On the physical causes of the high rate of mortality in Liverpool / [W.H. Duncan].

  • Duncan, W. H. (William Henry), 1805-1863
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the physical causes of the high rate of mortality in Liverpool / [W.H. Duncan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ON THE PHYSICAL CAUSES, &c. It has long been known that where a number of indi¬ viduals are gathered together within a narrow compass, as in towns, the mortality among them considerably exceeds that occurring among an equal amount of population scattered over an extended surface, as in country districts. But it is only within the last few years, since the Registra¬ tion Act for England and Wales came into operation, that we have been enabled to give precision to this knowledge by an appeal to facts upon a large scale, and of undoubted authority, by means of which we have ascertained the exact amount of the difference, and may point, with confidence, to the causes in which it has its origin. In the appendix to the Third Annual Report of the Registrar-General, a statement is given of the relative mortality of a town and country population, amounting, in each case, to upwards of three millions and a half, and combining the results of the observations of two years, 1838-39 :— TABLE I. Area in Square Miles. Estimated Population, Jan. 1, 1839. Deaths Registered in Two Years. Inhabitants to One Square Mile. Annual Mortality. 1 in * Country Districts 17,254 3,559,323 129,628 206 54*91 Town Districts .. 747 3,769,002 197,474 5045 38*16 England & Wales 57,805 • • • • 265 46*00 * The Country Districts included in this statement comprise the Counties of Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire, Essex, Gloucester, (ex¬ cept Bristol and Clifton,) Hereford, Norfolk, (except Norwich,) Somer¬ setshire, Sulfolk, Sussex, Westmoreland, and Wiltshire. The Town Dis¬ tricts include the Metropolis, Bath, Birmingham and Aston, Bristol and Clifton, Cambridge, Carlisle, Derby, Dudley, Exeter, Leeds, Leicester,