View report page

29
CONCLUSION.
The result of our last year's endeavours will be seen by
reverting to the subjects treated of in this Report. 1st,
in an increased population, the number of births having
been superior to the number of deaths, and continuing so,
producing further present increase ; 2nd, in a reduction of
the death rate to a number which, if established as the average,
will every year prolong the life of four persons in every
thousand to little less than twenty years ; 3rd, draining*
and cleansings have been extensive ; 4th, Special nuisances
of magnitude and importance have been efficiently obviated
or suppressed.
The remarks on gas and water have been introduced
principally to show that one may be used with impunity, and
and that in the event of severe Diarrhoea or diseases of that
nature becoming endemic, well water may be scrupulously
avoided, and judgment used in selecting the beverage from
other sources.
Until I compared our rate of mortality with that of other
Metropolitan Districts, I believed it to be rather more
favorable to us than it really is. The comparison has
convinced me that something further should be done to make
use of our natural advantages, to prevent those advantages
from slipping from our hands, and losing an amount of
salubrity quite within our grasp. This, to shorten space as
much as possible, leads one to reflection on the prominent
cause of our too high, although reduced, mortality. From
the preceding observations in this report it will be clear that
trade nuisances do not constitute the cause, and I am
constrained to look for it in everywhere pervading defects