Part 41

United States of England and Wales. America. Under 5 years 1744 1324 5 and under 10 1417 1197 10 and under 15 1210 1089 15 and under 20 1091 997 20 and under 30 1816 1780 30 and under 40 1160 1289 40 and under 50 732 959 50 and under 60 436 645 60 and under 70 245 440 70 and under 80 113 216 80 and under 90 32 59 90 and upwards 4 5 —————— —————— 10,000 10,000

Average age of all the living 22 years 2 months 26 years 7 months.

Here it may be observed, that whilst in England there are 5025 persons between 15 and 50 who have 3610 children or persons under 15; in America there are 4789 persons living between 15 and 50 years of age who have 4371 children dependent upon them. In England there are in every ten thousand persons 1365 who have obtained above 50 years’ experience; in America there are only 830.

The moral consequences of the predominance of the young and passionate in the American community are attested by observers to be such as have already been described in the General Sanitary Report as characteristic of those crowded, filthy, and badly administered districts in England where the average duration of life is short, the proportion of the very young great, and the adult generation transient.

The difference does not arise solely from the greater proportion of children arising from a greater increase of population, though that is to some extent consistent with what has been proved to be the effect of a severe general mortality; the effects of the common cause of depression is observable at each interval of age: the adult population in America is younger than in England, and if the causes of early death were to remain the same, it may be confidently predicted that the American population would remain young for centuries.

Years. Months. The average age of all alive above 15 in America is 33 6 The average age of all alive above 15 years in England 37 5 and Wales is The average age of all above 20 years in America is 37 7 In the whole of England the average of all above 20 41 1 years is

The difference at the different stages of age appear also to prevail in proportion to the different pressure of the causes of disease and mortality in different districts in England: _e. g._ In the town parishes of Middlesex the average age of the living above 15 years is 35 years and 10 months; but in Hereford it is 39 years and 2 months. In Middlesex the average age of the adult population, that is of all above 20 years, is 38 years and 8 months; whilst in Hereford it is 42 years and 1 month.

The comparative amount of disease and death elsewhere it need scarcely be said, in no way affects the positive amount of evil in this country, or dispenses with the duty of adopting such practical measures as may be preventive of a single one of the cases of preventable deaths which abound in masses in the large districts having the least unfavourable averages.

The instances have been adduced to exemplify the suggestions of amendment in the mode of measuring the amount and influence of mortality, and more especially to show the importance of giving the average age as well as the numbers of deaths and the average age of the living in each class of the community.

The subsequent district returns and the notes extracted from the reports made by the local registrars to the Registrar-General, in corroboration of the General Sanitary Report, will show the immense importance to the community of the facts that require investigation. It cannot be too urgently repeated that it is only by examinations, case by case, and on the spot, that the facts from which sound principles may be correctly distinguished. They can only be well classed for general conclusions and public use by persons who have large numbers brought before their actual view and consideration, and who have thus brought before them impressively the common circumstances for discrimination, which no hearsay, no ordinary written information will present to their attention. The attainment of this immensely important public service might properly have been submitted as a principal instead of a collateral object, to the improvement of the practice of interment, for the appointment of such a small well qualified agency as that proposed, § 225, of some five or six trustworthy officers of public health for each million of a town population with the requisite powers and responsibilities for ascertaining the actual amount of the preventible causes of death, and informing the local officers and the public of what is to be done for their removal.

The districts are placed in the order of the average age of death of the whole population during the year 1839, commencing with the highest average.