p S13 



part consist of the wealthier, while the Eastern part is 

 principally inhabited by the poorer classes. The higher 

 value of life indicated in the Western district is partly 

 owing to the better food and clothing of the wealthier 

 classes, to their more temperate habits and less exhausting 

 labour, and especially to the better care taken of their 

 infants and children, and in general to the more favour- 

 able circumstances under which childhood and infancy, the 

 most precarious and mortal epochs of human life, are placed. 

 But still the poorer classes in these neglected localities and 

 dwellings are exposed to causes of disease and death which 

 are peculiar to them, the operation of which is steady, un- 

 ceasing, and sure ; and the result is the same as if 20,000 

 or 30,000 of these people were annually taken out of their 

 wretched dwellings and put to death ; the actual fact being 

 that they are allowed to remain in them and die. I am now 

 speaking of what silently, but surely, takes place in the 

 metropolis alone, and do not include in this estimate the 

 numbers that perish from these causes in the other great 

 cities, and in the towns and villages of the kingdom. It 

 has been stated that the annual slaughter in England and 

 Wales, from preventable causes of typhus fever, which 

 attacks persons in the vigour of life, is double the amount 

 of what was suffered by the allied armies in the battle of 

 Waterloo." This is no exaggerated statement ; this great 

 battle against our people is every year fought and won ; 

 and yet few take account of it, partly for the very reason 

 that it takes place every year. However appalling the 

 picture presented to the mind by this statement, it may 

 be justly regarded as a literal expression of the truth. 

 I am myself convinced, from what I see of the ravages 

 of this disease, that this mode of putting the result does 

 not give an exaggerated expression of it. Indeed, the 



