On the comparative mortality of English districts : an address / by H. Franklin Parsons.

  • Parsons, H. Franklin (Henry Franklin), 1846-1913
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the comparative mortality of English districts : an address / by H. Franklin Parsons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    5.4 per cent, coalminers: occupations which are practically unrepresented in Surrey, and which have a high mortality ; the comparative mortality figure of the former being 1141 and of the latter 1069 ; that of all males being 1000. On the contrary, farmers, gardeners, and agricultural labourers —healthy classes, with comparative mortality figures re- spectively of 563, 553, and 666—formed collectively 12 per- cent. of the population in Surrey, and only 3.3 per cent, in Lancashire. Cotton operatives are especially prone to bronchitis and other diseases of the respiratory organs, attributable to working in dust and in steam-heated weaving sheds, with subsequent exposure to cold air. But in fairness to Lancashire I ought to add that I have good reason to believe that at the present time the local authorities of, at any rate, most of the more important places are thoroughly in earnest in seeking to improve the sanitary state of their districts. No county, indeed, has exhibited greater enterprise in carrying out works for the promotion of the public health: witness the magni- ficent water supplies of Liverpool and Manchester. Several Lancashire towns are endeavouring to disestablish the midden-privy, and many have provided efficient hospitals for the isolation of infectious diseases. The death-rate, which in the ten years 1867-76 was 26.7, has fallen to 23.0 in 1877-86, and 21.8 in ] 887-96; and we may con- fidently hope that it will be still further reduced as the effect of the sanitary work now in progress makes itself felt. Another pair of counties which we may contrast are Dorsetshire and Durham. Dorsetshire is a typical agricul- tural county: only 36 per cent, of the inhabitants live in urban districts, and 64 per cent, in rural districts ; the density of population being only .37 persons per acre, viz., 5 per acre in the urban and 0.2 in the rural districts. In Durham, the chief industries have to do with coal, iron, and lead ; 65 per cent, of the inhabitants live in urban as against 35 per cent, in rural districts, and the density of the population is 1.3 persons per acre, viz., 10 persons per acre in the urban and .52 in the rural districts. If it were not for the sparsely - populated moorland districts on the western border of the county, the density of the population of the rural districts would be greater still, for in the Durham coalfield the so-called rural districts contain many large aggregations of pitmen’s cottages, which have sprung up with the develop- ment of the collieries, and unfortunately often without