28 Broughton Gifford. 



broke out in the parish during the autumn of 1851. In three months 

 there were 17 deaths from that cause alone, and of these every 

 one occurred on the common . Children were attacked elsewhere, 

 but not one died elsewhere. While on the common, one in every 

 twenty of the whole population perished. These facts were ear- 

 nestly represented in the proper quarter by the medical officer 1 for 

 the district and by myself, but in vain. The victims belonged to 

 the lower orders only, children of poor labourers and weavers. 

 Some of these suffered severely, 2 and 3 taken out of one family. The 

 cause was patent. While the soil elsewhere was firm and healthy, 

 the superfluous water being filtered through the gravel or carried 

 off by drains ; on the common, where the subsoil is clay, it was a 

 rotten sponge, which would hardly bear the weight of man or 

 beast. 



As specimens of longevity there are in the Burial Register 1852, 

 3, five consecutive entries of Broughton people, whose united ages 

 amount to 381 years, making an average of 76"2 each. But for 

 the circumstance that these entries follow each other, the average 

 longevity would not be so remarkable. I may add that these five 

 include one 60, and do not include two deaths which occurred in 

 the same year and in which the united ages were 180 years. 



During the last seventeen years (the limit of the Baptist chapel 

 entries), there have been buried at church 142, at the Baptist chapel 

 144, in all 286; which make 168 per annum, or 2'4 percent, on a 

 population of 700. During the last ten years there have been 

 buried at church 94, at the Baptist chapel 86, in all 180; which 

 make 18 per annum, or 2*7 per cent, on a population of 650. The 

 imported and exported burials would so nearly equal each other, 

 that no perceptible difference in the results would arise from taking 

 them into the calculation. That this rate of mortality is high will 

 appear by comparing it. with a statement lately made by the Re- 

 gistrar General. He says that on an average of ten years (1841 — 



1 The following is the return made by the medical officer for the Quarter end- 

 ing the year. "Broughton Common where scarlet fever has prevailed since 17 

 October, 18-31, and proved fatal to eleven children, is very badly drained and 

 is the most unhealthy place in my district." Six more died in the beginning 

 of the following year. 



