1868. ] ( 275 ) 
EHE PUBLIC HEALTH: 
SincE our last report the Registrar-General has published his yearly 
summary of the weekly returns of Births and Deaths, and causes of 
death in London during the year 1867. The whole is contained 
in a pamphlet of twenty-seven pages, which mainly consists of 
tables summarizing the information contained in the weekly returns 
issued from Somerset House. From these dry figures, however, 
much useful information may be extracted for the use of those who 
are interested in the Public Health. Nor are we quite confined to 
the consideration of the Metropolis in the present annual survey. 
A new feature has been recently added to the weekly returns in the 
form of a return of the weekly mortality of thirteen of the largest 
cities and towns of the United Kingdom. The result of these 
returns is also given in the present summary, and we are thus 
enabled to compare the mortality of London with other towns in 
the kingdom. It would be, however, wrong in any estimate of 
sanitary conditions and requirements to regard London as one 
city. The Metropolis, in fact, is a congeries of cities and towns, 
which have become agglomerated by the growth of each. London 
and Westminster were once separated by a district as free from 
houses as London is now separate from Harrow, but the interspace 
has grown up, and thus Hampstead and Islington, Hackney, Bow, 
Greenwich, Woolwich, Dulwich, Clapham, Wandsworth, Kensing- 
ton, and Paddington form now but parts of the great Metropolis, 
which takes its name from the central city, whose sleeping popula- 
tion does not at present exceed 115,000 persons. Nevertheless, the 
occupations, wealth, soil, elevation of these several united towns 
and cities vary so much as to render a close scrutiny necessary, in 
order to ascertain what are the physical and social conditions that 
are influencing the health of the Metropolis. 
In 1867 the population of the Metropolis was estimated to be 
8,082,372. The ascertained population in 1861 was 2.803,989. 
This vast aggregate of human beings live in a district of 122 
square miles, which is intersected by the river Thames. On the 
north side of the river le 51 square miles, and this is occupied by 
three-fourths of the population; on the south side there are 71 
square miles, with the remaining fourth of the population. This 
vast mass of people live in 340,917 houses, in which must be 
enumerated 46 workhouses, 12 prisons, 4 military and naval 
asylums, 31 civil hospitals, 8 military and naval hospitals, and 
19 lunatic asylums. The Metropolis is, in fact, a kingdom in itself, 
