monia,) destroy 5,348; consumption 1,887; mesenteric disease 439; teething 1,554; inflammation of the stomach and bowels (gastritis enteritis,) 863; violent deaths 338. The total deaths under 5 years

out of 100,000 born alive, are 31,671; of which the above diseases constitute the greater proportion.

Diseases fatal to Young Persons between the ages 5 and 20.— These are scarlatina, typhus, hooping-cough, measles, small-pox, dropsy, scrofula, and diseases of joints, cephalitis and hydrocephalus, inflammation of the lungs (bronchitis, pleurisy, pneumonia), heart disease, inflammation of stomach and bowels, and violent deaths. This is the stage of life in which the mortality is lowest.

Diseases fatal between the ages of 20 and 40.—Of 30,878 males and 30,806 females, out of 100,000 born, attaining the age of twenty, 6,435 men and 5,397 women die in the next 20 years; namely, 2,936 men and 2,396 women of consumption; 443 women of child-birth; 411 men and 125 women of violent deaths; 355 men and 187 women of pneumonia, bronchitis, and pleurisy; 324 men and 249 women of typhus; 250 men and 168 women of heart disease; 238 men and 276 women of dropsy, generally connected with disease of the heart or kidneys ; 187 men and 103 women of sudden deaths in which inquests were held; 92 men and 75 women of apoplexy; 74 men and 54 women of paralysis; 32 men and 68 women of cancer; 1,536 men and 1,253 women of all other diseases.

Fatal Diseases between the ages of 40 and 60.-The mortality increases considerably in this period; for of 24,443 men and 25,409 women who attain the age of forty, 10,904 men and 9,109 women never see the age of sixty; 2,932 men and 1,928 women dying of consumption; 816 men and 568 women of inflammation of the lungs; 735 men and 503 women of asthma; 687 men and 1,127 women of dropsy; 559 men and 188 women of violent deaths; 462 men and 426 women of heart diseases; 437 men and 384 women of apoplexy; 386 men and 248 women of sudden deaths; 384 men and 283 women of paralysis; 300 men and 245 women of typhus; 102 men and 486 women of cancer; 88 women of child-birth. The danger of dying of consumption, contrary to the common opinion, is greater in this than in the preceding vicennium. The chance that a man will die of consumption in the next 20 years is or 2,936 to 27,942 at the age of 20, and or 2,932 to 19,511 at the age of 40. The relative danger of dying of any other disease is expressed in the same way. Asthma and inflammation of the chest, heart disease, dropsy, apoplexy, and paralysis, it will be observed prevail in this period; after the age of 60 they grow more fatal, and are the causes which most commonly lead to dissolution.

442

Fatal Diseases between the ages of 60 and 80.-Of 13,539 men and 16,300 women who live to the age of sixty; 11,760 men and 13,577 women die in the following twenty years; namely, 994 men and 924 women of asthma; 833 men and 804 women of bronchitis, pneumonia, and pleurisy; 721 men and 1,231 women of dropsy; 664 men and 571 women of consumption; 662 men and 738 women of paralysis; 573 men and 586 women of apoplexy; 465 men and 458 women of heart

disease; 393 men and 271 women of sudden deaths; 270 men and 177 women of violent deaths; 188 men and 268 women of typhus; 96 men and 372 women of cancer.

Suggestions as to the Means of promoting Public Health in Great Britain.

1. If governments can do little by direct enactments for the diminution of sickness, it is, nevertheless, their duty to determine, by statistical enumerations, the actual state of health, and the extent to which it is deteriorated in different circumstances. Returns of the diseases and deaths in the army, the navy, and all bodies of men employed in the public service, should be made annually; and this, with the results of the general registration, would improve public health, by showing so distinctly the connection between diseases and their natural causes, that men would either avoid or obviate the evils destructive of health by some invention.

2. Almost all classes of the people of this country are profoundly ignorant of the physiological laws which regulate their own existence; health may consequently be improved by making a knowledge of the nature of the human organisation, and of the external agents by which it is influenced, an elementary part of national education. The physical sciences are not, as Count Rumford maintained, the sole sources of human improvement; but without their aid no solid advances can be made in civilisation. For this reason, the works and inventions of Rumford and Arnott will contribute more to the progress of society than many treatises written ex professo on the subject.

