MEDICAL AND SURGICAL ASSOCIATIOJJ. 125 



the authors of these valuable essays, but a comparison of the lists 

 of minerals and plants, given by Dr. Forbes, in the Appendix to 

 his paper, with those published by Dr. Hastings, in his work 

 already referred to, and with the interesting observations embodied 

 by Mr. Watson in his Essay, will afford much pleasure to the 

 student and admirer of the Works of Nature. 



As bearing very materially upon the comforts and general welfare 

 of the inhabitants, and as greatly influencing the average duration 

 of life, previous to considering the actual state of the population 

 of these districts, we may refer to the occupations in which they 

 are for the most part engaged. The rocks of Cornwall, as our 

 readers know, are traversed by numerous metalliferous veins, many 

 of which are especially rich in ores of copper and tin. A large 

 class of the Cornish peasantry, are consequently employed in the 

 various operations of mining. Several of the most important of 

 the Cornish mines are situated in the Landsend district, affording 

 employment to nearly one half of its population. The rest are 

 engaged in agricultural occupations, in fishing, and in various 

 trades. At Bristol, the chief employments followed by the inhabit- 

 ants of the city and surrounding district are those connected with 

 navigation, as ship-building, rope-making, &c., with several others 

 to which the commerce of the place has given rise, as sugar-refining, 

 &c. None of them, however, are carried on to such an extent as 

 to constitute a staple manufacture. The general employment of 

 the occupiers of the soil in the plains of Worcestershire is agri- 

 culture, but the manufactures followed in several of the towns, as 

 that of carpets at Kidderminster, of needles at Redditch, of 

 gloves and china at Worcester, of salt at Droitwich and Stoke 

 Prior, and the influence exerted by the collieries, mines and iron- 

 works of the north of the county, (though not situated immediately 

 in the district we are considering,) over the inhabitants of the 

 country in their vicinity, are of course to be taken into account in 

 the causes operating upon the general welfare and longevity of the 

 population. 



Dr. Forbes enters very fully into the question of the compara- 

 tive longevity enjoyed by the two principal classes, into which the 

 inhabitants of the Landsend district may be divided, and clearly 

 shews by numerical details and tables constructed from observa- 

 tions carried on for several years, that the advantage is much in 

 favour of the agricultural part of the population. Without troub- 

 ling our readers with the particular results, we may state the gene- 

 ral fact that in the mining parishes the annual proportion of deathg 

 is 1 in 58, whereas in the agricultural parishes it is no more than 1 

 in 64. We regret that we have no means of ascertaining for our 

 present purpose, how the fact stands with respect to those engaged 

 in agricultural, and those engaged in various manufacturing occu- 

 pations in the valley of Worcestershire. The rate of mortality for 

 the whole county in the year 1821, was 1 in 53 j in the year 1831, 

 it was 1, in 52, a proportion greater even than that of the mining 

 districts of the Landsend. It is of the first importance that the 

 cause of this difference should be traced out, and we cannot but 



NO. II. s 



