784 DISEASES OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



tropical Africa, India, and America, they receive 

 caloric from the atmosphere by respiration faster 

 than it is carried off, causing the temperature of 

 the body to rise above the natural standard, and 

 predisposing it to attacks of malignant fever. 



According to an estimate of Mr. Farr, pub- 

 lished in the second Report of the Registrar Ge- 

 neral, the mortality of England and Wales in 

 1838 was 342,559 in a population of 15,441,735, 

 or in the ratio of 22* 1 1 per thousand of all ages, 

 and from all diseases, which is 7'8 per cent, 

 higher than among the British troops in the 

 United Kingdom, from 1817 to 1836. The rea- 

 son of this difference is, that the army is com- 

 posed of men chiefly in the prime of life ; where- 

 as in the civil population of England and Wales, 

 130,695 of the deaths were of children under five 

 years of age, or in the ratio of above forty per 

 cent, of the whole mortality. And we have al- 

 ready seen that throughout the temperate and 

 colder latitudes of Europe, a large proportion of 

 the deaths among children are owing to the in- 

 fluence of cold, at a period when the power of 

 maintaining the temperature at the natural stan- 

 dard is limited, and the whole organization ex- 

 tremely delicate. 



In England and Wales, the mortality from all the 

 diseases registered in 1838, was as follows, accord- 

 ing to the classification of Mr. Farr. (See Second 

 Report of the Registrar General, p. 100.) 



