488 



REPORT — 1879. 



APPENDIX— continued. 



Note. — The figures in Column 2 are taken from Mr. Caird's table in his work on the 



Landed Interest. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. On the Vital Statistics of Sheffield. By Thomas Whiteside Hime, B.A 

 M.B., 8fc, Medical Officer of Health, Sheffield. 



The following is a brief abstract of Dr. Hime's paper. He began by describing the 

 physical topography and geography of the town as a necessary introduction to the 

 description of the physical condition of the inhabitants. Sheffield, the sixth town 

 in size and in rateable value in England, is situated on a spur of the Penine range, 

 at the junction of five rivers. The Don, which is the largest, is 144 feet above 

 the sea-level where it flows through the centre of the town. Although handsome 

 public buildings are not a prominent feature in the town, still there are few towns 

 in England where the great bidk of the population is as well provided for in the 

 way of domestic architecture. Overcrowding is very rare, cellar-dwellings are 

 unknown, and almost every family has an entire house, a most important agent in 

 securing physical as well as moral health. Owing to tbe impervious clay existing 

 below the subsoil, surface wells used to be very common ; most of them are closed 

 now, and the water supply is almost exclusively drawn from the Water Company, 

 which has large reservoirs to the west. They are eleven in number, and cover 

 492| acres. The average daily supply is about 17| gallons per head. High winds 

 are rare, owing to the high escarpments which protect the town on all sides. 

 The prevailing wind in the first quarter of the year is east, in the other three it 

 is westerly, varying towards the north or south. The average temperature of the 

 first quarter of the year is 40 deg. F. ; of the third (the warmest), 61 deg. F. 

 The estimated population now is 297,138, showing an increase of 48,031 since the 

 last census. Some of the sub-districts increase little, or even negatively. The 

 population of Sheffield South has fallen off 311 persons, and the Park only grows 

 at the rate of about four persons per annum. According to an old authority, 

 ' by a survaie of the towne of Sheffield made the second daie of Januarie 1615 by 

 24 of the most sufficient inhabitants there, it appeareth that there are in the towne 

 of Sheffield 2,207 people, of which there are 725 which are not able to live 

 without the charity of their neighbours. These are all begging poore.' • In 1801 



