198 REPORT—1874. 
had no doubt of its ultimate’success. In England and Scotland the question stood 
on a different footing ; but it was becoming more and more evident that the far- 
mers would insist on obtaining more security for their interests than at present 
existed. 
On the Teaching of Hygiene in Government Schools. . 
By Rrewarp Caton, M.D. 
Notwithstanding the effects of sanitary legislation, the death-rate among the 
poorer classes in large towns, in the manufacturing districts especially, continues 
to be very great. The duration of life among this class averages from twenty to 
twenty-five years in many of the larger centres. As town population is rapidly 
increasing, and that of the country districts yee pen te remaining at a stand- 
still, the injurious influence of town residence on the health and vigour of the 
people is likely to become a very serious question, and calls for great earnestness in 
sanitary reform. 
Hitherto sanitary legislation has been solely directed to the amendment of the 
outward circumstances in which the people are placed—such, for example, as the 
avoidance of overcrowding, the improved construction of dwellings, the establish- 
ment of good systems of drainage and water-supply. 
While such reforms as these are of the highest importance, there is yet another 
direction which efforts at the improvement of the health of the people might take, 
viz. that of reforming their habits of life. The absolute ignorance of the laws of 
life and health which prevails among our lower-class town population is disastrous 
in the extreme. Were all external sanitary conditions made as favourable as towns 
tat of, the mistaken habits of life of the people would of themselves cause a 
igh mortality. 
The object of this paper is to suggest that the required knowledge might be 
diffused among the people through the agency of our National Schools. <A brief, 
simple catechism, explaining the rules of health, and pointing out how greatly the 
comfort and length of life depends upon their observance, could be readily taught 
to the elder scholars. Such points as the following, dealing with the affairs of 
their every-day life, would, I think, be readily understood :—The importance of 
fresh air and free ventilation in houses; the dangers of sleeping in close crowded 
bedrooms; the danger of breathing sewage-gases ; the value of sunlight, of exer- 
cise, of the free use of pure water; the main rules of diet, such as a statement of 
the kinds of nutritive foods necessary for health, and the forms in which they can 
best be obtained; the proper dieting and management of children; the disastrous 
effects of intemperance; simple rules as to clothing; the dangers of unhealthy 
occupations, the modes of escaping their injurious effects; the requirements to 
be kept in view in selecting a healthy dwelling-hovse, &c, It is true that our 
system of education is yet crude and undeveloped, but every year will increase its 
efficiency, and render such teaching as this less difficult. If the object of education 
be to prepare for life, I cannot conceive any thing more essentially a part of it than 
this: to know how to live must surely be as important as how to read, write, and 
count; from the want of such knowledge thousands of the people die needlessly 
every year. Such teaching as the above would be a means of helping them 
intelligently to improve their own condition, and, along with other sanitary 
measures, it might reasonably be expected to lessen the excessive mortality at 
present existing among the lower classes. 
On the Compilation of Statistics, illustrated by the Irish Census Returns. 
By Gzorce Rozerts Crown, Belfast. 
The author suggested a system of compilation by which census returns, or any 
other statistics which it would be necessary to produce from a large mass of data 
periodically, could be prepared within one half the time and at one half the cost 
at present expended, and show the results in a more exact, varied, and utilitarian 
light, without causing any disturbance of existing formule or precluding comparison 
