1116

After two or three other speakers had attempted, amidloud cries of " Divide," to address the House, the amend-ment was put, and declared to be carried on a show ofhands.

Professor Unwin was then called on by the Chairman tonominate the members of the committee, and, having sub-mitted his list, Mr. Spratling opposed it and brought for-ward other names. The House was proceeding to vote oneach name in turn, when it was proposed to suspend thestanding order requiring this to be done. On a division thismotion was carried, and Professor Unwin’s list was proposeden bloc. This mode of election was, however, rejected, sothat the long and tedious process of voting on each namehad to be followed. The list finally adopted included thefollowing medical graduates: Messrs. Collier, Collins, Horsley,Pye-Smith, and Ed. Owen.Thereupon the adjournment of the House was moved by

Dr. Broadbent, seconded by Mr. Spratling, and lost. Theresolution affirming the reference to the committee oftwenty-five members was then put and carried, the Houseadjourning after a session of nearly four hours.

VITAL STATISTICS.

HEALTH OF ENGLISH TOWNS.

IN twenty-eight of the largest English towns 5961 birthsand 3442 deaths were registered during the week endingDec. 5th. The annual death-rate in these towns, which had

slowly increased in the preceding ten weeks from 15-9 to21’3, again declined last week to 20’2. During the first nineweeks of the current quarter the death-rate in these townsaveraged only 19’2 per 1000, which was 2-6 below the meanrate in the corresponding periods of the nine years 1876-84.The lowest rates in these towns last week were 11’2in Birkenhead, 15’2 in Sheffield, 16’1 in Huddersfield, and16’5 in Plymouth. The rates in the other towns rangedupwards to 24’1 in Blackburn, 26’7 in Nottingham, and31’3 in Bolton. The deaths referred to the principal zymoticdiseases in the twenty-eight towns, which had steadily in-creased in the preceding five weeks from 273 to 372, furtherrose last week to 385; they included 123 from measles,111 from whooping-cough, 49 from "fever" (princi-pally enteric), 40 from scarlet fever, 32 from diarrhoeaand dysentery, 26 from diphtheria, and 4 from small-pox. No death from any of these zymotic diseaseswas recorded during the week in Birkenhead or inHuddersfield ; whereas they caused the highest death-ratesin Oldham, Nottingham, and Liverpool. The greatest mor-tality from measles occurred in Salford, Nottingham, andLiverpool; from whooping-cough in Oldham, Portsmouth,and Bolton; from scarlet fever in Bradford and Leicester;and from "fever" in Plymouth. The 26 deaths from diph-theria in the twenty-eight towns included 16 in London and2 in Oldham. Small-pox caused but 1 death in London andits outer ring, 3 in Liverpool, and not one in any of thetwenty-six other provincial towns. The number of small-pox patients in the metropolitan asylum hospitals situatedin and around London, which had declined in the pre-ceding four weeks from 90 to 73, had further fallen to 69on Saturday last; the admissions, which had been 11 and 12in the previous two weeks, were 13 last week. The High-gate Small-pox Hospital contained 12 patients on Saturdaylast, no case having been admitted during the week. Thedeaths referred to diseases of the respiratory organs inLondon, which had increased in the preceding eleven weeksfrom 152 to 480, declined again last week to 410, and were69 below the corrected average. The causes of 74, or 2’2per cent., of the deaths in the twenty-eight towns lastweek were not certified either by a registered medicalpractitioner or by a coroner. All the causes of death wereduly certified in Bristol, Hull, Portsmouth, and in five othersmaller towns. The largest proportions of uncertified deathswere recorded in Newcastle-on-Tyne, Halifax, and Oldham.

HEALTH OF SCOTCH TOWNS.

