TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 



103 



of the gentry, traders, and well-to-do classes had suffered ; and, assuming the former 

 class to amount to 67,000, and the latter to 13,000, it follows that 1 in 40 of the 

 labouring class, and 1 in 131 of the well-to-do class were victims. 



On the Prevalence of Diseases in Hull. 

 By Henry Cooper, M.D. Lond. 

 A few remarks were premised on the state of mortality in Hull, which has never 

 been stated oflScially for the whole borough, as the parts for which it has been 

 given have been separated in the returns, so as to give results likely to lead to false 

 impressions. Hull, including the Humber, St. Mary's, and Myton registration 

 districts, is given in one return ; Sculcoates, including the two Sculcoates, in an- 

 other ; the whole parish of Sutton, of which only part is in the borough, in a third, 

 and Drypool and Southcoates in separate returns. But the term " Hull " is popu- 

 larly applied in an extended sense to the whole borough ; so that the rate of mortality 

 of the part so named in the returns, and which, on several accounts, yields more 

 than its average of deaths, is erroneously attributed to the whole. The rate 

 given for Hull is 1 death in 29 ; for Sculcoates, 1 in 42 ; when the borough in 

 its entirety is taken, the rate is 1 in 33 ; and there is reason to believe that in 

 the present season it is considerably below this. Tables were then shown to 

 exhibit the relative prevalence of eight of the most common diseases not neces- 

 sarily fatal, viz. fever, rheumatism, pulmonary ^diseases, dyspepsia, neurosis, 

 cachexias, uterine diseases, and diarrhoea. These tables were founded on a 

 calculation of 21,712 cases of these diseases presenting themselves at the medical 

 charities of the town during a period of ten years ; and the proportion per cent, of 

 each disease to the whole number observed, noted under each head. A great preva- 

 lence of chest affection, of dyspepsia and rheumatism is found to exist, and fever is 

 a comparatively rare disease. A second table shows, by curves, the prevalence of 

 the four more important of these diseases, viz. pulmonary diseases, dyspepsia, rheu- 

 matism, and fever, and the effect of the seasons of the last ten years upon their 

 intensity. Pulmonary diseases, commencing high, rise to their culminating point 

 in May, then fall to their minimum in August, and again rise to the average winter 

 level. Dyspepsia, coinciding with pulmonary diseases, in its time of attaining its 

 height, rises to a much higher point, and falls rapidly through the autumn. Rheu- 

 matism has its maximum in winter, with an exacerbation in August and November ; 

 — fever is singularly equable and remarkably low for a large town, not favourably situ- 

 ated nor well-drained ; its maximum is also in May or April. Zymotic diseases were 

 excluded from the calculation, as the cases are not received into the hospital, and 

 not treated in the dispensaries in such proportion as to give anything like an ade- 

 quate idea of their prevalence. The results tallied very accurately with the practical 

 expeiience of medical men, which thus acquired confirmation and exactness from the 

 application of the numerical method. 



On the Education of the Poor in Liverpool. 

 By the Rev. A. Hume,Z>..C.Z, L.L.D., F.S.A. 



I. Population of the Borough,— The borough consists of five great portions, the 

 parish or ancient parliamentary borough, and four adjacent townships or portions 

 of townships. From a moderate estimate of the addition to the population since 

 the last census, the present population of the borough and of each of its constituent 

 parts is reached. The result is shown in the following table : — 



