TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 137 



been in a great measure owing to the rapidly increased number of minor accidents 

 occurring amongst the manufactui-ing population, and which, whilst they added 

 little to the cost, tended greatly to swell the number of the out-patient list, and 

 considerably reduced the average cost of each. 



There was one result indicated in this Table, which tended to illustrate the 

 important bearing of careful statistical returns upon the economical working of a 

 large institution. In 1837 it had been observed that for several years the hospital 

 expenditure had been gradually increasing in a ratio greater than the increase in 

 the number of admissions would account for. The cost of provisions had risen in 

 three years from £1386 12s. lid. to £1954 5s. lO^d., although the price of meat 

 had fallen fi-oni 7s. to 6s. id. per stone, and the price of bread from 2s. 6d. to Is. lOf^, 

 The cost of wine, spirits, and porter had risen in the same period from £48 19s. to 

 £120 17s. 6f/. The cost of medicines, from £433 2s. 7d., to £764 2s. l^d. The 

 average cost of each in-patient, from £3 13s. 2d. to £4 12s. O^d., and the average 

 cost of each out-patient, from 3s. 9d. to 5s. lOd. 



A subcommittee was appointed to investigate the cause of this increased expen- 

 ditm-e, and for many months this committee was employed in instituting a rigorous 

 investigation into the whole domestic management, and into every portion of the 

 expenditure of the hospital, and in carrying out a laborious series of experiments for 

 the purpose of ascertaining, as nearly as possible, the precise quantity of each 

 article of provision required for a given number of patients, oificers, and servants. 

 A plan, based upon these investigations and experiments, was adopted, for making 

 a careful periodical examination of every article of consimiption, so as to ensure 

 that, whilst there should be a liberal allowance of every necessary wherever re- 

 quired, there should be no waste or extravagance ; and the plan then adopted has 

 been since that period assiduously carried out. 



The beneficial result was soon apparent. In one year, with about the same 

 number of patients, the cost of provisions had fallen from £1954 5s. lO^d. to 

 £1669 10s. Oy.. ; of wine and spuits, from £120 17s. 6d. to £84 4s. ; of medi- 

 cines, from £764 2s. lid. to £448 4s. 6^^/. ; the average cost of each in-patient, 

 fi'om £4 12s. 0\d. to £4 2s., and of each out-patient, from 5s. lOd. to 3s. 6d. And 

 now for nearly thirty years the effect of the labours of that, and subsequent com- 

 mittees, had been apparent in the continued diminution of expenditure, and the 

 continued reduction of average cost of patients, which the several divisions of the 

 Table tended to show. 



On the Intoxicating Liquors consumed hy the People of the United Kingdom in 



1865. By — WiLKLNSOK. 

 Of gin and whisky, 20,811,155 gallons were consumed, and of rum and brandy 

 6,732,217 gallons. The wines charged with duty were 11,993,760 gallons, whilst 

 the malt retm-ned for brewing was 47,249,093 bushels, which gave an average of 

 24i gallons per head in the year from the youngest to the oldest. The total value 

 of this was £88,619,870. This siun exceeded by nearly 23 millions the gross ex- 

 penditure of the United Kingdom in 1865. 



On a National Bank and Payment of the National Debt. By F. J. Wilson. 



On the Occupation and Ownership of Waste Lands. By F. J. Wilson. 

 The colonies having large tracts of laud which they bring into cultivation, the 

 question arose on what terms they should be transferred to the public. According 

 to the laws of England and her colonies, the country belonged to a few, and the 

 rest lived on sufferance. We had no right to bind posterity beyond the limits of 

 necessity. All land belonged to the community, the Government of which had no 

 power to sell, but simply to let it for the benefit of the community and the occu- 

 piers who were anxious to cultivate it. Therefore, all lands should be let at an 

 annual rental of £10 per cent., or the produce of the farm with a permanent right 

 of possession, so long as the land might not be required by the community for 

 more important purposes, when the full value should be paid to the occupier for all 



