i86 7 .] 



SANITARY MEMORIALS. 



291 



362 per myriad to 852." The Association urged on the City 

 Council " the paramount necessity of establishing a complete 

 system of registration of Births and Deaths * within the city 

 limits, as is done not only in the large cities, but even in every 

 parish of Great Britain. They beg to remind the Council that 

 it was this system of registration, and the accumulation of facts 

 established by it, which has led to all the English sanitary 

 legislation of the last twenty-five years, and its important results 

 in lessening the death-rate in almost every city of the United 

 Kingdom." It was not easy to rouse to sanitary work those 

 who were elected as Councillors with no such purpose, and 

 who often had a pecuniary interest in keeping things as they 

 were. 



In September, 1867, the Association prepared another 

 Memorial, stating that in the past twelve months there had 

 been 4614 deaths — at the rate of one death for every twenty- 

 four persons ; while in Boston there had been only one in 

 forty-four. They declared, in very plain language, the responsi- 

 bilities of those who had accepted the duties of guardians of 

 the public health, in view of this terrible waste of life : and 

 dwelt on the most obvious measures to be adopted. Philip 

 wrote (October 3) : "Last Thursday, I preached the Memo- 

 rial to the Councillors, of which I post a copy to you. They 

 are so very tough-skinned, that I fear our very strong expressions 

 won't rouse them up. I read it in a very distinct and solemn 

 tone, and stared round at them when they talked loud. They 

 summoned us for 7, and kept us waiting till 9.20 before 

 they sent to us." He did not grudge the time and labour he 

 spent, as it was what he principally came to Montreal to do. 

 " We are very few, but work together very harmoniously, and 

 have the citizens and the Press pretty heartily with us." " We 

 are to this city," he afterwards said, " like the Abolitionists 

 used to be to the Yankee nation ; a mere handful, exercising 

 a great influence, and supposed to be powerful, because they 

 have a truth." 



* With " a medical certificate which shall testify to the proximate and 

 to the remote cause of death. " 



