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HOUSING OF THE ENGLISH POPULATION.
295
carefully and slowly the plan of accounts is laid down, rooms the number of rooms occupied by him." With regard the more likely is it that a just comparison will become to the first addition, which was made during the course possible of the expenditure and the administration of of the Bill through the House of Commons in deference to different hospitals. Mere cheapness is not a virtue. But the wishes of a few Welsh members, very little need be the combination of economy with efficiency would consti- said ; it is doubtful whether the Welsh householder can tute a real claim. It will not be easy to devise a uniform always be trusted to decide whether he can speak English, plan of accounts. But the sooner it is attempted the better. and the return may be complicated by the English-born We shall look anxiously for the result of this consultation residents of Wales who can speak Welsh. At any rate more
between the Distribution Committee and the managers of
hospitals.
,
-
REFORMATORY SCHOOLS. AMONG disciplinary institutions few are entitled to more favourable consideration than reformatory and industrial schools. They deal with a class of children from which the criminal community may be expected to be largely recruited, and they deal with them upon the whole very successfully. It is, indeed, at this point in the career of any individual whom unfortunate surroundings or defective organisation have exposed to the special risk of falling into criminal course that remedial treatment may be applied with the best hope of success. The petty offences qualify a boy or girl for detention in such a school give to the community a right to exercise some exceptional control and to adopt in such instances a more peremptory discipline than would be a proper regimen for ordinary children. But it is very desirable that children whose aberrations are generally due much more to adverse circumstances than to vicious habit or depraved character should be kept apart from the degrading associations of the gaol, and corrected by educational rather than by vindictive measures. The report which Colonel Inglis has made to the Home Secretary upon the work of the institutions which come under his supervision during the past year seems to show that this important function is well discharged upon the whole. The general results, whether regard be had to the health, to the conduct, or to the education of the children, justify this sanguine view; but we quite agree with him that the admission of a child should be made dependent upon its physical fitness to receive an industrial training, and that care should be taken that the time daily devoted to recreation, as distinct from that occupied in the learning or practice of some handicraft, should be occupied in hearty play and not in listless loitering about a playground. Even busy employment in manual labour is not generally It not only lacks an effective substitute for active play. the zest and spontaneous character which give to play a
which
large part of its hygienic value, but also, as a rule, it has the vice of promoting abnormal and partial development of certain faculties or muscles rather than the harmonious education of the whole. ___
HOUSING OF THE ENGLISH POPULATION. THE Census (England and Wales) Bill, which will now shortly receive the Royal assent, is almost identical with the Census Act for 1881, since there are only two noticeable additions made to the scope of the census inquiry in 1891. It is enacted, as in the case of recent censuses, that schedules shall be prepared " for the purpose of being filled up by or on behalf of the several occupiers of dwelling houses with the following particulars, and no others-namely, particulars showing the name, sex, age, profession or occupation, condition as to marriage, relation to head of family, and birth-place of every living person who abode in every house on the night of the census day," showing also "whether any such person was blind, or deaf and dumb, or imbecile or lunatic." The two additions made to the scope of the appproaching census are- (1) "whether any such person speaks Welsh only, or both Welsh and English "; and (2) "where the occupier is in occupation of less than five
the information can have but very little real interest until the information has been collected at more than As regards the second addition, however, it one census. is satisfactory to note the means thus provided for obtaining information which is of undoubted value from a, sanitary point of view. The constant relation which Dr. Farr used to point out between density of population and rates of mortality no longer exists to the same extent, if density be measured by the number of persons living per acre of area. Density of population, however, probably governs mortality as surely as it used to do, but a more accurate measure of density is required ; at any rate, the proportion of persons per room, if it could be given, would certainly be a better (though still imperfect) test of density as affecting public health than the proportion of persons to, the acre. The requisition in the Census Act for a statement by each occupier of the number of rooms, when less than five, occupied by his family opens out possibilities in the way of density statistics which will possess undoubted value from the point of view of sanitary and mortality .statistics. Such statistics will not only throw a new and very useful light upon the housing of the English population, but will render possible further investigation of the influence of density upon. mortality. Statistics of the proportional numbers of families, living in one, two, three, and four rooms, respectively, in various parts of the country, and in different sanitary dis. tricts, will, moreover, be full of interest from a social as well as from a sanitary point of view. ROYAL COMMISSION ON TUBERCULOSIS.
MEETINGS of this Commission took place on July 29th, and 30th, and the secretary has been instructed to prepare a memorandum of the literature of the subject to be pre, sented to the members of the Commission when they again assemble about the middle of September. We understand that the offices will be at No. 7, Whitehall-place, and all. communications on the subject should be sent to Mr. Leopold, Hudson at that address. ___
CHOLERA INTELLIGENCE. THE somewhat ominous silence in official quarters as to. cholera in Spain has been broken by the announcement that the disease is still prevalent in Valencia, that it has under gone a recrudescence in that province, that there are also cases in the province of Alicante, and lastly, that the disease has appeared at Llerena in the province of Badajoz. Llerena is a comparatively large town to the south-east of the province, but Badajoz being one of the frontier provinces, the occurrence has led to great activity on the part of the Portuguese authorities, who have always put their main trust in quarantine restrictions, and who have already gone so far as to stop the entrance of Spanish trains into Portugal until their lazarettos and quarantine establishments are. fully equipped. They have also stopped the mails, and even letters from England intended to be shipped at Lisbon for the Cape have failed to reach that port. Between May 13th and Aug. 2nd eleven hundred cases of cholera are stated to have occurred in Valencia, and Alicante, 56 per cent. of the attacks having terminated fatally. France is still free from the disease, and this not. withstanding an alarm at the close of last week that a case, had occurred in Paris. The attack in question was uitu
carefully and slowly the plan of accounts is laid down, rooms the number of rooms occupied by him." With regard the more likely is it that a just comparison will become to the first addition, which was made during the course possible of the expenditure and the administration of of the Bill through the House of Commons in deference to different hospitals. Mere cheapness is not a virtue. But the wishes of a few Welsh members, very little need be the combination of economy with efficiency would consti- said ; it is doubtful whether the Welsh householder can tute a real claim. It will not be easy to devise a uniform always be trusted to decide whether he can speak English, plan of accounts. But the sooner it is attempted the better. and the return may be complicated by the English-born We shall look anxiously for the result of this consultation residents of Wales who can speak Welsh. At any rate more
between the Distribution Committee and the managers of
hospitals.