The annual rate of mortality in the eight Scotch towns,which had been equal to 206, 22-7, and 22-5 per 1000 in thepreceding three weeks, rose to 24’4 in the week ending

Dec. 5th, and exceeded by 4’2 the mean rate during the sameweek in the twenty-eight English towns. The rates in theScotch towns last week ranged from 21’6 in Perth and 22’5in Aberdeen, to 23’7 in Paisley and 26’2 in Glasgow. The596 deaths in the eight towns showed an increase of 46 upon thenumber in the previous week, and included 16 which werereferred to diarrhoea, 12 to whooping-cough, 8 to "fever"(typhus, enteric, or simple), 5 to scarlet fever, 4 to diph-theria, 2 to measles, and 2 to small-pox; in all, 49 deathsresulted from these principal zymotic diseases, against 60and 44 in the preceding two weeks. These 49 deaths wereequal to an annual rate of 2’0 per 1000, which was 0’3below the mean rate from the same diseases in thetwenty-eight English towns. The 16 deaths attributedto diarrhoea showed an increase upon recent weekly num-bers, and were 2 above the number in the correspondingweek of last year. The fatal cases of whooping-cough,which had been 12 and 11 in the previous two weeks, roseagain to 12 last week, of which 10 were recorded in Glasgow.The deaths referred to "fever," which had been 1, 5, and 5in the preceding three weeks, rose to 8 last week, andincluded 3 in Leith and 2 in Glasgow. Four of the 5 fatalcases of scarlet fever, and 2 of the 4 deaths from diphtheria.were returned in Glasgow; both the fatal cases of measlesoccurred in Paisley. Of the 2 reported deaths from small-pox, 1 occurred in Greenock and the other was a fatal caseof chicken-pox in Glasgow. The deaths referred to acutediseases of the respiratory organs in the eight towns,which had steadily increased in the preceding six weeksfrom 83 to 171, further rose last week to 175 ; these were,however, 6 below the number in the corresponding week oflast year. The causes of 95, or nearly 16 per cent., of thedeaths in the eight Scotch towns last week were notcertified.

___

HEALTH OF DUBLIN.

The rate of ’mortality in Dublin, which had been equalto 30’3 and 25’1 per 1000 in the preceding two weeks, furtherdeclined to 24’7 in the week ending Dec. 5th. Duringthe first nine weeks of the current quarter the death-ratein the city averaged 25’0 per 1000, the mean rate during thesame period not exceeding 18’7 in London and 18-0 in Edin-burgh. The 167 deaths in Dublin last week showed afurther decline of 3 from the numbers in the preceding twoweeks, and included 8 which were referred to whooping-cough, 2 to scarlet fever, 2 to "fever" (typhus, enteric, orsimple), 2 to diarrhoea, 1 to diphtheria, and not one either tosmall-pox or measles; in all, 15 deaths resulted from theseprincipal zymotic diseases, against 29, 19, and 10 in the pre-ceding three weeks. These 15 deaths were equal to anannual rate of 2’2 per 1000, the rate from the same diseaseslast week being 2’4 in London and 1-0 in Edinburgh. Thefatal cases of whooping-cough, which had been 9, 6, and 5in the previous three weeks, rose again to 8 last week, andwere, with one exception, more numerous than in any pre-vious week of this year. The deaths from the other zymoticdiseases did not materially differ from the numbers returnedin recent years. Four inquest cases and 5 deaths fromviolence were registered ; and 45, or more than a quarter ofthe deaths, were recorded in public institutions. The deathsof infants showed a further decline from recent weeklynumbers, and those of elderly persons were slightly morenumerous. The causes of 22, or more than 13 per cent., ofthe deaths registered during the week were not certified.

THE COST OF THE CIRCULAR HOSPITAL ATANTWERP.

BY HENRY C. BURDETT.

So much discussion has taken place as to the cost of thishospital that the following official statement of the actualexpenditure, kindly sent me by the able and courteous

Secretary-General of the Administration of Civil l3ospitals,.Antwerp, M. Ern Bouwens, cannot fail to be of interest. Theletter is dated Administration of Civil Hospitals, AntwerpNov. 27th, 1885, and M. Bouwens writes as follows:-In compliance with the wish expressed in your letter of

the 20th inst., I have the pleasure to send you, on the secondpage, a detailed statement of the various items and worksof the Stuyvenberg Hospital, with the cost of each.