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HEALTH OF LARGE ENGLISH TOWNS IN THE THIRTIETH WEEK OF 1879.
166 between. the basin and the soil,pipe, and when the plug is withdrawn the contents of the basin fall directly and forcibly into the sewer. There is an overflow pipe, which is provided with a trap, and in order to insure the eificiency of water-supply is provided for it from the this ;trap a special inlet-pipe. In one modification of this closet the plug and overflow are ingeniously combined, and the overflow is trapped by means of an india-rubber ball in such a way that gas or water can only pass in one direction. This trap in some degree resembles the " Bower " trap, which may be known to some of our readers. Several contrivances for preventing the waste of water find One is the double cistern attached a place in the museum. to Bolding’s Seat-action Closet. Another is Tylor’s " Wastenot " regulator ; and a third is Jenning’s patent arrangement for preventing the waste of water, attached to his trapless Brahmah watercloset. These useful mechanisms scarcely admit of description without the aid of diagrams. In connexion with ’this subject we must mention the " Duplex ventilating lid," an ingenious contrivance invented by, Mr: Saxon Snell, which ensures that all effluvia from closets and sinks are directed into specially constructed flues. There are many other varieties of water-closets in the museum, as well as earth-closets and ash-closets, but these, as well as the slop-sinks, of which there are two or three displayed, we are precluded by want of space from describing at length. Dr. Heron’smodel of a mechanism for disconnecting the waterclosets from. the sewer is most ingenious, and well merits careful attention. In a future article we shall deal with the apparatus for draining. and.
ventilating. DEATH REGISTRATION IN IRELAND. ALL who have had cause to study and compare the mortal statistics of the several portions of the United Kingdom must have become convinced that the statistics issued from time to time by the Registrar-General of Ireland were so seriously imperfect as to be of little value for comparative purposes, and to vitiate, to a certain extent, the figures for the United Kingdom. For many years the English Registrar-General was accustomed (with the authority of the Registrar-General of Ireland) to disregard the Irish figures, and, in order to obtain results for the United Kingdom, to assume that the birth, death, and marriage rates for Ireland were the same as those that prevailed in Great Britain. More recently, however, the Irish figures have been accepted in the English reports for the purpose of making up totals for the United Kingdom. We were not informed whether this change of practice was due to any good cause for increased faith in the approximate accuracy of the Irish figures. Judging, however, from recent weekly returns for Dublin, there is good ground for believing that at any rate death registration in Ireland is still very seriously defective. During the five weeks ending 28th. June, 461 deaths were registered in Dublin that occurred in the first five months of the year, but only came to the knowledge of the local registrars in consequence of the Burial Returns, which are now furnished to registrars in accordance with the provisions of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878. It is enacted in section 191 of that Act that the authorities of " every burial-ground shall make or cause to be made, at such times and in such manner as the Local Government Board may direct, a return of the names, addresses, dates of death, causes of death, so far as ascertained, of the persons whose bodies have been interred in such burial ground, to the registrar of the district in which such persons resided at the dates of their deaths respectively." It appears that the Local Government Board have now called upon the authorities of the cemetery and burial grounds in and about Dublin, in accordance with the above-quoted section, to furnish to the local registrars monthly lists of the names &c. of all persons buried, the result of which has been to bring to light the unwelcome fact that so recently as five months of this year no less than nine during the per cent. of the deaths occurring in Dublin escaped registration. The suspicion of imperfect registration in Ireland has received, as to the extent of the imperfection, unsuspected confirmation. It is, of course, satisfactory to find that some measures have been taken to rectify the Irish death register,
and
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and to supply the omissions. It may, however, well’ be doubted whether the manner of redress of those imperfections is quite satisfactory. According to the English Registration Act, "the person who buries or performs any funeral or religious service for the burial of any dead body as to. which no certificate of registration is delivered to him, shall, within seven days after the burial, give notice in writing tothe registrar, and if he fail so to do shall be liable, to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds." A clause to. this effect in the Public Health (Ireland) Act of 1878 would have been infinitely preferable to that which has brought to, light the marked deficiencies of registration in Ireland. The monthly lists of all burials now furnished to registrars willnot only entail the necessity for such laborious comparisont with each entry in the local death-register as to run the risk of being neglected, but the system will not prevent the pre-sent great irregularity in registration of deaths, which to a, great extent destroys the value of the periodical mortality statistics published by the Registrar-General of Ireland. The current weekly returns for Dublin are now, for instance, robbed of their value for sanitary purposes from thefact that the deaths registered in any week include a large proportion that occurred a month or two prior to the date of the return, whereas about 9 per cent. of the deaths that ought to have been recorded escape timely registration, and will be entered on the register a month or two afterwards. It seems strange that instead of adopting the clumsy and unsatisfactory expedient of monthly burial returns provided by the Public Health (Ireland) Act, measures shouldnot havebeen taken to assimilate the Irish registration system to that which works satisfactorily in England. There is no ground’ for suspecting that any appreciable number of deaths escaperegistration in England, neither is there any considerable delay in registering deaths. We fear that there is very little probability under the new Irish system of any complete reform of the present serious irregularity of registration, although the proportion of omissions may pro bably be considerably reduced.
