The dependency of the duration of life upon the physical condition of the population, and the connexion of several classes of moral and economical facts, with the proportionate mortality, may be further exemplified. Taking the four counties in Ireland in which the proportions of mud hovels are the greatest; and the four counties in which the proportions of such tenements are the least;[[44]] I have added the average ages of death as additional proofs and exemplifications of the conclusions stated in pp. 128 and 129, and other parts of the General Report.
| The four Counties where the average proportion of mud hovels, as habitations, is the lowest. | The four Counties where the average proportion of mud hovels, as habitations, is the highest. | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Down. | Wexford. | Kilkenny. | Monaghan. | Kerry. | Mayo. | Clare. | Cork. | ||
| Proportion per cent. of families occupying habitations which are mud cabins having only one room[[45]] | 24·7 | 29·4 | 30·9 | 31·5 | 66·7 | 62·8 | 56·8 | 56·7 | |
| 29 | 61 | ||||||||
| Proportion of deaths from epidemic disease to every 10,000 of the population | 36 | 28·5 | 36·8 | 40·4 | 50·2 | 51·0 | 53·1 | 43·3 | |
| 35·5 | 47·8 | ||||||||
| Average age of all who have died during the 10 years ended 6th June, 1841 | 33·6 | 34·10 | 33·2 | 31·4 | 24·10 | 23·2 | 24·5 | 28·8 | |
| 33·4 | 26·8 | ||||||||
| Average age of all the living in 1841 | 24·10 | 25·10 | 24·8 | 24·2 | 23·1 | 23·0 | 22·9 | 24·0 | |
| 24·11 | 23·5 | ||||||||
| Proportions of births to the population | 1 in 33·4 | 1 in 34·3 | 1 in 33·6 | 1 in 32·5 | 1 in 28·8 | 1 in 28· | 1 in 28·7 | 1 in 31·8 | |
| 1 in 33·4 | 1 in 29·9 | ||||||||
| Increase per cent. of the population since 1831 | 2·7 | 10·6 | 7·9 | 2·5 | 11·7 | 6·2 | 10·9 | 9·9 | |
| 5·0 | 8·7 | ||||||||
| Per cent. of the population, 15 years and under | 39·7 | 35·6 | 37·8 | 40·9 | 42·4 | 43·1 | 42·4 | 39·7 | |
| 38·8 | 41·9 | ||||||||
| Above 50 years | 12·0 | 12·5 | 10·9 | 10·9 | 9·4 | 9·4 | 8·7 | 10·4 | |
| 11·6 | 9·5 | ||||||||
| Proportion per cent. of male and female population, 17 years and upwards. | |||||||||
| Unmarried | 42 | 44½ | 45½ | 41 | 37 | 36 | 40½ | 42 | |
| 43¼ | 39 | ||||||||
| Married | 49 | 47 | 45½ | 49½ | 55 | 56 | 51½ | 50 | |
| 47¾ | 53 | ||||||||
| Per cent. of the population 5 years old and upwards, who can neither read nor write | 27·5 | 41·3 | 51·2 | 51·3 | 70·4 | 79·0 | 63·1 | 65·6 | |
| 42·8 | 69·7 | ||||||||
| Proportions of crimes[[46]] of violence or passion to each 10,000 of the population on an average of 8 years to 1812:— | |||||||||
| Murders and Manslaughters | Proportions | ·11 | ·20 | ·44 | ·55 | ·71 | ·87 | 1·08 | ·52 |
| Positive Numbers. | 31 | 35 | 83 | 88 | 166 | 271 | 249 | 316 | |
| Proportions | ·32 | ·72 | |||||||
| Rapes and Assaults, with intent to commit | Proportions | ·06 | ·15 | ·22 | ·35 | ·71 | ·51 | ·46 | ·28 |
| Positive Numbers. | 15 | 22 | 31 | 58 | 166 | 159 | 108 | 178 | |
| Proportions | ·17 | ·44 | |||||||
The general sanitary condition of the population of Scotland and the pressure of the preventible causes of death appears to be lower than in England, and higher than in Ireland, and so it appears from the recent census is the average age of the living.
