Introductory lecture delivered at the commencement of the winter session 1864-65, in the Medical School, Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh / by Stevenson Macadam.

Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture delivered at the commencement of the winter session 1864-65, in the Medical School, Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh / by Stevenson Macadam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    present day is the question of public health ; and whilst it is not my desire to enlarge upon the topic as to whether smells or stinks are had things to live amongst, or whether it is advisable to remove from our neighbourhood the effete and putrefying remains of oui- ever-decaying bodies—believing, as I do, that common sense dic- tates that stinks are not only abominable but pernicious when they are given birth to by decomposing animal matter, I am still desirous that certain focts in regard to public health should be laid before you. Onr knowledge regarding sanitary matters has been principally collected and arranged by the labours of the Earl of Shaftesbury, Southwood Smith, Edwin Chadwick, Rawlinson, Simon, and Dr Farr; and the Public Health Act of England, introduced first in 1848 and revised in 1858, as well as the Police Improvement (Scotland) Act of 1862, are the results of the knowledge obtained in sanitary affairs, and the public expression of the opinion that much can be done to remove causes of disease and ill-health, and alleviate, to some extent at least, the miseries of our poorer brethren and of our- selves. The average death-age of the people of England is 46 years, and it is considered by sanitary reformers that if the various conditions essential to the preservation of perfect health attainable by man were complied with, that the death-age need not be less than 80 years. In certain of the agricultural districts of England, compre- liending a population of 1,000,000 persons, the rate of mortality is 17 in 1000; whilst the worst urban districts show a death-rate of 36 in 1000, and the average of all England is 22 in 1000. About half a million people die in England every year, and if the average mortality could be reduced fi-om 22 to 17 in 1000, which is the death-rate of the better districts, there would be a saving of 100,000 lives every year. The average death-rate in any country is necessarily much influ- enced by the position of the people, and the age of the individuals likewise leads to gi-eat variations. Thus in England :— AVERAGE AGE OP DEATH. KATIO OF DEATH. , * ^ , » , All ages. Adults. Children. Gentry, . . 44 60 1 in 4^ Small tradesmen, .25 51 1 in 2^ Labourers, . . 22 49 1 in 2 And thus it is plainly observed that the well-to-do ])cople have a greater ex[)ectation of life than those in less favoured circumstances. The average death-rate in Scotland is 1 in 48 persons, which in- cludes all districts. In the eight principal towns of Scotland the death-rate is 1 in 37 ; in Edinburgh, 1 in 42 ; inLeith, 1 in 45 ; in Fife, excluding two towns, 1 in 57; in four northern counties, 1 in 62 ; in four lowland counties, excluding two towns, 1 in 65 ; and in Berwickshire, 1 in 70. The increase in the mortality of a district
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