496 The Public Health. [ Oct., 
the rate of mortality was 33-01 in 1,000! Again, the mortality 
rate of Hull in 1851 was 36, whilst in July, 1866, when the 
death-rate of London was 22, that of Hull was only 18. But the 
average of Hull is higher than that of London, as will be seen in 
the table below. 
It is impossible at present to form more than a partial 
acquaintance with the rates of mortality im the large towns, as it is 
only recently that the registration has been placed on a satisfactory 
footing. Such as it is, however, it has enabled us with the aid of 
information kindly given to us by the Registrar General, to draw 
up the following table, indicating the relative sanitary changes in 
some of our large towns. The average annual mortality for each 
of the large towns named (excepting London) was correctly 
ascertained for the first time in 1865; and the mortality of those 
towns in 1851 is that of the registration districts im which they 
are situated. The last column shows the mortality when it was 
unusually high. 
Rats or Mortauity to 1,000 Livrne. 
ra en 
Bristow. eee 28 23°52 40 
Seondon) . <) ss 24°44 23°39 30 
Tage eg ae 25 27°27 34 
Edinburgh . . ? 28°10 38 
Teeds..00a ae & 28 80°95 38 
Glasgow. . . ? 32°89 35 
Manchester . . 31 33°01 39 
Liverpool. . . 33 36°42 o7 
If it were quite fair to draw inferences from this table, it 
would appear that every town excepting Bristol and London has 
been becoming gradually more unhealthy ; and we should be disposed 
to place great reliance even upon these imperfect data (for there is 
no doubt that that has been the tendency in our large towns), were 
it not for the apparent exception in favour of Bristol. The 
statistics of that city show that where insalubrious conditions exist 
(as they undoubtedly do there), as soon as an unhealthy season 
presents itself, the hand of disease grasps such a place, and the 
sanitary thermometer flies up almost to a level with the worst town 
in the kingdom. ‘The causes are obvious; overcrowding, drunken- 
ness, accumulations of filth, improper modes of disposing of the 
night-soil, imperfect conveniences at once tell their tale, and death 
stamps the vicious and neglected cities with his brand. 
But the remedy for all this negligence, sin, and corruption is 
now at hand, and if the Sanitary Act, 1866, be not rigidly enforced, 
