Village Sanitary Economy. 
213 
Ijut upon examination of the tabular statement comparing the 
more healthy sub-districts with the less healthy, it will be seen 
that such is far from being the case. (See pages 214, 215.) 
By a careful comparison of the two descriptions of tabulated 
sub-districts, it will be seen that while the death-rate of all the less 
healthy sub-districts equals or exceeds 20 per 1000, several of them 
show a death-rate exceeding the adopted standard of 17^ per 1000 
persons as much as 4 J and 3i per 1000 ; and that in the case 
•of the more healthy sub-districts of which the death-rate is less 
than 20 per 1000, there are some in the enjoyable position of 
having a death-rate below the healthy standard. 
It should be observed, too, that several districts strictly rural 
suffer under a mortality higher than that of populous towns in 
the same counties. For instance, the sub-district of Hoo, in 
Kent, is 2 per 1000 higher than Gravesend and Chatham ; 
Hemel Hempstead and Berkhampstead, in Herts, are 2 per 1000 
higher than St. Alban's, and 4 per 1000 higher than Hertford ; 
Towcester, in Northamptonshire, is 3 per 1000 higher than 
Peterborough ; Woburn, in Beds, is 3 per 1000 higher than Bed- 
ford ; and the pretty country town of Frome, in Somerset, has a 
mortality as high as Bath. It is unnecessary to specify by name 
the particular villages which have gained notoriety for the fre- 
quency of endemic and epidemic diseases ;* it is quite sufficient 
to point out that the difference between the mortality which 
signalizes them and the adopted standard of natural healtliful- 
ness — \lh per 1000 — represents the loss of life arising from 
causes which may be partially, if not entirely, prevented by 
sanitary treatment. 
It is more than probable that in some instances there 
* The writer cannot resist extracting from two newspapers of recent date, 
•which are accidentally before him, the following statements as to two villages 
"within the most healthy registration districts : — 
" The Sanitary State of Siolce Gabriel, Devon. — At the meeting of the Totnes Board 
of Guardians ou Saturday, the inspector, Mr. K. H. Watson, reported the existence 
of several nuisances at Stoke Gabriel, caused by night-soil lying about in different 
parts of the village. A man had lately died there of typhoid fever, leaving a 
widow and five children, who were also suffering from fever. The Guardians 
expressed some concern at this state of affairs at Stoke, and regretted that some- 
thing was not done in the matter, especially after the ravages made by the 
cholera a few years since. The Chairman said they had that morning refused a 
j oung woman permission to go to Stoke Gabriel to visit her friends, on account of 
a man having died there from virulent fever. He really thought that the owners 
of property there should adopt some means to prevent a repetition of what had 
already occurred there." 
" The Water at Pirton, Herts. — There are seven wells almost in a line, within the 
distance of a hundred and forty yards, all of which may, with equal propriety or 
impropriety, be said to be on the Great Green ; but as the ground for the whole 
distance is more or less saturated with sewage, I should be sorry to avouch for the 
purity of the water of any one of them. I could point out other wells which I am 
afraid are equally defiled ; but, with many small cottage-owners, the remedy can 
'Only be provided by means of public pumps." 
I 
