Four columns of the Times; closely printed, upon sanitary legis-
lation is a large allowance, but Dr. Lyon Playfair's address to the Social Science Congress on Monday, long as it was, -will well repay perusal. He summed up all hygiene in the word "cleanliness," which includes clean water, clean air, and -clean house:s ; maintained that the ancients knew this prin- oiple—which may be true, for, as Mr. Disraeli says, Munoo, Moses, and Mohammed made cleanliness religion—and gave most .extraordinary figures as to former rates of mortality. The rate from 1660 to 1679 was actually 80 per 1,000, and from 1681 to 1690 421, while at present it is in England only 224, and there is incessant improvement, for though the rate seems stationary, it is .stationary in the face of an increasing tendency to concentrate the population. Moreover, health increases as well as longevity, for it has been ascertained in Germany that one case of mortality represents 34 cases of severe sickness. \ In Scotland, however, the death-rate slightly increases, partly from the insuffi- oieney of the towns to house the numbers which flock into them, and partly from the substitution of Irishmen for Scotchmen in the lower walks of life. Dr. Playfair was naturally for employing medical men as sanitary inspectors, and recommended that the Home Office should have two branches,—one regulating police and justice, and one local administration, each to be presided over by a permanent chief.
Previous page
