TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 195 



than three days of the Belgian Army's services every year. With respect to the 

 soldiers and sailors at Portsmouth, the number of fresh cases in a single week of 

 May 1870 was 17 ; in the corresponding week of 1864 it was GO. The number of 

 days of sickness in the crews of the home station from contagious disease averaged 

 99,058 every year between 1861 and 1865, in 1867 it fell to 72,132, reducing the 

 annual money cost from £21,867 to £15,898. To prove that in the general deduc- 

 tion of contagious disease the true constitutional disease has also been lessened, it 

 was narrated that the period of treatment of this form has been gi'eatly shortened 

 among the female patients from 125 to 66 days ; and that the form of ulcer, 

 almost always, if not invariably, the prelude of constitutional disease, has been 

 reduced to one half its previous amount in the protected stations, and to one half 

 its present amount at the unprotected stations. That the civil population reaps 

 considerable benefit from these Acts appears from the number of contagious pa- 

 tients admitted into the three workhouses of the Plymouth district, which has 

 been reduced from 151 males and 705 females to 55 males and 107 females in the 

 same length of time ; also the percentage of such patients in the Devouport jail 

 was reduced from 4'06 to 1*89 per annum. 



The effect of the Acts on the moral and social condition of the women subjected 

 to them was alluded to. The matron of the Portsmouth Home for abandoned 

 women stated that of 1114 such persons living in Portsmouth in 1869, 161 left the 

 district, 94 are now living with their friends, 43 have married, 30 have entered the 

 home, 10 are in service, 24 in the workhouses, 12 have died, 10 have returned to 

 their husbands, leaving 730 still in the town, or 384 less than last year. In the 

 report of the Commissioner of Meta-opolitan Police, it is stated that 7766 women 

 have been brought under the Acts in various towns, of whom only 3016 remain ; 

 hence, to quote from Dr. Lyon Playfair's speech in the House of Commons, "4750 

 no longer practise their vocation in these towns ; of the remainder, 107 have died, 

 385 have married, 451 have entered homes, and 1249 have been restored to their 

 friends. In short, 27 per cent, are known to have retiu'ned to a respectable life. 

 Thus 32 per cent, have left the stations, many doubtless to pursue their miserable 

 career elsewhere, but many also, as the police believe, and as in charity we are 

 bound to hope, to return to their own homes." The places of resort of these per- 

 sons had likewise diminished in the Plymouth district from 358 in 1864 to 131 in 

 December 1869. 



Intemperance, purely with reference to Liverpool, By the Rev. John Jones. 



This was simply a statistical paper showing the varied ravages made by strong 

 drink iipon a communitjr, and contained the following facts : — Liverpool did not 

 owe its intemperance to its being a seaport, as in the year 1869, out of a total of 

 apprehensions for drimkenness amounting to 24,614, there were but 1997 belonging 

 to the canal, the river, and the sea, leaving an excess of 18,017 for other avocations. 



The Hospitals and Dispensaries during the year 1869 had 72,278 cases, at an 

 expenditure of £22,088 7s. Id. Three Dispensaries during thirty years received a 

 total of 1,250,000 patients, at a cost of about £100,000. The main source of all 

 this suffering is drunkenness — engendering disease, accidents, and poverty. Thus 

 the great bulk of cases in the Hospitals are tolerated as " accidents ;" for example, 

 a Hospital with 3781 cases during the year had 2893 of these as accidents ; and it 

 has been computed that out of a total of accident cases amounting to 19,378, not 

 less than 12,030 of these were the result of intemperance. 



Pauperism was thus shown. In Liverpool there are three workhouses having 

 a total of 4714 inmates, while outdoor relief was given to 9998 persons in one 

 week in one of the Unions, and to 22,183 persons and 2537 families respectively 

 during the year in the two other Unions ; while medical relief was given in the 

 one Uniou at the rate of 100,000 cases per annum, and in the other Unions to 5864 

 cases and 1790 families respectively. In one of the Unions there were in a given 

 week 589 lunatics, 391 cases being admitted during the year. The expenditure 

 on behalf of all these paupers and lunatics amounts to upwards of £250,000 per 

 annum, which, but for intemperance, might nearly be altogether uncalled for. In 

 addition to parish relief, a Voluntary Society has, during the past six years, re- 



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