It may be conceived that the low average age of the living in these cases is ascribable mainly to an increasing proportion of children incidental to an increasing population. Not so, however: the average age of the living is more powerfully influenced by disturbing causes affecting the population of adults, each with accumulated years, than by causes affecting the infantile population. One adult of 50 years added to the living is equal to the addition of 50 infants, and so with the average ages of deaths. The average ages of the living appear to have increased and not diminished with the increasing population. Be the sanitary condition of the poorest classes and the amount of disease and death what it may, as compared with former periods (and there is direct evidence that it is in populous districts increasing), there has been some improvement in the residences of the middle and higher classes; household drainage and cleanliness has in some districts been improved; the quantity of town and land drainage and cultivation has of late increased in various proportions in each country; and the decrease in the causes of mortality appears to have been followed by an increase of the average age of the living, of particular classes at the least, sufficient to present an increase, though a dreadfully slow one, in the average age of the adults living. The increase of the proportion of adults may be represented as follows:—
| England. | Ireland. | Scotland. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1821 | 1841 | 1821 | 1841 | 1821 | 1841 | |
| Percentage of Population of 15 Years and under | 39·09 | 36·07 | 41·06 | 40·44 | 41·0 | 36·4 |
| Over 15 Years | 60·91 | 63·93 | 58·94 | 59·56 | 59·0 | 63·6 |
| Yrs. M. | Yrs. M. | Yrs. M. | Yrs. M. | Yrs. M. | Yrs. M. | |
| Average age of each living individual | 25·3 | 26·7 | 2·37 | 24·0 | 25·1 | 25·9 |
In abundance of employment, in high wages, and the chief circumstances commonly reputed as elements of prosperity of the labouring classes, the city of New York is deemed pre-eminent. I have been favoured with a copy of “The Annual Report of the Interments in the City and County of New York for the Year 1842,” presented to the Common Council by Dr. John Griscom, the city inspector, in which it may be seen how little those circumstances have hitherto preserved large masses of people from physical depression. He has stepped out of the routine to examine on the spot the circumstances attendant on the mortality which the figures represent. He finds that upwards of 33,000 of the population of that city live in cellars, courts, and alleys, of which 6618 are dwellers in cellars. “Many,” he states, “of these back places are so constructed as to cut off all circulation of air, the line of houses being across the entrance, forming a cul de sac, while those in which the line is parallel with, and at one side of the entrance, are rather more favourably situated, but still excluded from any general visitation of air in currents. As to the influence of these localities upon the health and lives of the inmates, there is, and can be, no dispute; but few are aware of the dreadful extent of the disease and suffering to be found in them. In the damp, dark, and chilly cellars, fevers, rheumatism, contagious and inflammatory disorders, affections of the lungs, skin, and eyes, and numerous others, are rife, and too often successfully combat the skill of the physician and the benevolence of strangers.
“I speak now of the influence of the locality merely. The degraded habits of life, the filth, the degenerate morals, the confined and crowded apartments, and insufficient food, of those who live in more elevated rooms, comparatively beyond the reach of the exhalations of the soil, engender a different train of diseases, sufficiently distressing to contemplate, but the addition to all these causes of the foul influences of the incessant moisture and more confined air of under-ground rooms, is productive of evils which humanity cannot regard without shuddering.”
He gives instances where the cellar population had been ravaged by fever whilst the population occupying the upper apartments of the same houses were untouched. In respect to the condition of these places, he cites the testimony of a physician, who states that, “frequently in searching for a patient living in the same cellar, my attention has been attracted to the place by a peculiar and nauseous effluvium issuing from the door indicative of the nature and condition of the inmates.” A main cause of this is the filthy external state of the dwellings and defective street cleansing, and defective supplies of water, which, except that no provision is made for laying it on the houses of the poorer classes, is now about to be remedied by a superior public provision.
| Years. | Months. | |
|---|---|---|
| The average age of the white population living in New York, according to the census, is | 23 | 3 |
| But the average age of all who die there is only | 20 | 0 |
Or an excess of deaths over the ages of the living of more than three years and three months; denoting, if the like excess prevailed from year to year, an increasing pressure of the causes of mortality. If the mortality be the same from year to year the chances of life would appear to be lower in New York than in Dublin, where, according to the data given by the Census Commissioners, it would appear to be 25 years 6 months.