38 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
gested to me that I might take advantage of the occasion 
which this announcement presents, of laying before the 
Society such observations bearing upon the sanitary con¬ 
dition of Sydney as the registration of the last year may 
suggest as of practical utility and interest. 
Now, although the results of the first year’s registra¬ 
tion of births and deaths supply us with many 1 acts 
interesting in a social, as well as in a sanitary, point of 
view, we should he cautious how we deduce hasty infer¬ 
ences from the observations of so short a period. The 
records possess undoubted vpluc when properly applied; 
independently of tljeir legal value, in determining 
questions of inheritance, they show us what is the rate 
of increase of the population by births, and what is the 
decrease bv deaths. Thus the exact state of the popu¬ 
lation is brought to light; and we have data upon which, 
by the aid of further experience, to found usetul calcu¬ 
lations, and when confirmed by the result of extended 
inquiries, to draw inferences that may go far to solve 
some of the various social problems with which new 
societies abound. 
But if the inquiry had been confined to the mere 
numbers which are born and cut ofl annually from 
amongst us, I should not think it worth while to occupy 
your time iirlistening to a barren statement of these 
facts. My object has been to ascertain the causes 
which have led to what I must term the excessive mor¬ 
tality of this city, and to point out facts bearing there¬ 
upon, which gain hut passing notice as they may meet 
the eye in the columns of the daily press, but which, 
in the aggregate, aro calculated to awaken us from our 
apathy, and to induce an earnest examination of the 
circumstances in which they originate and are found to 
exist, 
The analysis of diseases is very imperfect m this 
colony ; besides those partaking of the nature of epi¬ 
demics, such as influenza, dysentery, diarrhoea, and fevers 
of typhoid and other characters, there are a vast num¬ 
ber of maladies of daily occurrence neither exhibiting 
aggravation, nor creating sudden desolation, yet noise¬ 
lessly swallowing up their victims from day to day, 
and baffling the ingenuity of medical science to discover 
their predisposing causes. 
. It is left for registration to determine whether they 
participate at all in the fluctuations of epidemics; they 
are classed by medical writers under the term of “ Spo¬ 
radic diseases,” and are not unfrequeutly found to par¬ 
take in their symptoms and termination, somewhat of 
the character of epidemics. 
The greater part of those diseases would, hv the pro¬ 
moters of the cause of temperance, possibly rather be 
designated bv the term of “ Alcliolic diseases,” and 
many of them, no doubt, have their origin in, or are 
aggravated bv, intemperance, and are suppressible by 
the suppression of this vice; hut so long as every 
eighteenth house is licensed for its propagation, such a 
consummation is hardly to ho hoped for. 
In order to secure reliable data, upon which to form 
tables of mortality, my attention was, before the com¬ 
mencement of registration, directed to the necessity of 
inviting the co-operation of the medical profession to 
supplv me with certificates of the causes of death, as it 
was obvious that only in this way reliable data could 
be procured, and I have great satisfaction in hearing 
testimony to the readiness with which the call has been 
responded to. 
The facts which have thus been recorded possess un¬ 
doubted interest in a scientific point of view, as being 
the commencement of a series of observations affecting 
the laws of vitality, and showing the influence^ occu¬ 
pation. locality, and climate in generating disease, or 
improving the public health. 
The promotion of medical science is one of the many 
obvious applications of the facts collected. The experi¬ 
enced practitioner will observe the extent to which epi¬ 
demics vary in this country as compared with England, 
and will learn to administer remedies with due refer¬ 
ence to the altered circumstances of the population. 
He will discover that the characters of diseases 
.changed, and will determine how far the practico 
taught in the European {schools of medicine my re¬ 
quire modification, to adapt it to the peculiarities of« 
Australian climate. 
The registration of the causes of death, besides con 
tributing to practical medicines will thus give grease 
precision to the principles upon which medical scierrg 
is conducted ; and will tend to the improved treating 
of disease, and to the diminution of human suffering. 
But, as prevention is better, and easier, than cure; 
and as the first step to the prevention of disease is lie 
discovery of its exciting causes ; the registration of tb 
causes of death is calculated to exercise a still m-ci 
direct influence on the public health. 
The agency oftlie.se causes, and the intensity ofthiir 
influence, can only he shown by the numericalfua 
collected under a general system of nf.stratm; »i 
it is to one or two remarkable features, indicated h 
the course of the. registration of last year, that I kid 
to confine my observations on the present occasion. 
The high range of mortality in the metropolitan dis¬ 
trict has been exhibited in the monthly tables publish 
by the Central Registry Office, and cannot have fiild 
to attract attention. They go to prove that, 
much of the mortality is inevitable, being such as ui* 
cident to our perishing nature, much arises froa 
neglect, and a great part from the effects of intern; tr¬ 
ance, and the improvident habits which are engender?! 
by long indulgence in this vice. It is not too mod a 
affirm that one-fourth, at least, of the mortality 
Sydney arises from canses capable of suppression, ari 
may be expected to disappear before progressive kc£ 
ameli oration. 
It may ba asserted, I think, without fear of cop- 
diction, that no city in the world possesses within itsei 
such elements of health as Sydney does; but as ii 
density of our population increases we must net u: 
those sanitary precautions—such as free circulate r f 
air, efficient sewerage, abundance of pure water, c! 
general cleanliness—which have been found in £1 
countries, necessary to the maintenance and security 
the public health:— blessed as we are by nature, w 
have no right to expect immunity from disease, if w 
disregard the filth of our streets and alleys, and theim¬ 
proper ventilation of the dwellings of the labouring 
classes. 
It is well known that the excessive mortality c 
towns. Is occasioned by animal or vegetable jwsrj 
with which the atmosphere is charged, in dife. 
degrees of concentration, depending on accumnhtd 
filth, crowding in dwellings, the closeness of courts, 
imperfect supplies of water, and the want of pip 
drainage : the nigh temperature of tho sommeriaocib 
accelerates decomposition, and increases the virulent' 
of the effluvial poisons, and of the diseased whi ch li-:> 
promote, and which once grown epidemic continK 5c 
rage for many months. Of the immediate chcmiuhr 
vital causes of epidemics we have much yet to lean,kt 
we know that in given circumstances, where numprs 
are immersed in an impure atmosphere, somermi tc 
disease is invariably produced. Where there - :iv *' 
tion it is most frequently typhus, as was riteasM 
daring the famine in Ireland; where it is cold, 
is produced — witness Russia, in which country it 
becomes a most fatal epidemic. In warm d®'-' 5 • ■ 
have cholera, yellow fever, and plague, which spr&j 
and desolate whole regions, and not unfrequeutly tnwl 
over the tracks of human intercourse tbrougnout n.* 
world. , 
Jt is beyond our limited knowledge to km mi 
whence danger of this kind is to be apprehended; u 
let us not invite disease by the neglect of those 
tions which will mitigate'the fatal visitation: 
hitlyerto ought not to induce over-confidence auu c-- ' • 
for a city breathing an atmosphere absolutely pure 
not be exempt from every epidemic, although obseni- 
tion has shown that such irruptions are infrequent 
less aggravated in their character—less deso-atig^* 
their results. 44 Internal sanitary arrangemws, - 
has been said, 44 and not quarantine laws, are 
guard of nations.” A salubrious city m an ep.u-> 
