AND ENVIRONMENT 27 



I owe the data to the courtesy of the Registrar-General 

 On inspection you will see that the history of the general 

 death-rate in this country consists of three chapters. 

 Chapter I (1835-66). In this period of 30 years, there is no 

 appreciable diminution in the death-rate of either men 

 or women. But this is the great period of factory 

 legislation ! That legislation was brought about by the 

 Reports of Royal Commissions, 1820-45, showing the 

 terrible condition of the work-people. There is no 

 evidence to indicate that the factory legislation in any way 

 improved the national mortality. Chapter II (1866-91). 

 This period of 25 years is essentially that of sanitary 

 reform. It is not my purpose to determine now whether 

 that reform produced the marked fall we now note in 

 the death-rate. What is quite certain is that, allowing 

 for age changes in the population, the death-rate did 

 fall in those years in a marked way for both men and 

 women. Chapter III (1891-1910). This last period of 

 19 years is the period of modern medicine, the period 

 during which there have been two ideas always present 

 — that of the local medical officer and of bacteria as the 

 origin of disease. If you examine the curves, you will 

 see at once that there at least is association, if there 

 be not causation, between the presence of these two 

 factors and an accelerated fall in the death-rate. Let 

 us all rejoice in this fall, and for the present and, 

 perhaps, ultimately with greater knowledge give due 

 credit to sanitary legislators and increased medical 

 knowledge. The whole diagram is satisfactory; we 

 have increasing rate of fall in our national mortality. 



Now I proceed to an examination of Fig. VI, 

 which gives the death-rat^s from phthisis corrected 

 for age. We see at once that the whole sweep of the 

 curves is different. To begin with, there is no early 