HEALTH OF LARGE ENGLISH TOWNS IN THE THIRTIETH WEEK OF 1879. IN twenty of the largest English towns 5021 births and 2489 deaths were registered during last week. The births were 161, and the deaths so many as 881, below the averageweekly numbers during 1878. The deaths showed, however, an increase of 71 upon the exceptionally low number returned in the previous week. The annual rate of mortality per 1000 persons living, which had almost steadily declined in the twenty preceding weeks from 29’1 to 17’1, was last week equal to 17’6. During the four weeks of July ending the 26th ult. the annual death-rate in these towns averaged only 17’6 per 1000, against 23’0 in the corresponding periods of the three years 1876-7-8. The lowest death-rates in these twenty towns last week were 10’3 in Portsmouth, 12’2 in Norwich, and 14’2 both in Bristol and Nottingham. Th& rates in the other towns ranged upwards to 19’7 in Plymouth, 20’6 in Oldham, 20’8 in Manchester, 20’8 in Brighton, and 21’4 in Sunderland. The deaths referred to the seven principal zymotic diseases in the twenty towns were 364last week, and exceeded the low number in the previous week by but 16. They included 103 from scarlet fever, 78 from measles, 62 from whooping-cough, and 42 from fever, principally enteric. The annual death-rate from these seven diseases averaged only 2’6 per 1000 ; while it was but 0’4 and 0’5 in Portsmouth and Bristol, it ranged upwards to 3’9 and 4’7 in Sheffield and Salford. Scarlet fever showed the greatest proportional fatality in Sheffield ; measles in Salford ; and enteric fever in Salford, Hull, and Leeds. Only 61 deaths were referred to diarrhoea in the twenty towns. last 904, 275, and 991 in the corresponding weeks of the three years 1876-7-8. Small-pox caused 6. more deaths in London, but no fatal case was recorded in any of the nineteen large provincial towns. The number of small-pox patients in the Metropolitan Asylum Hospitals fell during last week to 113, from 190, 172, and 137 at the end of the three preceding weeks; - 20 new cases of smallpox were admitted to these hospitals during last week,. against 21 and 17 in the two previous weeks. The Highgate Small-pox Hospital contained 12 patients on Saturday last.
week, against
ventilating. DEATH REGISTRATION IN IRELAND. ALL who have had cause to study and compare the mortal statistics of the several portions of the United Kingdom must have become convinced that the statistics issued from time to time by the Registrar-General of Ireland were so seriously imperfect as to be of little value for comparative purposes, and to vitiate, to a certain extent, the figures for the United Kingdom. For many years the English Registrar-General was accustomed (with the authority of the Registrar-General of Ireland) to disregard the Irish figures, and, in order to obtain results for the United Kingdom, to assume that the birth, death, and marriage rates for Ireland were the same as those that prevailed in Great Britain. More recently, however, the Irish figures have been accepted in the English reports for the purpose of making up totals for the United Kingdom. We were not informed whether this change of practice was due to any good cause for increased faith in the approximate accuracy of the Irish figures. Judging, however, from recent weekly returns for Dublin, there is good ground for believing that at any rate death registration in Ireland is still very seriously defective. During the five weeks ending 28th. June, 461 deaths were registered in Dublin that occurred in the first five months of the year, but only came to the knowledge of the local registrars in consequence of the Burial Returns, which are now furnished to registrars in accordance with the provisions of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878. It is enacted in section 191 of that Act that the authorities of " every burial-ground shall make or cause to be made, at such times and in such manner as the Local Government Board may direct, a return of the names, addresses, dates of death, causes of death, so far as ascertained, of the persons whose bodies have been interred in such burial ground, to the registrar of the district in which such persons resided at the dates of their deaths respectively." It appears that the Local Government Board have now called upon the authorities of the cemetery and burial grounds in and about Dublin, in accordance with the above-quoted section, to furnish to the local registrars monthly lists of the names &c. of all persons buried, the result of which has been to bring to light the unwelcome fact that so recently as five months of this year no less than nine during the per cent. of the deaths occurring in Dublin escaped registration. The suspicion of imperfect registration in Ireland has received, as to the extent of the imperfection, unsuspected confirmation. It is, of course, satisfactory to find that some measures have been taken to rectify the Irish death register,
