86 



OPINIONS OF THE PEESS. 



Montreal is greatly obliged to the gentleman who has furnished us with a series 

 of statistical articles. ***** in these articles he shows the fallacy which 

 has hitherto led us astray ; namely, comparing the mortality of a city where the 

 birth-rate is high with other cities whore it is low. ***** To make this 

 plain, let us suppose that in London there are 30 children under one year to every 

 1000 of the community, whilst in Montreal t.iere are 60. Take then, again, for 

 example, the death-rate in each case of the in'ants under one year at 16 per cent, 

 aad of all the rest at 2 per cent, and we have : — 



MONTREAL. 



LONDON. 



970 at 2 per cent 19.4 



30 at 16 " 4.8 



1000 24.2 



940 at 2 per cent 18.8 



60 at 16 " 9.6 



1000 28.4 



The whole mortality is thus increased from a little more than 24 persons per 1000 

 to 28 per 1000, though thr sanitary state in the two places, both as to infants and 

 adults, and the percent^ a of death in both classes, is precisely the same! But great 

 as is this difference, at of the inlant mortality is very mucli greater,— the one 

 being 0.48 while the v^iher is 0.96 per cent, of tlie population, or exactly double; and 

 yet, as before stated, the healthiness of both places is precisely cqu&l.— jyitness, 

 2ith Aug. 



The article will be read in England witli a degree of interest little inferior to what 

 it will excite here. For the present, we merely call attention to the subject, and 

 hope that our contemporaries, who have had so much to say about the tearfully 

 high rate of infant mortality in Montreal, will give an equal amount of publicity 

 to the views of our correspondent. — Daily Xews, 2Lth Oct. 



We draw the attention of the Sanitary Association and Dr. Carpenter, to an 

 article which appeared yesterday on the fourth page of the Daily Ktws, and which 

 refutes, in the most crushing manner, several of the statements advanced by that 

 learned statician. — Noiiveau Monde, 2Qth Oct. 



We find in one of the late numbers of the DaUy News, an important anonymous 

 article, but which is, nevertheless, carefully digested, upon the subject of the 

 sanitary condition ol the city. It is a rclutation of the last report of Dr. Carpenter, 

 whose figures and statistics it shows to be false by means of oflicial proof. We 

 do not wish to mix ourselves up with this discussion, further than to point out to 

 Dr. Carpenter the necessity there is for him to explain himself, and to advise the 

 Corporation to do nothing before the question shall have been settled.— X'Ordre, 

 28rA Oct. 



Vital Statistics. — The d.'ductions from the mortality returns of the city of 

 Montreal drawB by Dr. Caipenter, have led to a somewhat important contribution 

 to the discussion of this important subject. The writer is a gentleman who from his 

 knowledge of figures and the attention he ha.< given for some years to the conside- 

 ration of the laws which regulate the growth of the population is entitled to be 

 heard with respect and his statements caretully examined. #♦**#* jjg 

 Fbows that Montreal, instead of being the "plague spot" described by Dr. Carpen- 

 ter, in reality enjoys l\i!ly more than an average exemption from infant mortality. 

 * * * Other tables show, according to the writer's figures, that Montreal 

 is more healthy than London and Glasgow, and much more healthy than Manches- 

 ter. Should these statements be correct, and from the very cursory examination 

 we have yet been able to make of them, it seems difiicult to disprove them, it is of the 

 utmost importance they should be known, so as to remove the charge always brought 

 against Montreal in this respect.— //eraW, 'lith October. 



Thb Sanitary Association. — * # * It is quite impossible to convey even 

 a faint idea ol the complete destruction of the whole of the arguments of Dr. Car- 

 penter. The castle in the air has vanislied. The Sanitary Association, like a class 

 of beggars who extort money by exhibiting their sores, delighted in representing 

 Montreal as a polluted Queen, swollen with drink and debauchery, and covered 

 with all manner of filth. But " Experience" has torn away the rags with which Dr. 

 Carpenter had clothed her, and she steps forth glowing with healtn, young and 



" Beautiful as Euth among the corn, 

 Or Bebekah by the stoney well." 



Star, 2»th October. 

 The writer of the paper signed " Experience," which we published some days ago 

 showed how grossly wrong were the figures ( n which Dr. Carpenter relied in those 

 papers of his, which attracted very much attention, and which described our fair 

 city as an exceedingly murderous place for infants — one of the most destructive 

 places, in fact, under the sun. It is satisfactory to £nd that it is not so bad as repre- 

 sented, in iact, not worse but better, than many ot'aer iX&CQi.— Gazette, ^th Nov. 



