( XIV ) 



STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH. 



1st Quarter.— \00,500 deaths were registered in the quarter 

 ending September 30th ; and the death rate was 2-064 per cent. 

 The deaths in the simimer quarter of the previous year were 91,330 : 

 and in the summer of 1855 the deaths were 87,646. The excess of 

 deaths in the last summer quarter over this number was 12,944. 



The annual rate of mortality per 1000 during the summer was 25 

 in the town districts and sub-districts where 8,247,017 people dwelt 

 in 1851 upon 2,149,800 acres ; and 17 in the other districts and sub- 

 districts of England and Wales where 9,680,592 people dwelt on 

 35,175,115 acres. The Arts which have been invented in cities are 

 now required to render their natural homes healthy. As a pre- 

 liminary to all other steps the people must be supplied with pure 

 Avater. The town manures must be restored to the disinfecting 

 fields every day, and no longer be suffered either to remain rmdcr 

 human dwellings, or to pollute the streets and streams around them. 



If the mortality in the towns had been at the same rate as the 

 mortality in the other districts, the deaths, instead of amounting to 

 55,733, would have only amounted to 38,080. 



Thus in 92 days 17,653 persons perished untimely in England. 



2)id Quarter. — 110,697 deaths were registered in the last quarter 

 of the year 1857. This number exceeds by 14,176 the deaths in 

 the corresponding quarter of 1856, and by 11,646 the average of 

 the ten previous corresponding quarters. The mortality in the 

 quarter was at the rate of 2-265 per cent, per annum, the average of 

 the season being 2-167. The increase was equivalent to one on every 

 22 deaths. The increase of the mortality was greatest in the town 

 districts or sub-districts, where 60,186 persons died, that is, 6923 

 above the average (53,263) ; while the deaths in the country dis- 

 tricts amounted to 50,511 or 4724 above the average, 45,787. After 

 correcting for increase of population, on the assumption that the 

 population in ' town and country increased at the same rates as in 

 the ten years 1841-51, the mortality in the towns appears to be at 

 the rate of 2*704 per cent., in the country at the rate of 1-926 per 

 cent, per annum. The excess over the average of the season was 

 •182 in the towns, '050 in the country ; it was, therefore, more than 

 three times as great in the town as it was in the country districts. 



The deaths in the year 1857 amounted to 420,019; and if the 

 population of England and Wales is correctly estimated at 19,304,000 

 in the middle of that year, the rate of mortality was 2-176 per cent., 

 or somewhat less than 22 to 1000 of the population. The average 

 of the ten preceding years is 2-276 per cent. ; consequently the 

 mortality on the year 1857 was below the average. 



