TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 153 



and to their relations with residence and occupation ; while observations of meteoro- 

 logy, and of the varying conditions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms (agricul- 

 tural statistics) should be concurrently made in each superior registration district. And 

 these combined observations and records in each locality should be published periodi- 

 cally for the instruction of its inhabitants. 



15. Again, the law should no longer confer badly-defined powers upon two or more 

 rival boards in the same place. If each of the existing local boards and councils were 

 fairly represented in a superior court, with a larger jurisdiction than now belongs to 

 any of those bodies, — as the district boards of London are in its metropolitan board, — 

 all reasonable objections to a transfer^of local functions might be avoided. 



16. As to the extent and form of the proposed larger districts for collecting and 

 registering vital and social statistics and for local management (the jurisdiction of 

 the Metropolitan Board of Works being wholly excluded from present considerations), 

 each might contain, on the average, two or more parochial unions. 



Wherever a correction of existing boundaries might be deemed necessary, the 

 natural features of the locality should be carefully borne in mind ; each parish or 

 cluster of population being included in that district, the pi-incipal town of which would 

 be most easy of access; and special regard being had to density of population. 



17. Every sanitary jurisdiction should be provided with a superintending officer of 

 health, debarred from private professional engagements, and performing a variety of 

 most important public functions*. 



And such sanitary jurisdictions should be an exact aggregate of a sufficient number 

 of smaller districts for medical visitation, which should be either identical with the 

 registration sub-districts or subdivisions of them. 



18. Recapitulation of practical suggestions. 



(a.) The physical geography of the district, and the general character of its popula- 

 tion, should be the main facts upon which any revision of existing territorial divisions 

 should be founded. 



(b.) Areas for statistical returns should invariably be co-extensive with those for 

 sanitary management. 



(c.) The extent of these areas should be large enough to provide satisfactorily for 

 the amalgamation of existing smaller jurisdictions. 



(d.) They should also be large enough to secure, with economy, the appointment 

 of a superior class of superintending Registrars, as officers of health. 



All these changes might be effected without any offensive sacrifice of existing in- 

 terests, or violation of justly established rights. 



On the Progress, Extent, and Value of the Porcelain, Earthenware, and Glass 

 Manufacture of Glasgow. By John Strang, LL.D., F.S.S. 



At the last meeting of the British Association I had the honour of bringing before 

 this Section a paper on the progress, extent, and value of the coal and iron trade of the 

 west of Scotland, of which Glasgow is the central mart ; and I now have the pleasure 

 of presenting you with the past and present position of certain other modern branches 

 of industry, which, although not so great as the former, have tended to give an onward 

 impulse to that progressive city : I allude to the manufacture of porcelain, earthenware, 

 glass, and tobacco-pipes. Although the making of delft or stoneware in its rudest 

 style and forms, and the manufacture of porcelain in somewhat better taste, were 

 there early introduced — the one in 1748 and the other in 1766 — the whole actual 

 value of both these articles made during the year 1777 amounted only to £5000; and 

 although the manufacture of black bottles and flint-glass was begun — the one in 1730 

 and the other in 1777 — the export of the former from the Clyde during the year 1777 

 merely reached 4760 cwts., and of the latter to little more than 14 cwts. The fact is, 

 till within these thirty years, there was only one pottery, one flint-glass, and one bottle- 

 work in the city of Glasgow. The trade in all these articles may therefore be said to 

 be but of yesterday, when it is stated that there are now eight large potteries engaged 

 in the manufacture of all kinds of china, porcelain, parian, and other ware, four flint- 

 glass manufactories, and twelve bottle-houses, with a considerable number of manu- 



* See also ' Essays on State Medicine,' pp. 50, 302, Sec. 



