, there was 1,O51 sui
eide a small fractional proportion on
ly of these deaths. The fatal causes
by violence average in this country
about 4S per day, or two an hour. L
the years slain, lying in their collins
were laid lengthwise along the road
they would stretch, in one unbrokei
line, distance OF some sixteen miles