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strangely ignorant of the value and importance of applying 
modern methods of scientific research to questions relating 
to health and disease ; and were content to aim at no higher 
object than that of discharging the duties which properly 
belong to nuisance inspectors and scavengers. Until these 
gentlemen form a much higher estimate than they have 
hitherto done, of the dignity and importance of their pro- 
fession, and of the difficulties they have to overcome, we 
cannot reasonably hope to see any real and permanent im- 
provement in the general state of the public health.* 
The general results of the above investigation may be 
briefly recapitulated as follows : — 
1. — That the influence of meteorological causes in pro- 
ducing fluctuations in the rate of mortality is much greater 
than that of any other recognised influence. 
2. — That the class of diseases which is most affected by 
meteorological changes is class I., Zymotic diseases. 
3. — That the relative increase in the number of fatal 
cases of disease at different ages, in unfavourable seasons, is 
greatest between the ages of 25 and 75 years, or amongst 
those classes of the community who are most exposed to 
vicissitudes of weather. 
4. — That the sanitary measures which have been carried 
out during the last 15 to 20 years by boards of health, 
health committees, and officers of health, have produced no 
perceptible improvement in the state of the public health, 
nor checked the growing increase in the rate of mortality, 
notwithstanding the enormous outlay they have involved ; 
and that, therefore, a thorough reform of our existing 
sanitary system is urgently required. 
* In justice to the corporation of Salford I must state that at the suggestion 
of the Mayor, Thomas Davies, Esq., a meteorological station was established 
within the borough at the front of the Town Hall at the beginning of the year 
1868 ; and that observations have since been regularly made under the super- 
intendence of Thomas Mackereth, Esq., F.R.A.S., for systematic comparison 
with the weekly returns relating to the sanitary condition of the borough. 
Mr. Mackereth informs me that these comparisons have already yielded deci- 
sive evidence of a close connection between meteorological changes and the 
development of certain diseases which are unfortunately too prevalent in 
Salford — thus confirming the results arrived at by Dr. Kansome and Mr. 
Vernon, and proving the soundness of the view taken by the Mayor when he 
urged the desirability of establishing a meteorological station in or near the 
centre of the borough. I believe this is the only instance of the establishment, 
by a public body, of a meteorological station in the centre of a large town. 
