/^ Human Physiology. 



a better chance for drainage. At the fine pleasure town of 

 Bath the deaths in a low-lying district were i in 40; in an 

 elevated quarter, i in 76 ; but it is to be observed that the high 

 district was inhabited by the rich, the low one by the poor, 

 and that in this country the crime of poverty is punished by 

 death. Still, elevation, or the lay of the land, makes a great 

 difference. Three regiments were quartered on a hill rising 

 872 feet above the sea. The regiment on the top lost 271 

 men; that on the side, 368; the one at the bottom, 486. 



In the drained streets of Nottingham artizans lived 30^ 

 years; in the undrained, 17. A sensitive person can feel the 

 difference in dryness and warmth between a London street on 

 a clay soil and one on gravel, and a well and ill-drained 

 district. Farmers say the drained land makes the difference 

 of a great-coat in the temperature, and more, in freedom 

 from rheumatism. Perched on the gravelly Malvern hills, I 

 can see a thin veil of mist hovering over every cold, damp 

 spot in the Severn valley, and could make a map of the 

 healthy and unhealthy localities. Clay and gravel, damp and 

 vdry soils, are different as sickness and health death and life. 



The difference in mortality among different classes in society, 

 living in the same districts, but in very different conditions, is 

 very remarkable. The rich have good houses, plenty of room, 

 the conditions and generally habits of cleanliness, gardens and 

 open spaces, pure air. more sunshiny, more and better clothing, 

 and better food than the classes below them. Shopkeepers 

 live among their customers, breathe the same air, and are 

 subject to many of the same evils. The workmen, artizans, 

 and the poorer classes take the refuse of all; live in the worst 

 districts, crowded together, and in the worst habits and con- 

 ditions. 



In Bath, a pleasure town, and of course a remarkably healthy 

 one, the average age at which the gentry, professional classes, 

 and their families die was, in 1845, 55 years; tradesmen and 



