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12 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southward.
The circumstances are various and complicated which contribute to prevent the improvement
of the district, and even make the endeavour seem at times well nigh hopeless.
No one can know the fertile sources there exist, for producing in the mind this feeling of
despair, save those engaged in sanatory labours; or those, perchance, whose duty it may be
to visit our poorest and lowest localities. There is however advance, although slow, for I find
that the death rate in 1856-7 was 22 in 1000. We are then journeying forwards, and on
that path which will lead eventually to the death rate desired; and which will have to be
reached whatever obstacles may oppose, or hindrances delay. We shall nevertheless do
well to remember that it is no light and easy work to remove the aggregate evils of centuries,
which like the coral reefs of the ocean have grown up silently and continuously to
their present magnitude: and place a people dwelling in the overcrowded and busy town
upon an equality,—as regards the purity of the air they shall breathe, the means of cleanliness
and the scope for the full and free developement of the physical powers they shall
possess,—with those who dwell in the secluded village or lone farm-house. And it would
but exhibit an unwise impatience, and a very narrow and limited view of the vastness of the
labour before you, to expect sudden and striking evidences resulting from the efforts in which
you have been for so short a time employed. To an onlooker there may appear no difficulty in
carrying out the work readily and promptly, for work of whatever kind always seems easy
to one who occupies such a position, and amazement may be expressed why this plain and
palpable evil, or that grievous or filthy nuisance are not removed. But the business presents
a very different view when looked upon from the "stand point" of the labourer. There
are hindrances all around invisible to all but him, some of which are insurmountable, as
those arising from the imperfection of the law itself, and which are gradually becoming
more manifest. Then there are others where equity steps in to plead, and which pleadings
may not righteously bo unheeded: there are also vested-rights, customs, ignorance, stupidity;
and avarice; all of which have to be dealt with, and overcome if possible. Amid these conflicts
there is much to be effected which time and experience alone can teach us to accomplish.
I shall now proceed to examine more closely the causes which have brought about
the 1239 deaths. There have been 258 deaths from zymotic diseases; diseases which include
small-pox, measles, scarlatina, typhus-fever, hooping-cough, and the like. This class
of diseases is greatly under control, can be prevented to a great extent by the carrying out
of sanatory measures. Some of them indeed which have carried death and distress into
numerous households, and have proved the factors of poverty, and its attendant evils
may, I sincerely believe, be completely got rid of,—banished from the catalogue of human
woes. And these necessarily act as a delicate test of oui- sanatory state; they are the indexes
that mark unerringly our care, or neglect. You will see from Table No. 2, that the
deaths from small-pox have been 14; and that these all occurred in the first quarter.
Compare this with the deaths from the same cause in 1859-60 : then there fell stricken
by this disease 88. Yaccination has doubtless been latterly more universally practised: but
this marked decrease is owing as well to the wearing out of the epidemic, and scarcity of
victims. Parents have been taught a severe lesson; and their ever ready and flimsy objections
to vaccination ruthlessly swept away. They have been called to mourn over the.
deaths of their offspring from one of the foulest diseases which afflicts, or has ever afflicted
humanity; or to take unto themselves shame and sorrow for the now disfigured face of a
previously fair and lovely child. And not always have the parents themselves been spared;