STATISTICS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



439 



rural districts, for the impure air whicli the townsmen are compelled to breathe 

 must necessarily shorten their lives. Yet there are many towns — and London is 

 one of them — whose death rate is comparatively lighter than that of certain 

 country districts, for it is in large towns that we meet with the public institu- 

 tions whose attention to the laws of hygiene reduces the number of deaths. 

 Perhaps there is not in the whole United Kingdom a more safe retreat from 

 premature death than the gaol of Perth. All other things being equal, the death 



Fig. 216. — The Local Element of the Population 

 According to E. G. Ravensteiu. 



Under 45 per cent. 45 to 75 per cent. 75 to 95 per cent. Over 95 per cent. 

 The map is shaded to exhibit the number of persons Uving in the counties in which they were bom. 



rate of each town depends upon the purity of the drinking water, and whilst 

 wealthy towns have been able to provide themselves with excellent water by 

 constructing reservoirs on the uplands or in the mountain valleys, the villages 

 around have frequently nothing to look to but the rivulet soiled by the refuse of 

 their huge neighbour. Many of the townsfolk are able, moreover, to enjoy an 

 annual holiday, and to recruit their strength by a lengthened residence in bracing 

 mountain air or on the seaside. The towns and villages which border the lakes of 

 Cumberland and the lochs Scotland— Lomond, Katrine, Awe, Rannoch, Errocht— 



