134 PROCEEDINGS OE THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 
but the mortality is also greater ; in England the mortality 
of rural districts is to that of towns as 100 to 144 ; and, ac- 
cording to the reports of the Begistrar-Greneral, the diseases 
incident to ehildhood are twice more deadly in towns. (Dr. 
J. Henry Bennet, etc.) 
There is no doubt that, cceteris paribus, living in rural dis- 
tricts is more conducive to health and longevity than living 
in towns. The purer atmosphere of the country invigorates 
the constitution ; and when provisions are made for tho- 
rough drainage about the dwelling-houses, it is impossible 
that the organism should suffer, whilst the digestion of coar- 
ser food is greatly facilitated by exercise in the open air. It 
may be that some of the measures proposed would be the 
indirect means of inducing people to seek employment in 
the rural districts : such a result we should hail as most 
advantageous, both to them and the community. 
Dr. J. Henry Bennet observes with regard to phthisis : 
tl Cities exercise a mysterious attraction over the lower as 
well as the higher classes of mankind. It must be the fever- 
ish excitement of city life, the hope of greater social advance- 
ment ; for the greater portion of the lower classes in cities 
live as hard or harder lives than they would if similarly 
engaged in the country. No doubt the vitiated air breathed 
in cities, in the close crowded workshops and in the closer 
and still more crowded sleeping rooms, gradually weakens 
the constitutional powers, and forms the principal predis- 
posing cause of pthysis. The poor should return to their 
native villages, if by any means feasible, even if there they 
have to accept a lowlier position than that which they have 
attained.” 