,
-
REFORMATORY SCHOOLS. AMONG disciplinary institutions few are entitled to more favourable consideration than reformatory and industrial schools. They deal with a class of children from which the criminal community may be expected to be largely recruited, and they deal with them upon the whole very successfully. It is, indeed, at this point in the career of any individual whom unfortunate surroundings or defective organisation have exposed to the special risk of falling into criminal course that remedial treatment may be applied with the best hope of success. The petty offences qualify a boy or girl for detention in such a school give to the community a right to exercise some exceptional control and to adopt in such instances a more peremptory discipline than would be a proper regimen for ordinary children. But it is very desirable that children whose aberrations are generally due much more to adverse circumstances than to vicious habit or depraved character should be kept apart from the degrading associations of the gaol, and corrected by educational rather than by vindictive measures. The report which Colonel Inglis has made to the Home Secretary upon the work of the institutions which come under his supervision during the past year seems to show that this important function is well discharged upon the whole. The general results, whether regard be had to the health, to the conduct, or to the education of the children, justify this sanguine view; but we quite agree with him that the admission of a child should be made dependent upon its physical fitness to receive an industrial training, and that care should be taken that the time daily devoted to recreation, as distinct from that occupied in the learning or practice of some handicraft, should be occupied in hearty play and not in listless loitering about a playground. Even busy employment in manual labour is not generally It not only lacks an effective substitute for active play. the zest and spontaneous character which give to play a
which
large part of its hygienic value, but also, as a rule, it has the vice of promoting abnormal and partial development of certain faculties or muscles rather than the harmonious education of the whole. ___
HOUSING OF THE ENGLISH POPULATION. THE Census (England and Wales) Bill, which will now shortly receive the Royal assent, is almost identical with the Census Act for 1881, since there are only two noticeable additions made to the scope of the census inquiry in 1891. It is enacted, as in the case of recent censuses, that schedules shall be prepared " for the purpose of being filled up by or on behalf of the several occupiers of dwelling houses with the following particulars, and no others-namely, particulars showing the name, sex, age, profession or occupation, condition as to marriage, relation to head of family, and birth-place of every living person who abode in every house on the night of the census day," showing also "whether any such person was blind, or deaf and dumb, or imbecile or lunatic." The two additions made to the scope of the appproaching census are- (1) "whether any such person speaks Welsh only, or both Welsh and English "; and (2) "where the occupier is in occupation of less than five
the information can have but very little real interest until the information has been collected at more than As regards the second addition, however, it one census. is satisfactory to note the means thus provided for obtaining information which is of undoubted value from a, sanitary point of view. The constant relation which Dr. Farr used to point out between density of population and rates of mortality no longer exists to the same extent, if density be measured by the number of persons living per acre of area. Density of population, however, probably governs mortality as surely as it used to do, but a more accurate measure of density is required ; at any rate, the proportion of persons per room, if it could be given, would certainly be a better (though still imperfect) test of density as affecting public health than the proportion of persons to, the acre. The requisition in the Census Act for a statement by each occupier of the number of rooms, when less than five, occupied by his family opens out possibilities in the way of density statistics which will possess undoubted value from the point of view of sanitary and mortality .statistics. Such statistics will not only throw a new and very useful light upon the housing of the English population, but will render possible further investigation of the influence of density upon. mortality. Statistics of the proportional numbers of families, living in one, two, three, and four rooms, respectively, in various parts of the country, and in different sanitary dis. tricts, will, moreover, be full of interest from a social as well as from a sanitary point of view. ROYAL COMMISSION ON TUBERCULOSIS.
MEETINGS of this Commission took place on July 29th, and 30th, and the secretary has been instructed to prepare a memorandum of the literature of the subject to be pre, sented to the members of the Commission when they again assemble about the middle of September. We understand that the offices will be at No. 7, Whitehall-place, and all. communications on the subject should be sent to Mr. Leopold, Hudson at that address. ___
CHOLERA INTELLIGENCE. THE somewhat ominous silence in official quarters as to. cholera in Spain has been broken by the announcement that the disease is still prevalent in Valencia, that it has under gone a recrudescence in that province, that there are also cases in the province of Alicante, and lastly, that the disease has appeared at Llerena in the province of Badajoz. Llerena is a comparatively large town to the south-east of the province, but Badajoz being one of the frontier provinces, the occurrence has led to great activity on the part of the Portuguese authorities, who have always put their main trust in quarantine restrictions, and who have already gone so far as to stop the entrance of Spanish trains into Portugal until their lazarettos and quarantine establishments are. fully equipped. They have also stopped the mails, and even letters from England intended to be shipped at Lisbon for the Cape have failed to reach that port. Between May 13th and Aug. 2nd eleven hundred cases of cholera are stated to have occurred in Valencia, and Alicante, 56 per cent. of the attacks having terminated fatally. France is still free from the disease, and this not. withstanding an alarm at the close of last week that a case, had occurred in Paris. The attack in question was uitu