Value of Human Life in Canada. 185 



ANNUAL PECUNIARY LOSS TO THE CITY OF MONTREAL, RESULTING FROM 



11 LAISSEZ FAIRE." 



Value of manure, now run to waste or breeding sickness, on 



65,000 inhabitants, besides animals, say at $3, $195,000 



Loss from 191,100 weeks of preventible sickness, at $3 per week, . 573,300 



Cost of 1,365 funerals at $15 each, 20,475 



Supposed pecuniary value of 1,365 lives ; estimating a Free 

 Canadian simply as property, at Elihu Burritt's tariff of 



$300 per head, 409,500 



Maintenance of orphans, &c, say 1,725 



Total, $1,200,000 



To which ought to be added an indefinite amount for injury to stocks 

 of goods, dress, furniture, &c, resulting from dirt and dust. 



These and similar facts prove that, however expensive sanitary 

 reform may be, the present system is far more so ; and that how- 

 ever difficult it may be to cleanse the Augean stables in the back 

 yards of Montreal, it is the duty of the Council to see that the 

 wages of death are no longer wrung from the hard earnings of the 

 poor, but that all who undertake to let houses shall be compelled 

 to put them and their surroundings into a condition favourable to 

 health and life. 



If a Statistical Society were formed to collect and verify infor- 

 mation on this and other social subjects, it might be able to lay 

 important facts before the governing bodies ; and might point out 

 the causes of error in the present returns, with a view to their cor- 

 rection in the forthcoming census. The English " Health of Towns 

 Associations" have also been extremely useful, (1) in making 

 reports of the actual condition of their respective localities, by 

 visiting from house to house ; (2) in diffusing information among 

 the masses of the people by free lectures and plainly written tracts ; 

 and (3) in watching and acting upon city officials and owners of 

 pioperty, in a way which private individuals hesitate to do. 



When Edwin Chadwick, Esq., the first mover of sanitary reform 

 in England, visited the Exhibition of Industry in Paris, every op- 

 portunity was offered to the deputation from the Society of Arts, 

 of which he was a member, to see the notabilia of that magnificent 

 capital. The Emperor afterwards asked him what were his im- 

 pressions of the city. He replied by giving Louis Napoleon a 

 half-hour's disquisition on the sanitary condition of Paris, and the 

 necessary steps to be taken for its immediate improvement. The 

 courtiers were filled with indignation ; His Majesty answered by 