3. It has been shown, that external agents have as great an influence on the frequency of sickness as on its fatality; the obvious corollary is, that man has as much power to prevent as to cure disease. That prevention is better than cure, is a proverb; that it is as easy, the facts we have advanced establish. Yet medical men, the guardians of public health, never have their attention called to the prevention of sickness, it forms no part of their education. To promote health is apparently contrary to their interests: the public do not seek the shield of medical art against disease, nor call the surgeon, till the arrows of death already rankle in the veins. This may be corrected by modifying the present system of medical education, and the manner of remunerating medical men.

4. Public health may be promoted by placing the medical institutions of the country on a liberal scientific basis; by the medical societies co-operating to collect statistical observations; and by medical writers renouncing the notion that a science can be founded upon the limited experience of an individual. Practical medicine cannot be taught by books; the science of medicine cannot be acquired in the sick-room. The healing art may likewise be promoted by encouraging post-mortem examinations of diseased parts; without which it is impossible to keep up in the body of the medical profession a clear knowledge of the internal changes indicated by symptoms during life. The practitioner who never opens a dead body must commit innumerable, and sometimes fatal errors.

5. It has been proved that, in the present state of things, the mortality is greatly augmented wherever large masses of the people are brought together: it will be the duty of the government, the municipal corporations, and all classes of citizens, to render the towns of this country, and every establishment where large numbers are collected together, perfectly adapted to the wants of the human organisation, and compatible with the full enjoyment of health.

CHAPTER V.-PROVISION FOR THE POOR.

SECT. 1. Policy of Poor Laws.*

How prosperous soever the condition of the bulk of the inhabitants, still it is found, even in the most favoured countries, that poverty and destitution are the lot of a considerable number of persons; and the questions whether, and, if at all, to what extent, the public should interfere to relieve those in this unfortunate condition, are among the most important that the Legislature has to resolve.

The poor and destitute may be divided into two great classes: the first comprising maimed and impotent persons, or those whom natural or accidental infirmities disable from working; and the second those who, though able and willing to work, are unable to find employment, or do not receive wages adequate for their support and that of their families. There is a wide difference between these classes; and the same means of relief that may be advantageously afforded to the one, may not, in various respects, be suited to the other.

I. With respect to the first class, or the impotent poor, there does not seem to be much room for doubt in regard to the policy, as well as humanity, of giving them a legal claim to relief. It has sometimes, indeed, been contended, that by affording relief to those who are unable, from age or the gradual decay of their bodily powers, to provide for themselves, the motives that induce individuals while in health to make a provision against future contingencies, are weakened; so that, in attempting to protect a few from the effects of their own improvidence, an injury is done to the whole community. This statement is, probably, true to a certain extent; though it is difficult to imagine that any considerable portion of a moderately intelligent population will ever be tempted to relax in their efforts to save and accumulate, when they have the means, from a knowledge that the workhouse will receive them in old age. † But whatever may have been the faults of individuals, it would be abhorrent to all the feelings of humanity to allow them to suffer the extremity of want. An individual is unfortunate, perhaps, or he may not have been as thrifty or as prudent as he ought; but is he, therefore, to be allowed to die in the streets? It is proper, speaking generally, to do nothing to weaken the spirit of industry; but

The following remarks on the policy of poor laws, and on the early operation of the English poor laws, are borrowed from the third edition of the Principles of Political Economy, by the author of this work.

Mr. Howlett has some forcible observations on this point in his Tract on the Poor Laws, p. 6.

VOL. II.

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if, in order to strengthen it, all relief were refused to the maimed and impotent poor, the habits and feelings of the people would be degraded and brutalized by familiarity with the most abject wretchedness; at the same time that, by driving the victims of poverty to despair, a foundation would be laid for the most dreadful crimes, and such a shock given to the security of property as would very much overbalance whatever additional spur the refusal of support might give to industry and economy. It does, therefore, appear sufficiently clear, that this class of poor should be supported in one way or other; and that, when the parties are without relatives or friends, or when these do not come voluntarily forward to discharge this indispensable duty, the necessary funds should be provided by a tax or rate, made equally to affect all classes; for if they are not so raised, the poor will either not be provided for at all, or the burden of their support will fall wholly on the benevolent, who should not, in such a case, be called upon to contribute more than their fair share.

