W. Whitaker — On Geology and Consumption. 499 



V. — On the Connection of the G-eologioal Stkuoture and the 

 Physical Features of the South-East of England, with 

 THE Consumption Death-kate, 



[A paper read before the Geological Society of London, June 23, 1869.] 



By William Whitaker, B.A. (Lond.), F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of England. 



ALTHOUGH the subject of this paper has already "been discussed 

 in detail,^ yet, as this has been done from a medical rather than 

 from a geological point of view, it may be well that the chief facts 

 of the case, the method of investigation followed, and the conclusions 

 come to, should be brought before the G-eological Society ; for the 

 Society will not fail to have an interest in noting what a practical 

 bearing our science has on the health, as it has long been known to 

 have on the wealth, of mankind. 



In 1865 my friend. Dr. Buchanan, was appointed by the Privy 

 Council to inquire into the results of sanitary improvements in 

 England. With this object he visited twenty-five large towns in 

 which various works, designed to promote the public health, had 

 been for some years in operation ; and studied whether any change 

 for the better, in the general health of the population, had taken 

 place since the establishment of those works, and if so what that 

 change was. 



The result of this enquiry was published in the Eeport of the 

 Medical Officer for 1866, and whilst showing, as was expected, that 

 the death-rates from fever, cholera, &c., had been lowered, it also 

 led to the quite unexpected conclusion that consumption had been 

 very materially affected. This disease however had not decreased 

 in all cases, and on examination it turned out that the lowering of 

 the consumption death-rate loent along loith the decrease of water in 

 the subsoil by improved drainage, but did not steadily go along with 

 any other sort of improvement. 



The most marked instance of this is Salisbury, where the death- 

 rate from consumption, since the new drainage-works have been in 

 use, is about half what it was before. Taking that death-rate, before 

 the establishment of the sanitary works, at 100, the new rate is 51, 

 The next town on the list is Ely, where, on the same principle, the 

 new rate is 53, whilst at Rugby it is 57, at Banbury 59, at 

 Worthing 64, at Leicester and Newport 68, at Macclesfield 69, 

 at Cheltenham 74, at Bristol 78, at Dover 80, and at other towns 

 there has been an improvement in less degree. 



These figures, which are calculated from the death-rates over a 

 number of years (as no safe conclusion could be come to from the 

 statistics of a very short time) seem, when it is shown that no other 

 sanitary work had any particular effect, to be conclusive as to the 

 connection between land-drainage and consumption. They suggested 

 to Dr. Buchanan that it might be well to see whether natural causes 



^ Eeport of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council for 1867, pp. 14-17, and 

 57-110. 8vo. London, 1868. 



