218 Original Articles. [April, 



pendix, we should say much concerning Dr. Peacock's Eeport. He 

 has found, as all men do, when they go among metal miners, that the 

 complaint against bad air is constant. He says — "I have been re- 

 peatedly told by miners now at work that all miners have to breathe 

 bad air more or less ; or that in all mines there are places where the 

 air is bad." In one place he met several men obliged to give up work 

 for the day on account of the air. " They said that the bad air made them 

 dizzy, sometimes adding, ' as if they had been in liquor,' caused vio- 

 lent headache, and made them feel sleepy, so that they could scarcely 

 keep awake, and took all the power out of their limbs. Sometimes 

 they said they became quite faint ; and I was told the men had oc- 

 casionally fits when working in bad air, and had to be carried out." 



Mr. Bankart, of Guy's Hospital, finds also complaints concerning 

 the bad air and defective ventilation ; both mean the same thing. 



In 150 cases of disease among the miners, he found 102 in the 

 respiratory organs, and 16 in the heart. 



Dr. Peacock's results are in the ' West Cornwall Keport ' (p. 9) ; 

 Mr. Bankart's are from Cornwall (p. 96). 



This medical evidence from experienced men who studied the 

 matter on the spot cannot be overvalued. Let us now look at another 

 kind of evidence, that of figures ; and here Dr. Parr comes with his 

 inexorable tables. One cannot wonder enough at these results ; they 

 tell the health of a district, as we tell the hour of the day by looking 

 at the figure to which the hand points. Perhaps every illness leaves 

 its mark on the death-rate, and perhaps every joy and every anxiety of 

 mind lie there explained, if we could but read them. 



Cornwall is a healthy district, washed by the pure winds and rains 

 of the Atlantic ; if the race had any vigour, it must there be nourished, 

 and so we find it. 



Dr. Farr finds that the mortality in Cornwall of the male children 

 under five years of age is 55 per 1,000 ; whilst in Norfolk, an agri- 

 cultural district, it is 65. Cornwall is, therefore, very excellent for 

 the health of children or it produces very healthy children ; in any 

 case, speaking highly of it in a sanitary point of view. The mortality 

 of all under fifteen years of age, of miners and others, is less than the 

 mortality at the same age in Norfolk. Besides this, " the children 

 and the women of these districts enjoy as good health as the children 

 and the women of Norfolk, or any of the other counties." 



People like to hear their impressions confirmed by statistics. It 

 has been said that no one can go into Cornwall without observing the 

 very healthy countenances on one side, perhaps because contrasted 

 with those of the miners on the other. 



Dr. Farr says that the mortality in Cornwall begins to be ex- 

 cessive at the age of thirty-five. A frequent cause of death is con- 

 sumption, but as it does not appear hereditary, it is supposed not to be 

 the ordinary disease of that name. (P. 157, the Appendix B., same 

 Report). 



The following tables are abridged from those of Dr. Farr. (The 

 headings for the columns in Table A apply also to the corresponding 

 columns in B). 



