Facts connected with the social and sanitary condition of the working classes in the city of Dublin, with tables of sickness, medical attendance, deaths, expectation of life, &c., &c.; together with some gleanings from the census returns of 1841 / By Thomas Willis.

  • Willis, Thomas, 1789-1881.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Facts connected with the social and sanitary condition of the working classes in the city of Dublin, with tables of sickness, medical attendance, deaths, expectation of life, &c., &c.; together with some gleanings from the census returns of 1841 / By Thomas Willis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    of the working people should not furnish such a large proportion of mortality; yet we find that of all the chil- dren born of this class, 22*15 per cent, die within the first twelve months, and that more than half are swept off at the fifth year; that at the ninth year, only 42*12 remain alive out of every 100 births; from this age to the seventeenth the mortality is about 1^ per cent, for every increased year of age; thence to the age of forty, the mortality is about 2\ per cent, in each year; the mor- tality then steadily increases until the fifty-sixth year, at which we find it 4 per cent.; from this age the mor- tality varies with the progressive age from 4, 5, 6, 7 per cent, until we come to the age of seventy; we here ascertain the mortality to be about 8 per cent., or in other words, that if there are 100 individuals, each seventy years old, eight of the 100 will die before attaining their seventy-first year. Let it here be borne in mind, that in consequence of the appalling mortality in childhood, a very small proportion of those born reach this age. After the seventieth year, much reliance cannot be placed on the account of ages, either of the living or of the dead. It is sufficient for our purpose to know that few attain that age, and that those who do, are no longer fitted for labour, but drawl out the remainder of their life dependent on their children or on the bounty of the public. Some instances of extreme old age occasionally occur, but these ex- amples of great age are not to be considered an argument of superior salubrity in any place, nor is the absence of instances a proof of insalubrity.—Hawkins'. Medical Statistics.^ Dr. Thomas Shgri, in his observations on mortality, ^states, That we should not estimate the healthiness of anyplace from its having a few old people; and again— The unhealthiness of a place affects children much, and many of them it cuts off or renders diseased;