II. The only question, then, about which there seems to be any real ground for doubt or difference of opinion is, whether any legal claim for relief should be given to the able-bodied poor, or to those who, though able and ready to work, cannot find employment, or cannot earn wages adequate for their support? Now this, it must be confessed, is, abstractly considered, rather a difficult question, and does not, perhaps, admit of any satisfactory solution. But whatever theoretical objections may be alleged against a provision for the able-bodied poor, the necessity of the case not unfrequently overwhelms every other consideration, and compels its institution. This necessity may not probably be felt, and is always comparatively gentle in agricultural countries, like Austria, Prussia, or Russia; but it seldom fails frequently to manifest itself in its sternest form in countries far advanced in manufactures and commerce: a compulsory provision for the able-bodied poor may, indeed, be regarded as an essential part of their domestic economy. In the first place, it may be observed, that owing to changes of fashion, to sudden variations in the quantity and value of money, to the miscalculation of producers and merchants, and to political events, those engaged in most manufacturing employments are necessarily exposed to many vicissitudes. And when their number is so very great as in this country, it is quite indispensable that a resource should be provided for their support in periods of adversity. In the event of no such provision being made, and of the distress being at the same time extensive and severe, the public tranquillity would most likely be seriously endangered. It would be visionary indeed to imagine, that those who have nothing should quietly submit to suffer the extremity of want without attacking the property of others. And hence, if we would preserve unimpaired the peace, and consequently the prosperity of the country, we must beware of allowing any considerable portion of the population to fall into a state of destitution. But without the establishment of a compulsory provision for the support of the unemployed poor, it is difficult to see how they could avoid occasionally falling into this state. Through its instrumentality, however, they are sustained in periods of adversity, without being driven by necessity to attack the property of others, and to commit outrages. It is, no doubt,

true that a provision of this sort is liable to abuse. Means may, however, be devised for checking this tendency; and whatever imperfections may, after all, attach to it, it has not yet been shown how security and good order could be maintained in periods when either employment or food was deficient, were it abolished.

In the second place, supposing it were possible (which it is not) to maintain tranquillity without making a legal provision for the support of the unemployed poor, the privations to which, under such circumstances, they would be forced to submit, would, in all probability, lower their notions of what is necessary for their comfortable subsistence, and exert a most pernicious influence over their conduct and character. It can hardly be necessary to enter into any statements to show the importance of endeavouring to maintain the standard of comfort, and consequently of necessary wages among the labouring classes, at as high an elevation as possible. The observations of Mr. Barton on this point are, however, so striking and conclusive, that we shall take leave to lay them before the reader. "It is to be remembered," says he, "that even those who most strongly assert the impolicy and injurious tendency of our Poor Laws, admit that causes wholly unconnected with these laws do, at times, depress the condition of the labourer. Poor families are often thrown into a state of severe necessity by long-continued illness or unavoidable misfortunes, from which it would be impossible for them to return to the enjoyment of decent competence, if not supported by extraneous means. It is well known, too, that a general rise in the price of commodities is seldom immediately followed by a rise in the wages of country labour. In the mean time great suffering must be endured by the whole class of peasantry, if no legislative provision existed for their relief; and when such a rise of prices goes on gradually increasing for a series of years, as sometimes happens, the suffering resulting from it must be proportionally prolonged. The question at issue is simply this: whether that suffering be calculated to cherish habits of sober and self-denying prudence, or to generate a spirit of careless desperation ?

"During these periods of extraordinary privation, the labourer, if not effectually relieved, would imperceptibly lose that taste for order, decency, and cleanliness, which had been gradually formed and accumulated in better times, by the insensible operation of habit and example. And no strength of argument, no force of authority, could again instil into the minds of a new generation, growing up under more prosperous circumstances, the sentiments and tastes thus blighted and destroyed by the cold breath of penury. Every return of temporary distress would, therefore, vitiate the feelings and lower the sensibilities of the labouring classes. The little progress of improvement made in happier times would be lost and forgotten. If we ward off a few of the bitterest blasts of calamity, the sacred flame may be kept alive till the tempest be past; but if once extinguished, how hard is the task of rekindling it in minds long inured to degradation and wretchedness!"*

In the third place it will, we suppose, be admitted, that when a considerable number of destitute poor persons are thrown out of employment, a provision of some sort or other should, or rather must, be * Inquiry into the Causes of the Depreciation of Agricultural Labour, p. 32.