THE PETROLEUM TRADE. 
187 
The mortality in Newcastle-on-Tyne is very large. No wonder at it. The deficiencies 
in ventilation, drainage, water-supply, and privy accommodation in this dilapidated, 
overcrowded, and ill-constructed old town, compel the structural alteration, wherever 
practicable, of such places, and a large reduction in the number of inmates, so as to 
bring them within the contingencies needful for the maintenance of health. New 
thoroughfares should be opened so as to admit light and ventilation, and proper and 
sufficient conveniences for the observance of sanitary law. 
Of 55,366 people, or nearly one-half the population, within the borough of New- 
castle-on-Tyne, whose dwellings were inspected in the beginning of this year, one-eighth 
of these houses had not, at the date of inspection, the means of good ventilation. One- 
eighth of the houses were without even water supply, either from the water company or 
other legitimate sources. One-fifth of the houses were without even privy accommoda¬ 
tion. The drainage of two-thirds of the houses only was good; and of the remaining 
third, more than a third, or an eighth of the whole number, were without any drainage. 
A member of the town council of Newcastle-on-Tyne, in a letter to me on this vital 
question, says :—“ It is our intention to begin the experiment of building dwellings for 
the poor at once, as, till we provide accommodation for the people, we cannot turn them 
out of their miserable hovels.” 
In towns, as London, Birmingham, and Liverpool, where there are active medical 
officers, manufacturers for non-consumption of smoke, also persons responsible for bad 
drains,‘foul and neglected ash-pits, or offences against the Lodging-house Act, likewise 
purveyors of meat or fish, for exposing such for sale in a decomposed state and unfit for 
human food, are summoned before public ceurt; they are disgraced and fined; their 
names and offences are published in the newspapers for the information and protection 
of the public, and in order to deter others, besides themselves, from offending in the 
same manner. By these precautions the health of places having efficient officers has 
been, and will continue to be, improved. 
London, with its three millions of people, is one of the healthiest of our large towns. 
The drainage is good; the water is excellent; overcrowding prevented so far as practic¬ 
able. Nothing is permitted in any street within the limits of the metropolis, nor in any 
yard, court, or premises calculated to interfere with the public health in the metropolitan 
boundaries, but it is either removed immediately or (if suffered to remain) under the 
risk of exposure, fine, and disgrace to the responsible person. A fine sturgeon was 
caught near Westminster Bridge on May 11. Thus far, good for the waters of Old 
Father Thames. The prohibition of sewage passing through rivers in populous places 
cannot be too strongly enforced. 
The sanitary supervision of Liverpool has so improved the health of that great sea¬ 
port that, instead of being the largest in mortality, as formerly, Liverpool now ranks 
among the healthy of the ten great towns. As one proof of the many important efforts 
made for the sanitary improvement of Liverpool, I may mention that the last great 
municipal project in this direction is the conversion of middens into waterclosets, with 
passage into the main street sewer, one-half the cost of such conversions being at the ex¬ 
pense of owners of the property, and the remainder borne by the Corporation. 
In an article on the “ Town Death Rates,” the first three months of 1867, the 
* Builder ’ says:—“ Birmingham is naturally one of the healthiest towns in England, 
aud there is little doubt but that, with the same sanitary activity to which less favoured 
towns have been stimulated, the death-rate might be reduced nearly to the healthy dis¬ 
trict standard.” 
The average mortality in Vienna is something like 50 per cent, more than in London. 
—Medical Times and Gazette. 
Birmingham , July 4. 
THE PETROLEUM TRADE. 
Three to four years ago, the country was wild with oil excitement. In all regions of 
Western Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Eastern Ohio prospecting and boring of oil-wells 
were going on. Large tracts of oil territory were thus discovered and brought to yield, 
but at what expense ? On an average, only one well out of twenty became a pumping 
