DEATH-TOLL OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



131 



It is indeed difficult for any one acquainted with the 

 history of the science of public health to see the necessity 

 for any defence of sanitary works^ seeing that in some form 

 or other they have led to the entire disappearance of some 

 diseases and to the great amelioration of others, and that 

 where they have been thoroughly carried out they have had 

 a distinct effect either in directly diminishing the death- 

 rate or in counteracting a tendency to increased disease 

 and death. 



The Registrar-General in his last report gives a few ex- 

 amples of places in which there seems to have been a direct 

 connexion between sanitary improvements and diminished 

 rates of mortality. His list is as follows ; but the time at 

 my disposal does not permit me to append his remarks as 

 to the kind of works executed at each place : — 



But it may be said that of late some form of sanitary 

 administration has been at work all over the country, why 

 then have recourse to detached examples ? The reply is 

 sufficiently simple, that this universal sanitation has cer- 

 tainly not yet had time to prove its power for good. 



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