CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



The following table shews the order of fatality, 

 and the ratio of deaths, to 100,000 persons living, 

 from 19 of the most fatal diseases in Scotland and 

 England, in 1870: 



This and like tables of former years shew a differ- 

 ent death-rate of the same diseases in the two 

 countries, with a varying death-rate from the 

 diseases in different years. Scotland is more 

 liable than England to sudden changes of tem- 

 perature. Hence bronchitis prevails more in 

 Scotland ; but diarrhoea prevails more in England 

 in the warmest months, when the temperature is 

 much higher than in Scotland. 



Intimately connected with disease is the state 

 of the insane, the deaf and dumb, and the blind. 

 In the United Kingdom, 1870, 78,945 lunatics, 

 idiots, and imbeciles were confined in asylums, 

 in the ratio of 2-89 in 1000 of the population, or 

 2-44 in England and Wales, 2-27 in Scotland, and 

 3-07 in Ireland. Of the confined, to 100 males 

 there were 113 females in England and Wales, 

 H2 in Scotland, and 88 in Ireland. In England 

 and Wales, 1871, 1-3 in 1000 persons were idiots 

 and imbeciles, the males being about equal in 

 number to the females ; 1-7 in 1000 persons, loo 

 males to 112 females, were lunatics ; under the age 

 of 30, male idiots and imbeciles were in excess, but 

 above that age, female. Over the earth, the ratio 

 of insane men to women is stated at 100 to 103. 

 Britain has more insane, in the ratio of the popu- 

 lation, in agricultural than manufacturing districts, 

 and in the lower than higher ranks. In 1871, 2 

 in 3 of the insane in Britain were paupers. In- 

 sanity is said to be rarer in the south than north 

 of Europe, as 2 to 10 40 in 10,000 persons. In 

 many countries, most insane occur in hilly dis- 

 tricts and on north exposures. Insanity is rare 

 in tropical countries. More women are insane 

 in proportion to men in France than in England. 

 Of lunatics sent to asylums at the beginning of 

 the malady, 7 in 8, or 9 in 10, recover. The cure 

 is generally in 5 to 10 months. There are most 

 cures between the ages of 20 and 30. More 

 women recover than men. Few recover after the 

 age of 50. 



In the United. Kingdom, 1871, there were 19,237 

 persons mute, or deaf and dumb, or 0-6 in 1000 

 of the population, about the mean for all Europe. 



538 



England and Wales, 1871, had 107 male to 100 

 female mutes. After the age of 15, the ratio of 

 mutes to the population decreases with age ; 

 hence the former must die in higher ratio than 

 the latter. In England and Wales, 30 persons 

 were returned as deaf and dumb and blind in 

 1861, and ill in 1871. In Britain, mutes are pro- 

 portionally fewer in civic than in rural, and 

 especially hilly, districts. Other mountainous, 

 countries have a large ratio of mutes ; some Swiss 

 cantons have I in 200 inhabitants. The United 

 States, 1850, had i mute in 2073 whites, i in 2936 

 free coloured, and i in 6221 slaves. France, 1853, 

 had, in proportion to the population, most mutes 

 in the mountains, table-lands, and moors, and 

 fewest in the central plains and most cultivated 

 tracts. In Ireland, 1861, of 2962 families, 2512 

 had each one mute child ; 287, two mutes ; 127, 

 three; 32, four; 8, five; 3, six; I, seven; i, 

 eight. The ratio of acquired to congenital deaf- 

 ness is 25 to loo mutes in Britain, 42 in the 

 United States, and 52 in Germany. 



In the United Kingdom, 1871, there were 31,159 

 blind persons, or 0-98 in 1000 inhabitants ; and 

 to i oo males, 90 females were blind in England 

 and Wales, 102 in Scotland, and in in Ireland. 

 Of the blind, 1871, in England and Wales, i in 

 ii had been blind from birth, and i in 10 in 

 Ireland had become blind by zymotic diseases. 

 Blindness is more common in agricultural than in 

 manufacturing and mining districts, and in the 

 level parts of the middle of Europe than in the 

 mountainous. Blindness occurs in all ranks and 

 employments, and is a common infirmity of old 

 age. Nearly half the number of the blind are 

 above 60 years old. 



HEALTH, MORTALITY, AND PROGRESS. 



National health and longevity increase with 

 knowledge and wealth. A century ago, the spread 

 of the steam-engine, of mechanism to supersede 

 hand-labour in spinning, and of improved com- 

 munication, greatly increased the produce of 

 manufacturing industry, and the national wealth, 

 lowered the death-rate, and brought conveniences, 

 comforts, and luxuries to those who before could 

 not buy them. More comfortably clothed, housed, 

 and fed, by their personal exertions, men had less 

 sickness, and lived longer. The English death- 

 rate fell from 28 in 1000 living in 1780, to 20 in 

 1820 ; and the London from 50 in 1000, in 1750, 

 to 24 in 1820. While the wages of the industrial 

 classes increased two or three fold, 1770-1838, 

 house-rent (but for better accommodation) and 

 the price of food remained nearly the same, and 

 incomes could purchase far more comforts. In 

 1770, half the English people lived by the wages 

 of labour, now three-fourths do so ; but national 

 wealth has far more increased. In 1801, we paid 

 fivefold for our cottons, threefold for our flannels, 

 and twice for our linens, what we do now ; hence 

 the greatly improved dress of our working-classes. 

 Luxuries as tea, coffee, sugar, pepper are much 

 cheaper, and from being hardly, are now univers- 

 ally, used by the working-classes. 



But the social benefits of the greatly increased 

 productive powers of industry have not reached 

 a degraded class unwilling to work. Thus, in 

 Limerick city, 1838, the poor occupied a large 

 district, and had a death-rate of 52 in 1000 living, 



