TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 199 



Oh the Pi-esr,ure of Taxation on Real Property. B>f Pkederick Puedt 

 F.S.S., Principal of tlie Statistical Department, Poor-Law Board. 



[Printed in cxtenso among the Reports, see p. 57.] 



On Weights and Measures. By W. H. Sankey. 



Contributions to Vital Statistics. By James Stake, 3f.D. 



On the Population and Mortality of Bombay, derived from the last Census, 

 and the Reports of the Health OJ/icers of Bombay to the latest dates. By 

 P. M. Taix, F.S.S., F.R.G.S. 



To Sir Bartle Frero, late Governor of Bombay, and Dr. Leitli we are mainly- 

 indebted for the census taken in 18(34. Bombay is the second city, in point of 

 population, in the British Empire, the numbers being S1G,5G2, or very nearly a 

 million, of whom Brahmins, or professing Brahminical creed, are about 71 per 

 cent. ; Mahomedans, 18 per cent. ; Zoroastrians, G per cent. ; Clivistians, only 

 .3'o4 per cent. ; Bhuddists, 1 per cent. ; and the remainder Jews and other races. 

 There are 18-5 males to every 100 females, the proportion of the sexes up to the age 

 of 13 being nearly equal. Nearly one-fourth of the whole population are unskilled 

 labourers. Of the Brahmins one-third are beggars, and only 2 per cent, teachers or 

 schoolmasters, while amongst the 50,000 Parsees there is not one beggar or 

 mendicant. Caste appears to have little influence in determining the occupation 

 oi the Hindoo population. The proportion of the population born in Europe is only 

 six in every 1000. Tliese figures are necessary to gi\e any solution to the results 

 given in the health officers' reports, which are made up to the end of June 1869. The 

 most remarkable fact in connexion with the mortality of Bombay is, that more than 

 one-half of the total casualties are caused by zymotic diseases of the miasmatic order ; 

 that is to say, are consequent on defective drainage, impure water, absence of 

 ventilation, and the unclean habits of the community. In Calcutta the chief scourge 

 is, as a rule, cholera ; in Bombay, fever. The sea-water invades certain portions of 

 the island of Bombay, turns some acres into a salt swamp, penetrates into the 

 drains, and thus distributes the efliuvium fiu- and wide. The mortality from fe\-er 

 is at the minimum during the monsoon months, when the drains throughout the 

 native town are well scoured by tlie rains ; while the sudden rise in the deaths 

 from smallpox is coincident with the time of the influx of Mahomedan pilgrims to 

 Bombay, for the purposes of the Haj. Upon the whole, Bombay is healthier than 

 Calcutta, so f;ir as the figures iu the paper carry us, the deaths in the latter during 

 18(36 having been -17 per IGOO, while at Bombay they were only 21 per 1000, and 

 iu 1807 19 per 1000. The tejuperature was referred to : and as to rainfalls, there 

 are 80^- inches in Bonibay to Go-} in Calcutta. During July 1867 the rainfall at 

 the former place was 37 inches. Tin; paper, which will be published in the Journal 

 of the East Indian Association, concluded by fully recognizing the exertions, under 

 extraordinaiy dillicidties, of I\Ir. Crawford, the municipal commissioner of Bombaj-, 

 Dr. A. II. Leith, and Dr. T. G. Hewlett, in the interest of sanitary reform, and by 

 declaring that, with an improved conservancy, Bombay could, it is believed, be 

 made as healthy a town for Englishmen to li\e in as cities of similar size on the 

 continent of Europe. 



On the Method of Teachiny rhysiccd Science. By the Eev. W. Ttjckwell. 



The author sot forth the leading subjects to be tauglit, viz. — experimental 

 mechanics, chemistry, systematic botany and pliysiology. But this last depended 

 on the period to which school education ^vas protracted. The time to be gi\-en to 

 science should not be less than three hours a week ; at this rate two years might be 

 given to mechanics, two years to chemistry, one year to botany, while the rest, if 



