280 COMPARATIVE HEALTH IN THE 



places, with an annual mortality of only 1 in 60 or 

 70, evidence enough exists to prove the proposition 

 that health is intimately connected with, and de- 

 pendent on, man's own conduct ; and that when the 

 conditions of health shall be better understood, we 

 may reasonably look forward to still brighter re- 

 sults. 



It was very common at one time to eulogize the 

 simple food and hardy habits of the poor and labour- 

 ing classes as eminently conducive to health, when 

 contrasted with the debilitating effects of the cares 

 and luxuries of the rich. Experience unfortunately 

 reverses the picture, and shows, by arithmetical 

 arguments, that the excess of work and the priva- 

 tions to which the poor are habitually exposed, pro- 

 duce a much higher rate of mortality among them, 

 especially in seasons of scarcity or commercial de- 

 pression, than among the richer classes of society ; 

 and the same thing is farther proved by the fact, that 

 in the army and navy the officers almost invariably 

 suffer less than the men from changes of climate, 

 and from the fatigues and calamities of war. In 

 France, the mortality among the infants of the 

 poorer classes is said to be nearly double that oc- 

 curring among those in more affluent circumstances ; 

 while, in the wealthier departments, the average of 

 life is twelve years greater than in those which are 

 poor In London, according to Dr. Granville's tables, 

 only 542 infants out of every 1000 births among the 

 poor survive their second year ; and in Paris, also, 

 the mortality in the quarter inhabited by the work- 

 ing classes is nearly double that which occurs 

 among the more wealthy. 



If, as seems to be the case, a corresponding dis- 

 proportion occur between the rates of mortality in 

 the different classes of society in Great Britain, it sug- 

 gests some most important considerations, the first of 

 which is the simple question, Whether that condition 

 of the lower orders can be regarded as eminently 



