Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/317

 Rh the important subject of cleanliness among the lower orders has obtained increased attention. Still, however, much remains to be done. The numerous cases of scald-head, ringworm, and other still more offensive cutaneous complaints, which appear in the list, bear witness to the operation of the want of cleanliness"—Rep. 1828.

The statistical details contained in the first chapter of the second part of this paper, exhibit an extraordinary superiority in the rate of mortality in the mining parishes over the agricultural, and even those containing towns and crowded villages. It now remains to consider, in a more particular manner, the remote and predisposing causes, and the particular nature of the diseases, which occasion this increased mortality.

It may, however, be desirable previously to ascertain how far the results recorded, as deduced from the parish registers of the ages at which persons die, and from the parliamentary population returns of the numbers alive at each different age, are borne out and corroborated by the general and particular observations of medical men and others resident in the district, and by the results of my own experience and inquiries directed to this particular object.

1. It may be stated then, in the first place, that the opinion is universally prevalent in the district,