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9
been; but still with every allowance for this, it is
manifest that the death-rate is excessively high—
that it is nearly double of what it should be, if
measured by the standard of mortality which better
circumstances have rendered attainable. I know
that the conditions of a City life are hardly
comparable to those which exist in a rural district;
and that a penalty must always be paid for the
privilege of civilization, and for the right of
partaking of the greater luxuries of the metropolis ;
but this penalty need not be the half of a life time.
In fact, although there are inevitable disadvantages
in such a kind of life as the City presents, there
are also many compensating benefits. If indeed
in the hard struggle for subsistence there is a
greater strain upon both the mind and body, there
are likewise more ample means for maintaining it;
for every want which human necessity creates has
here its supply; and the resources of curative
science are almost unlimited. That which aggravates
the conditions of a City life is altogether
apart from this; it is the dense overcrowding
of the population; the living in houses which
are unfit for human habitation; the close and
ill-ventilated state of the courts and alleys; the
systematic neglect of cleanliness among the poor,
and their living continually in an atmosphere
of decomposition. Much of this has received
your attention, and has been the subject of