and
first
and to supply the omissions. It may, however, well’ be doubted whether the manner of redress of those imperfections is quite satisfactory. According to the English Registration Act, "the person who buries or performs any funeral or religious service for the burial of any dead body as to. which no certificate of registration is delivered to him, shall, within seven days after the burial, give notice in writing tothe registrar, and if he fail so to do shall be liable, to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds." A clause to. this effect in the Public Health (Ireland) Act of 1878 would have been infinitely preferable to that which has brought to, light the marked deficiencies of registration in Ireland. The monthly lists of all burials now furnished to registrars willnot only entail the necessity for such laborious comparisont with each entry in the local death-register as to run the risk of being neglected, but the system will not prevent the pre-sent great irregularity in registration of deaths, which to a, great extent destroys the value of the periodical mortality statistics published by the Registrar-General of Ireland. The current weekly returns for Dublin are now, for instance, robbed of their value for sanitary purposes from thefact that the deaths registered in any week include a large proportion that occurred a month or two prior to the date of the return, whereas about 9 per cent. of the deaths that ought to have been recorded escape timely registration, and will be entered on the register a month or two afterwards. It seems strange that instead of adopting the clumsy and unsatisfactory expedient of monthly burial returns provided by the Public Health (Ireland) Act, measures shouldnot havebeen taken to assimilate the Irish registration system to that which works satisfactorily in England. There is no ground’ for suspecting that any appreciable number of deaths escaperegistration in England, neither is there any considerable delay in registering deaths. We fear that there is very little probability under the new Irish system of any complete reform of the present serious irregularity of registration, although the proportion of omissions may pro bably be considerably reduced.
HEALTH OF LARGE ENGLISH TOWNS IN THE THIRTIETH WEEK OF 1879. IN twenty of the largest English towns 5021 births and 2489 deaths were registered during last week. The births were 161, and the deaths so many as 881, below the averageweekly numbers during 1878. The deaths showed, however, an increase of 71 upon the exceptionally low number returned in the previous week. The annual rate of mortality per 1000 persons living, which had almost steadily declined in the twenty preceding weeks from 29’1 to 17’1, was last week equal to 17’6. During the four weeks of July ending the 26th ult. the annual death-rate in these towns averaged only 17’6 per 1000, against 23’0 in the corresponding periods of the three years 1876-7-8. The lowest death-rates in these twenty towns last week were 10’3 in Portsmouth, 12’2 in Norwich, and 14’2 both in Bristol and Nottingham. Th& rates in the other towns ranged upwards to 19’7 in Plymouth, 20’6 in Oldham, 20’8 in Manchester, 20’8 in Brighton, and 21’4 in Sunderland. The deaths referred to the seven principal zymotic diseases in the twenty towns were 364last week, and exceeded the low number in the previous week by but 16. They included 103 from scarlet fever, 78 from measles, 62 from whooping-cough, and 42 from fever, principally enteric. The annual death-rate from these seven diseases averaged only 2’6 per 1000 ; while it was but 0’4 and 0’5 in Portsmouth and Bristol, it ranged upwards to 3’9 and 4’7 in Sheffield and Salford. Scarlet fever showed the greatest proportional fatality in Sheffield ; measles in Salford ; and enteric fever in Salford, Hull, and Leeds. Only 61 deaths were referred to diarrhoea in the twenty towns. last 904, 275, and 991 in the corresponding weeks of the three years 1876-7-8. Small-pox caused 6. more deaths in London, but no fatal case was recorded in any of the nineteen large provincial towns. The number of small-pox patients in the Metropolitan Asylum Hospitals fell during last week to 113, from 190, 172, and 137 at the end of the three preceding weeks; - 20 new cases of smallpox were admitted to these hospitals during last week,. against 21 and 17 in the two previous weeks. The Highgate Small-pox Hospital contained 12 patients on Saturday last.
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