568 
NATURE 
[ Océ. 14, 1886 
they are, it must not for a moment be imagined that we 
think the introduction of anything like them was needed 
or would have been expedient in such a volume as that 
now under notice. A reviewer may take liberties that 
are denied to an author. 
But now to return to our proper business. In his 
treatment of the subject Mr. Sclater, as might be expected, 
shows himself its master; not but that there are a few 
points—and one of them we have indicated—on which he 
owns himself doubtful. This is no drawback, for such there 
are, and long will be, in every matter of this kind. One 
great merit, in our eyes at least, is that he steadily treads 
the old high-road which has conducted its passengers 
to so many great achievements, and refuses to follow 
the bewildering by-paths, of late so much vaunted by 
various writers, that are eventually found to mislead the 
unwary or inexpert traveller into bottomless bogs. A 
plain view of things is taken, and one that is suggested 
no less by eminent knowledge than by common-sense. 
There is no attempt to regenerate a fallen world of 
science within the narrow limits of a catalogue, or to 
make the catalogue of a single museum, however great 
its wealth, pass for a monograph. From the beginning 
of the volume to its end there does not appear the trace 
of a wish to indulge—may we be pardoned the word ?— 
a “fad”; not even in the frivolous matter of nomen- 
clature, a rock on which all novices are sure to strike, and 
often to split’ The various “keys” with which every 
group is provided seen always to fit and to turn easily in 
their locks—not, indeed, a surprising fact, since Mr. 
Sclater, if not the inventor, has long been one of the 
most skilful handlers of this convenient differentiating 
instrument, so useful when manufactured by an adept, 
and so useless when turned out by a tiro, who not seldom 
contrives, in the course of a few lines, so to complicate 
his conditions (of his own choosing, be it remembered) 
as to render them characterless, if not contradictory. To 
sum up, it may be said that, supposing the plan of the 
British Museum “ Catalogue of Birds” to have been well 
laid, Mr. Sclater has shown how it may be well executed. 
THE VITAL STATISTICS OF GLASGOW 
The Vital Statistics of the City of Glasgow. Part II. 
The Districts of Glasgow. By James B. Russell, M.D., 
LL.D., Medical Officer of Health. 
Ee this Report Dr. Russell presents us with the vital 
statistics of the city of Glasgow and its districts for 
1880, 1881, and 1882, and with some comments on, and 
inferences to be drawn from, the facts enumerated. Some 
years ago an Improvement Trust scheme for the sanitary 
reformation of the houses of the people was elaborated 
and put into operation. This scheme has achieved “a 
summary revolution in the worst parts of the city,” not 
apparently before it was wanted, for Dr. Russell shows 
* Indeed, we think we should have ground for complaining that Mr. 
Sclater has not made one nomenclatural change. He is of course as well 
aware as any one that the idea of a generic type never occurred to Linnzus, 
though it was ever present with Brisson. Nevertheless, modern specialists 
are required to find a type for every Linnzean genus; and, despite the almost 
universal practice, the type of Tanagra (which is only Brisson’s Tangara 
with a modified spelling) is clearly 7. ¢atao. Moreover, the generic term 
Calliste, used by Mr. Sclater for that species and’ its congeners, is 
but questionably admissible from its prior application by Poli (‘* Test. 
utr. Sicilia,” i. p. 30)—in a different dialectical form (Cadlista), it is true ; 
but the Goddess of Wisdom may be called to witness that her name, whether 
written Athene or Athen, is one and the same ; while we ask her pardon 
and that of our readers for drawing attention to such a trifle. 
that some of the districts of Glasgow—notably that known 
as Bridgegate and Wynds—do not compare favourably 
even with the worst slums of London or Liverpool. 
Bridgegate and Wynds had a death-rate for 1880, 1881, 
and 1882, of 38°3 per thousand, a birth-rate of 37°1 per 
1000, a death-rate under one year per 1000 born of 206, and 
a death-rate from consumption and acute diseases of the 
lungs of 16°75—this figure alone being higher even than 
the total death-rate of many English towns. Much of 
this district has been improved off the face of the earth— 
the population in 1881 was 7798, in 1871 14,294—still the 
houses that are left “are radically bad, and total demolition 
and destruction is the only remedy.” It is such districts 
as these that have, as Dr. Russell remarks, “been the 
heartbreak of successive generations of Glasgow philan- 
thropists.” The death-rate of the city of Glasgow, as a 
whole, for 1880, 1881, and 1882, was 25°2 per 1000, with a 
birth-rate of 37°3 per 1000; although considerably less 
healthy than London, Glasgow compares favourably with 
Dublin, and stands on about the same level as Liverpool 
and Manchester. The death-rates of the different 
districts of the city in 1871-72—prior to the im- 
provement schemes—are compared with those in 1880, 
1881, and 1882, subsequent to the carrying out of 
many improvements in unhealthy areas by demoli- 
tion and reconstruction. The comparison shows that 
in all the districts the general death-rate and the death- 
rate under five years (with one exception) were much 
lower in the latter period than in the former. “ This 
result,” Dr. Russell remarks, “is important, as proving 
that the displacement of the inhabitants of the central 
parts of the city has not deteriorated the health of the 
districts into which they have removed. It was proved 
by special investigation that the people whose wretched 
houses were demolished by the Improvement Trust dis- 
tributed themselves over the city. It is often said that 
the habits of these people are such that, go where they 
please, they will not be the better of the change. It is 
evident, however, that they found physical conditions so 
much more conducive to health that, whether or not their 
habits have been improved, undoubtedly their health has 
been, in their new residences. The moral is to persevere 
in the destruction or improvement of the houses of the 
people. The certain result is to improve their health.” 
The influence of overcrowding on mortality, and the 
connection subsisting between overcrowding and an Irish 
population are well shown in the contrast between two 
of the districts. Blythswood is remarkable as having the 
lowest proportion of inmates per inhabited room, the 
largest proportion of large-sized houses, the lowest death- 
rate, the lowest birth-rate, the lowest mortality under 
five years, the lowest proportion of deaths under one year 
per 1000 born, and the lowest proportion of Irish-born of 
any district in Glasgow. Bridgegate and Wynds, on the 
other hand, has the largest proportion of inmates per 
inhabited room, the largest proportion, save one, of one-’* 
apartment houses, the highest death-rate over all, the 
highest death-rate under five years, the largest proportion 
of deaths under one year per 1000 born, and the highest 
percentage of Irish-born inhabitants. And in general, 
Dr. Russell states it to be a fact “that a district which 
has houses occupied aéove the standard number of per- 
sons per room (¢.e, above the mean number of the whole 
