16 



race of immigrants constitutionally so nnsonnd ? Are onr 

 sanitary arrangements becoming so exceedingly defective ? Is 

 our social or moral condition becoming so deteriorated ? Or 

 is it that the diminution in the mortality at home and its 

 increase here are to be attributed to the increased facilities 

 for travel, in consequence of which more invalids are yearly 

 leaving the old country and seeking in climates accounted 

 more favourable to their constitutions health and longer life. 

 To this explanation, in part at any rate, I am inclined, viz., 

 the exodus of the phthisical from England in search of cure, 

 and the influx of such persons into our colony, not only as 

 voyagers at their own expense, but as immigrants introduced 

 by the .Government. This is a matter that might be very 

 approximately settled by a careful filling up of the space 

 provided in the medical death certificates, whereby we should 

 learn how long each individual had been in the colony, and 

 how much of the mortality should be debited to South 

 Australia, and how much to other countries. Until this 

 question is decided, and unless this suggestion is confirmed, 

 the prospect for the phthisical in South Australia is gloomy. 

 A growing cloud threatens to obscure the brightness of our 

 skies from which the consumptive has been accustomed to draw 

 some rays of hope. 



Having demonstrated above that fewer persons die of con- 

 sumption here than in England, one is curious to know 

 whether among consumptives life is lengthened in our colony 

 or not. In England the mean duration of life among those 

 who succumbed to this disease in 1876 was 33 years and 2 

 months. In South Australia during the five years it was 31 

 years and 10 months. The difference is in favour of England 

 to the extent of one year and four months. It appears, then,. 



The mean duration of life has been thus calculated : — In England 1,242 

 males died under 5 years of age. It would be manifestly wrong to consider 

 them as all dying at five; this would give too high a mean, so it is taken at 

 2J. The 1,242 then lived a total of 3,105 years. 418 died between 5 and 

 10 ; their average was 1\ ; their total age 3,135, and so on. Accordingly 

 the years lived by the males and females who died of phthisis in England in 

 1876 are as under : — 



25,127 males lived 872,736 years, or 34 yrs. 7 mos. per m. 

 24,668 females " 777,691 " " 31 yrs. 1 mo. " f. 



49,795 both sexes 1,650,427 " " 33 yrs. 2 mos. 

 In South Australia the totals are as follows : — 



517 males lived 17,691 years, or 34 years 3 mos. per m. 

 450 females " 13,009 " " 28 years 11 mos. " f. 



967 both sexes 30,691 " " 31 years^9 months. 

 HfWhen grouped together in the same periods as the English deaths the- 

 mean age for both sexes is found to be 31 years 10 months. 



