176 REPORT — 1864. 



vantage to tlie labourer to be drenched, nolens volens, by his master instead of at 

 his own option by the publican. As a matter of fact, cider-shops abound in the 

 cider counties, and are frequented by agricultural labourers, who resort thither for 

 companionship, and, as a matter of course, drink " for the good of the house." 



Tlie great difficulty in remedying this evil lies in the opposition to a remedy on 

 the part of those who suffer for want of it. It is one of the worst features of the 

 cider truck that it enforces selfishness. A. young newly married labourer will take 

 home his earnings to his wife, and would prefer that the whole of them should bo 

 paid in money. The elder labourer approves of the " cider truck," and would 

 oppose any alteration of it. Tlius in proportion as there is a greater need of thrift 

 does thriftlessness increase ; just as the labourer becomes the father of a family, 

 and there are more mouths to feed, does he take home less money to feed them 

 with. Botli parties are wedded to the system, and reform is thereby rendered 

 very difficult. Some influential agriculturists in Somersetshire have substituted 

 money for cider, and have found that, when fairly carried out, the change has been 

 approved by the labourer. An agreement may be difficult at the onset, but, when 

 once made, it will be permanent, whereas the present disputes about quality and 

 quantity are perennial. The extension of the Truck Act to the agricultural dis- 

 tricts is therefore much to be desired, and seems to be the only efficient remedy for 

 the manifold evils of the "cider-truck." 



The Sanitanj Statistics of Clifton. 

 By J. A. Symonds, M.D., F.KS.K, 4'c., 6(c. 



This paper proved the importance of adding verbal explanations to statistical 

 figures. The Registrar-General's report had given 24 in 1000 as the death-rate of 

 Clifton, calculated from the deaths in the quarter ending June 1864. This state- 

 ment would be very injurious to the reputation of Clifton as a watering-place, 

 imless it were explained that its name is g•i^■eu to a large Poor-law district, to the 

 population of which Clifton proper contributes little more than one-fifth. The 

 several subdistricts of Clifton Union were described in detail as to their sanitary 

 characteristics, and as to their respective death-rates, calculated from the annual 

 returns of death in the five j-ears from 1859 to 1864. The average for Clifton proper 

 is 17 in 1000; and if a quarterly return be a fair basis of calculation, it would be found 

 that in some quarters the death-rate amounted to only 15 in 1000. On comparing 

 the death-rates of the several subdistricts of Clifton Union, the author showed 

 the influence of urban and rural agencies. The highest death-rates denote the 

 combination of poverty and crowding. He compared the death-rates of several 

 localities in England, and ascertained that the average for a crowded town was 24 

 in 1000, for a rural district 15, and for a mixed district 21. Clifton Union is a 

 mixed district. One of its subdistricts, three miles distant from Clifton proper, 

 gives 24 in 1000 ; for it belongs really to one of the most miserable quarters on the 

 outskirts of Bristol. A purelj^ rural subdistrict, Westbmy, gives 15 in 1000, and 

 Clifton proper 17 in 1000. But the average of the whole union is 21. Many 

 details as to the subdistricts were related. The paper concluded with the expres- 

 sion of a strong wish that the classification of numerical returns representing the 

 elements of the social life of our people should not be compelled to follow Poor- 

 law lines and limitations, which, however suitable to Poor-law pui-poses, may 

 cause figures to express something very diflerent from what would be their mean- 

 ing were the facts which they number grouped in accordance with scientific , 

 requirements, rather than with the convenience of a special branch of national 

 administration. Then the numerical death-rate of a crowded city would express 

 the mortality in that city, including items that are now transfen-ed to a rural dis- 

 trict, or appended to a healthy watering-place. The numerical death-rate of a 

 village would mean the mortality of that village, unswollen by the deaths in a 

 city poor-house ; and the numerical death-rate of a watering-place would express 

 the mortality in that watering-place simply, neither complicated with the mor- 

 tality of distant rural retreats nor burtheued with that of the sickly suburbs of a 

 crowded city. 



