Village Sanitary Economy. 
209 
It is true that tlie annual reports of the Registrar-General 
maintain the views commonly held, that the degree of mortality 
amongst our rural population is much less than amongst that of 
our towns, for by comparing the death-rates of the 10 years 
ending 18G(), it is found that the mean annual death-rate per 
1000 persons in the chief towns of the kingdom amounts 
to 24'59, while that of an equal population living in small 
towns, villages, and scattered dwellings in the country reaches 
only 20*10, showing a difference of 4'49 per 1000 per- 
sons in favour of rural life. This comparison extended to 
9,000,000 of people of each description.* It appears by the 
same authority that over like periods, though of earlier dates,t 
the average annual death-rate of 30 large town sub-districts was 
2801 per 1000 persons, while that of 63 selected, healthy 
country sub-districts was as low as 17"53 per 1000, showing 
a maximum difference between large towns and rural districts of 
lOi per 1000 persons in favour of the latter. If we acknowledge 
this latter rate (17^ per 1000 persons) to be a fair standard 
of healthfulness under favourable natural circumstances, without 
resting to show that it might be further reduced by the aid 
of sanitary works, we have a means of testing the sanitary con- 
dition of all rural places, and may take it as a rule — subject, 
of course, to exceptions, in which local and special causes 
counteract human provisions — that those districts in which the 
rate of mortality is above 17J per 1000 are susceptible of sani- 
tary improvements, and a reduction of mortality. To satisfy 
those who are disposed to regard with sympathetic interest the 
condition of our rural poor, that the mean of 17^^ per 1000 
persons is not an extremely low death-rate, it will be presently- 
shewn that many rural districts have a much lower rate. In 
the Farnborough district in Surrey, for instance, the death-rate 
is as low as 16 per 1000; Bromley, in Kent, 16; Cran- 
brook, 17 ; considerable parts of Sussex and Hants, 17 ; while 
Alresford, in the latter county, reaches only 16 per 1000, and 
Easthampstead, in Berkshire, has the same rate. In Northumber- 
land and Cumberland the rates of mortality are as low as those 
of the southern counties, the Bellingham sub-district being 
14 per 1000 ; Glendale and Rothbury, 15 ; and Bootle 16 per 
1000. To appreciate fully the natural advantages possessed by 
the rural over the urban population, and the agricultural over 
the manufacturing classes, in a sanitary point of view, it should 
be understood that the number of deaths varies very considerably 
in different towns, increasing in number as the towns partake of 
* See ' Thirtieth Annual Report of the Registrar-General,' 1869. 
t See Supplement to 'Twenty-fifth Annual Report,' 1864. 
VOL. VI. r 
