( XIV ) 
STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH. 
1st Quarter. — A winter remarkably "mild" was also remarkably 
unliealtliy. The deaths in England in the three months ending 
31st March were 128,524, against 122,192 iu the same period of 
1862, which supplies an example of average health in winter, and 
may be taken as a means of comparison. It will be an approxima- 
tion to the truth, to state that people died in the quarter at the rate 
of 20,000 in a year, whose lives would have been saved if epidemics 
or atmospheric causes of a nature unfavourable to health had not 
been in greater force than usual. The rate of mortality was 2'546 
per cent., the average being 2-498. The mortality of small towns 
and rural districts was 2-343 per cent, (against an average of 2-287). 
That of the chief towns was 2-705 per cent, (against an average of 
2*688). The country appears to have sutfered from the effects of 
the winter more than the town. 
2nd Quarter. — After a period of two years in which the piiblic 
health was better than usual, the mortality rose in the last three 
months of 1862, was high in the first three months (the winter 
quarter) of the current year, and continued above the average in 
the second quarter. In this last period the death-rate was 2-313 
per cent, per annum, whilst the average was 2*191. With the 
present exception, a spring quarter has not occurred since the year 
1853 in which the rate of mortality was as high as 2-3. 
Both town and country testify to an increase of deaths in their 
respective populations; for the rate in the chief towns was, 2-47 8 
(against an average of 2*336), and that which prevailed in small 
towns and country parts was 2102 (against 2-031). Summer-like 
weather in the early year, and cold days or nights striking a sudden 
chill into the heart of it, produce effects from which neither city 
nor hamlet is exempt. 
