The geographical distribution of heart disease and dropsy, cancer in females & phthisis in females, in England and Wales.

  • Haviland, Alfred, -1903.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The geographical distribution of heart disease and dropsy, cancer in females & phthisis in females, in England and Wales. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    The North (X) and the South (II and V) High Mortality Coast Divisions compared. In all these three divisions we find certain characters as to height of coast, the directions of the rivers, and the inlets from the sea, which are The Northern and southern coast counties’ remarkable for their resemblance, 1° the tract immediately bordering Divisions compared. sea coag^ 0f the Northern Counties’ division, although low, is backed by a high range of the carboniferous formations, which protects the country behind from the direct influence of either the south-west, or the north-east wind; this character more or less obtains along the whole of the Northumberland carboniferous range until we reach the Tyne, where the geological formation of the coast changes, the direction of the rivers and valleys alter, both of which we shall find in the sequel to be coincident with a low mortality in one of the counties of this division. From the Tweed to the Tees there is no considerable inlet from the sea of sufficient magnitude to admit far inland any considerable amount of un- interrupted sea wind, and the valley lands are all protected from the north west by the high range of hills on the border land of England and Scotland. We must remember, however, that the mortality in the division, although above the average, is not greatly so, and that the whole division both as to its general altitude and width of valleys contrasts favourably with the southern coastal divisions, which I will now speak of. The northern coasts of the southern divisions form the southern boundaries of the two of the greatest sea inlets that penetrate our country, but at the same time we must observe that from the North Foreland in Kent, to Bideford or Barnstaple Bay, off Devonshire, there is but one inlet of any importance,—the Southampton Water,—along this continuous line of rocky coasts; and it is remarkable that almost without exception the smaller inlets are at right angles to the course of the tidal wave and the prevailing channel winds. The coast rocks are composed of every variety of geological formation, from the London clay to granite; as a rule they are precipitous and barrier-like, and the rivers which pass to the sea through them have, with few exceptions, their axes at right angles to the tidal current and the prevalent winds. The inlets on the north coast are those of the rivers Taw, Parrett, and Avon. Let us now take the coastal divisions, where a low mortality from Heart Disease is registered. These divisions have a sea board which The Coastal Divisions having a low extends throughout the greater portion of the Western and Eastern coasts of England and Wales; on the Welsh side, however, the geological formations are of the oldest and most stubborn material, whilst on the east they are more or less recent and easily worn; precipitous and wall-like rocks, even on the coast of Wales, are the exception; and on the Eastern coast low and unimpeding rocks extend nearly throughout that long range of coast. Again, these two coasts are intersected by every variety of sea inlet, all of which are in the direct axis of the prevailing sea. In Wales the mountain rivers run down to the sea through valleys which are open even up to their very sources, in many instances, to the influence of the south-west on the Western, and of the north-west wind on the Northern side. If we enumerate the many bays, all of which are to a certain extent inlets to the land within, we shall find them extending from Swansea Bay to the river Conway. The hill ranges also of Wales