194 REPORT—1858. 
from phthisis, and that for England and Wales, are less than the differences between 
the mortality from all causes, showing that death from phthisis is more positive in its 
determination—in other words, less subject to fluctuation, and less affected by 
external causes, than the other diseases in the aggregate. 
In London, the densest of the districts, the increase beyond that of the country 
generally from death by phthisis is 14 per cent., while the increase from all causes 
is about 20 per cent.; but in the least dense portion of the kingdom, as shown in 
the last column of Abstract D, the decrease from phthisis is precisely 14°8 per cent., 
but that from all causes 27°8 per cent., reversing exactly the positions held by these 
diseases in the army, as already pointed out, in which it was shown that the deaths 
from diseases of the lungs were in excess of the normal number 109 per cent.; but 
the deaths from other causes were in excess only 49 per cent. There appears, there- 
fore, no relation between the hypothesis advanced by the Royal Commission and 
the causes of the actual increase of mortality which has taken place. If the great 
havoc made in the ranks of the British army while at home had been occasioned 
through deaths from zymotic causes, then the hypothesis under discussion would, if 
applied to that class of diseases, have held good, and the conclusion they have arrived 
at might have been suggestive of ulterior proceedings, beneficial to the brave men 
who have to fight our battles, improving to their moral conditions and physical power, 
thereby enhancing the financial resources of the empire. 
The results in the third line of Abstract D are exactly confirmatory of those in 
Abstract C, showing that density of population is only powerful in developing 
zymotic diseases. It is somewhat remarkable that the results of the two abstracts, 
in which the mode of expressing the relation of the facts recorded is so decidedly 
different, should agree precisely, showing, in both instances, that the only diseases 
which follow the order of density in their development is the zymotic class. 
If in Abstract D the results for the deaths from the whole class of diseases of the 
‘* respiratory organs ”’ be taken into consideration instead of those from phthisis pul- 
monalis, only the same reasoning and argument will be found to apply, the deaths 
from consumption being always more constant, less affected by external circum- 
stances, and showing less disturbance in their development in the different districts 
than the remaining diseases. In fact, compare in any considerable portion of the 
population, which is either more or less crowded than the average of the kingdom, 
the deaths from phthisis and diseases of the respiratory organs, and the ratio will be 
found always subject to less perturbation than the residue of all other diseases. 
If the hypothesis of the Commissioners were therefore well-founded, this would 
not be so, for districts in which there was a large amount of overcrowding would, 
when compared with those thinly populated, show, to a lesser or greater extent, the 
well-marked peculiarity of the mortality in the army of intensifying deaths from 
consumption more than those from other causes. The present investigation, how- 
ever, shows that overcrowding produces the very opposite effect, and that deaths 
from consumption are increased in a much less ratio than the deaths from other 
causes. 
If the methods followed in this communication, and the various conclusions thence 
deduced, be thoroughly reliable, then it is obvious that many of the recommendations 
made by the Royal Commission on the sanitary state of the army, however valuable 
they may be on other grounds, will not, if carried out, produce the intended effect of - 
reducing the ratio of deaths from diseases of the respiratory organs among our sol- 
diers to the normal conditions of the country generally. 
It was proposed to discuss in this paper the statistical value of the Commissioners’ 
hypothesis only, and not to enter on the consideration of the real cause of the high 
ratio of deaths from consumption in the army. Enough, it is believed, has been 
already adduced in Appendix LXXI. of the Report to indicate the chief cause of not 
only the general high rate of mortality, but also of the very unprecedented and fright- 
ful destruction of life by diseases of the lungs. 
On the History of Prices of 1857 and 1858. By Witt1amM NewMarcu. 
On the recent History of the Crédit Mobilier. By Witt1am NewMArcu. 
bey. 
