20 SOCIOLOGY. 



Seuerally ovei'crowled (b) , salubrious (c), and enjoying an immunity from 

 any serious and persistent class of epidemics ; — contiguous to a 

 geological field of exceptional interest, and to a country remarkable for 

 its beautiful and varied scenery, its botanical richness, and its fertile 

 agricultural produce ; — in a county rendered famous by one of the 

 greatest poets that any age has ever witnessed ; — in a scene of develop- 

 ments in mechanical science with which are associated the names of 

 James Watt, Matthew Boultou, and other worthies who have laid 

 the foundation of the world's prosperity ; — in a scene of art manu- 

 factures and industries, of beauty and utility, made everywhere 

 famous by the works of Chance, and Elkiugtou, and Gillott, and 

 Hardman, and Mason, and Tangye, and Winfield, and hosts of 

 others ; — from the town being independent of any specific forms 

 of trade such as cotton, woollen, etc., and not subject to recurrtzit 

 panics or waves of depression arising out of or common to those 

 specific forms of trade ; — fx'om the many and varied lands of manu- 

 factures and trades which the town possesses, involving commer- 

 cial relations with all parts of the globe ; — from the facilities that 

 these several maniafactures and trades give for acquiring independence 

 of position, and with it independence of character and thought ; — from 

 the town being within easy access of the Metropolis, but not in 

 any way overshadowed by it, and particularly from its constituting 

 the centre of an elaborate plexus of railway ramification, afford- 

 ing free and rapid communication with all parts of the Kingdom, 

 and as a consequence bringing with it a varied and abundant food 

 supply (rf) ; from the drainage of the town being good (e); — 

 from its local water supply being both wholesome and plentiful ; — 



(b.) Mr. Hughes submitted a table showing the average number of persons per 

 acre iu four large towns, as follows, lor the year 1881 :— Birmingham, liucori orated 

 1838)47-78; Leeds, (ICCDU'SS; Liverpool, (9th King John 106-4 ; Manchester (1838), 

 parliamentary limits, Cl-QO. Mean, 57-ul. 



(r.) Mr. Hughes submitted a table, compiled from Dr. Hill's Eeport above 

 referred to, exhibiting the mean death-rate per 1,(X)0 persons living in nine largo 

 towns for the nine years from 187-2 to !8si, both inclusive, as under :— London, 

 22-50; Liverpool, 27-77; Birmingham, 23-18; Manchester, 28-07; Leeds, 24-34; 

 Sheffield, 23-57 ; Salford, 27-37 ; Newcastle, 24-01 ; Norwich, 22-57. Blean of twenty 

 large towns for the same period, 23-72. 



'd.) A single illustration will suffice. Before the railway system was 

 inaugurated, fish, as au article of diet, must have been except to the wealthy; 

 comparatively rare in Birmingham. Now, from its central position, the town 

 has one of the most abundantly and variedly-supplied fish markets iu the 

 kingdom. At a recent public enquiry before an inspsctor from the Local 

 Government Board, the Chairman of the Markets and Fairs Committee of the 

 Corporation (Mr. Councillor M. J. Hart) stated that the estimated annual 

 quantity of fish passing through the hands of the wholesale dealers iu Bir- 

 mingham was about 100,000 tons, and its estimated value about £1,000,000. 



(c.) The method of treating the sewage not only of Birmingham but also of 

 the surrounding districts within the water-shed of the Biver Tame, including 

 au area of about 47,000 acres, by precipitation by lime in tanks, coupled with 

 purification by passing the elllueut through the land appears to be the best yet 

 devised. About thirteen million gallons of sewage is so treated daily. 



