710 REPORT— 1902. 



Deaths from Consumption per 10,000 of the Pojndatio?!. 



England and Wales are reducing their death-rate from consumption at a fairly 

 rapid rate, and an average reduction of about 40 per cent, in thirty years is taking- 

 place in every civilised country in the world of which statistics are to hand, except 

 in Ireland, where the death-rate from consumption is steadily on the increase ; and 

 although both Dublin and Belfast have made some progress it is very small 

 compared with what has been made by Glasgow and Paisley- 



The author considers that as a general rule the sanitary authorities are very 

 much, behind in the way they perform their duties and tolerate a state of filth in 

 Ireland which would not be permitted in any other country. The people are 

 content to live in a state of dirt and discomfort, having little desire for cleanli- 

 ness in their persons or homes, and a glance at the pavements and railway car- 

 riages will show visitors that the filthy habit of spitting is indulged in here to an 

 extent to which they happily are not accustomed. 



It is suggested that the increased use of bread and tea, till they are now 

 almost the sole diet of the working classes, is sapping the vitality of the latter, and 

 is probably the chief cause of their increasing liability to consumption. Everyone 

 who knows how the working classes live will agree that an immense proportion of 

 them drink large quantities of strong stewed tea four or even five times a day. 

 Prepared and taken thus, it does harm chiefly by dulling the craving for food, and 

 so enables the people to be satisfied with an insufiicient dietary. The fact, also, 

 that it is always ' bite and sup ' with them, and the food is washed down quite 

 unmasticated, still further taxes the unfortunate stomach. 



