On the physical causes of the high rate of mortality in Liverpool : read before the Literary and Philosophical Society, in February and March, 1843 / by W.H. Duncan.

William Henry Duncan

Date:: 1843

Credit: On the physical causes of the high rate of mortality in Liverpool : read before the Literary and Philosophical Society, in February and March, 1843 / by W.H. Duncan. 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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$4G the influence of a single element, the result should be so uniform as we might expect to find it were that element the only one in action. People do not die merely because they inhabit places called courts or cellars, but because their dwellings are so constructed as to prevent proper ventilation, and because they are surrounded with filth, and because they are crowded together in such numbers as to poison the air which they breathe. Thus, although in Scotland Ward, where the ratio of fever and of mortality is comparatively low, a large proportion of the population inhabit courts or cellars, it may happen that those courts and cellars are of a superior construction, or that they are less filthy, or that their inhabitants are less densely crowded together; any one of which circumstances would account in some measure for the exception presented by the pre- sent Table. The next Table shews the comparative character of the Courts in the different districts of the town, with the rela- tive prevalence of Fever among the court population, and TABLE XII. WARDS. Fever cases Per ceDtage of Courts. Total Inhabitants per house Courts. Open. Closed. Deatlis. iu Courts. Vauxhall 1 Saint Paul’s j Exchange I Castle Street j Saint Peter’s \ 1 in 25-G9 21-42 25-77 2-15 33-39 G3-GG 1 in | 28-00 5-4G 5-G8 Pitt Street 1 28-08 17-29 28-94 31-3G 5-51 Great George J Saint Anne’s ] Lime Street j 98-G4 30-38 3G-28 31-51 5-11 Scotland 57-92 38-41 15-24 31-74 4-9G Rodney Street .... v Abercromby j 108-G4 23-88 3-88 41-62 4-31 1 37-01 24-11 31-73 *30-95 5-19 * The years 1838 and 1842 were the two years of lowest mortality since the Registration Act came into force, the average mortality of$