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about the termination of the Napoleonic wars, and 10,000,000 at the
period of the repeal of the Corn Laws. Now we have to tell of
24,000,000 human beings to be fed and housed.
Are these startling facts (they are facts) matters for congratulation
or the reverse ? We must not shirk the fact, that, whilst an
increase of population may be a sign of prosperity, it is a subject for
deep anxiety. Bodies need elbow room, mouths need food;—and the
more bodies and the more mouths, the more room and the more food
required. Our exports are things that cannot be eaten; our imports
consist largely of eatables. Of the food required for this 24,000,000
of mouths, nearly 50 per cent, comes from abroad. I doubt the healthy
condition of a nation that cannot maintain itself. Working men, I
fear, too often forget that they are each others customers. Increased
wages mean loss as well as gain, for more pay does not mean increased
purchasing power.
An increasing population and a declining trade—these are serious
facts for the sanitarian and sociologist.
It is customary for Health Officers to point with pride to their
low death rate as evidence of the value of their sanitary work. It is,
no doubt, a pleasant message I have to convey, that our death rate for
1885 is the lowest on record. But I must also tell you (and before
me. as I write, are carefully prepared statistics proving this to be the
case) that the mortality of forty years ago was no greater, no less,
than the mortality of to-day. I honestly do not believe you will ever
absolutely reduce the death rate, even supposing it was desirable to
do so; and it is the genius of the practical sanitarian to grasp the
impossible as well as the possible, lest he lose time over that which
profiteth not. The practical sanitarian sees the value of sanitary
efforts in the general improvement of the people. He sees the finger
of power pointing him to the necessity for better homes for our poor, the
improved habits of the people being the means, if not of lengthening
life, at any rate of rendering that life happy, useful and contented.
I submit herewith the detailed statistics of births, deaths
and marriages for the year 1885 (which for the purposes of