( VI ) 



STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH. 



1st Quarter. — 108,527 deaths were registered in tlie winter quarter 

 of this year, and tlie annual rate of mortality was nearly 23 in 1000, 

 against the average of the season 25. The winters of 1846, 1850, and 

 1856 alone, within the registration range of observation commencing 

 in 1838, show a lower rate of mortality; and the winter of 1846, 

 exceedingly mild, was followed by a hot summer, which gave birth 

 to a severe epidemic of diarrhcea and summer cholera. The tem- 

 perature of the last winter quarter differed little from the average, 

 and will not account for the low rate of mortality, which may be 

 partly referred to improvements in the sanatory condition of the 

 people. In the country, and still more in the towns, there is, how- 

 ever, great room for further improvement ; for the mortality in the 

 villages and small towns was at the rate of nearly twenty, in the large 

 town districts, twenty-six in 1000. 



2nd Quarter. — 100,205 deaths were registered in the quarter end- 

 ing June 30, and this implied an annual mortality at the rate of 

 2*086 per cent. The mortality in the districts containing the prin- 

 cij)al towns was at the annual rate of 2"323, that is '125 less than 

 2*448, the average of the preceding ten spring quarters. In the 

 remaining district, comprising chiefly small towns and countiy 

 parishes, the reduction in the annual rate of mortality was •210; 

 it was 1*873, while the average rate of the season was 2*083. 



THE PRICE OF PROVISIONS. 



1st Quarter. — Wheat, which was 72s. Ad. a quarter in the winter 

 of last year, has fallen to 5Gs. 10c/. in the winter of the present year. 

 But potatoes have risen from 86s. to 110s. a ton at the water-side 

 market, Southwark ; beef from htd. to bid. ; and mutton, from bid. to 

 6if7. a pound, by the carcase, in the Leadenhall and Newgate markets. 

 Thus the price of wheat fell 21 per cent. ; while the price of potatoes 

 in London rose 28, of beef 10, and of mutton nearly 16 per cent. 



2nd Quarter. — The average price of wheat, like that of consols, 

 has been nearly the same as it was in the three first months of the 

 year ; it was 56s. 9rf. in the thirteen weeks of April, IMay, and June, 

 1857 ; and consequently wheat is cheaper by 23 per cent, and 17 

 per cent, than it was in the corresponding seasons of 1855 and 1856. 

 In the London markets beef has risen 7 per cent. , while mutton has 

 slightly fallen since last year. The high price of potatoes is the 

 most unfavourable circumstance in the Table. The price of this 

 important esculent has been 60 per cent, higher in Ijondon than it 

 ■«vas in the spring quarter of 1856. The abundant crop of fruit will, 

 to a certain extent, supply its place as an anti-scorbutic ; and we 

 may hope that this year's crop of potatoes will be more abundant. 



