issue from the flame,-it was because the king having conquered the church was now prepared to try what he could do towards conquering the reformation. At the accession of Edward VI, when the king was a child, and the power of the crown was temporarily in the hands of a few grasping and unscrupulous nobles, the government committed itself unequivocally for the Protestant cause, and sought to strengthen itself by going forward with the great movement of the age, as fast as it could without doing too much violence to the habits and prejudices of the nation. After the reign of Mary, with its impolitic and odious cruelties, had intervened, accelerating rather than retarding the progress of public opinion, and giving demonstration that the restoration of Popery would ultimately carry with it the reëstablishment of the monasteries and the restoration of their lands, the policy of Elizabeth and of her wise counselors was to adhere to the reformation, but at the same time to conciliate as far as possible the great unreformed masses of the clergy, the nobility and the people. Thus the Anglican reformation, originating in sources as wide apart as the remotest head springs of the Mississippi, modified in its progress by the most various and discordant forces, assuming now one aspect and now another, with the caprices or lapses of the crown, became at last just what it is-just what the historian describes, something half way between Pope and Protestant-a revolution staid and petrified in mid career-a "motionless torrent," a "silent cataract."

ART. IX. -SANITARY SURVEYS.

House Documents. No. 66. The Report of the Joint Special Committee in the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on a Sanitary Survey of the State.

We are glad to learn that the venerable Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which is always first in all good works, and which we verily believe is the most prosperous community in the world, has had under consideration the proposal of a sanitary survey of the State. The Report of the Committee, to whom the subject was referred, includes the memorials of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and of the American Statistical Association, the former signed by John Ware, President, and C. G. Putnam, Recording Secretary, and the latter by Edward Jarvis, Chairman of the Committee of the Association. We shall consider them as forming a single document.

The object of a sanitary survey is to collect and systematize facts as the basis of general deductions, both as to the effect produced on the vital powers by the various conditions in which man is placed, and as to the possibility of modifying those effects by human agency, thereby preserving the health, prolonging the life and increasing the strength of man. The probability of attaining such results is founded on the supposition, first, that the powers of life are capable of increase and decrease through the agency of the conditions under which they act; secondly, that it can be determined at least to some extent on what this increase or decrease depends; and, finally, that such a determination will suggest the means of guarding against the unfavorable influences and of fostering the favorable, and thus will furnish a basis of legislative action.

That life is not a fixed quantity, that it is not a force independent of circumstances, but that on the contrary it may be made greater or less, longer or shorter according as the requisite conditions are neglected or fulfilled, will be admitted at least in regard to individuals; and this involves the possibility, that the vitality of classes of men or of the whole people, may depend on the circumstances which affect at once large numbers of the community. But that the strength, health and life of the entire state might be increased, provided we could ascertain and control the circumstances under which the people live, needs no prolonged argument.

But can we seize upon all the influences which affect life, or enough of them to make the acquisition of any avail? This can only be made certain by the results of long continued experiments, such as is proposed by a sanitary survey, but we already know enough from common observation and the facts collected by scientific examination, to render it in the highest degree probable.

We know that health and life and the vigor of life are different under different circumstances.

ence.

Thus, for instance, there is a difference in this respect, between the poor and those who have the means of comfortable subsistThe average longevity of all the families of the poor, who died in Dorchester during more than a quarter of a century, was twenty-seven years and five months, while that of the prosperous farmers was forty-five years and eight months. In Boston the average age of those who were buried in the Catholic cemetery was only thirteen years, five months, and nine days; while that of all who died in the city was twenty-two years, eight months, and nineteen days. In some towns the more favored classes enjoy a length of life 66 per cent. greater than that of the poor; and it is found that while less than 13 per cent. of the children of affluence die under two years, more than 32 per cent.

of the children of the poor die within the same period of infancy. In England even greater differences are found to exist between the poorer and the more favored classes of the community.

There is a difference also between different portions of the same country. It appears from the registration reports, that in the five western counties of Massachusetts, Worcester, Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden and Berkshire, 27.9 per cent. of all the deaths were under five years, and 25 per cent. over sixty years. And in the six eastern counties, Essex, Norfolk, Plymouth, Barnstable, Nantucket, and Dukes, the deaths under five years were 32 per cent. and over sixty years, 27.3 per cent., while in Boston, 44 per cent. of the deaths were of persons under five years. The average duration of life in all those whose deaths are reported in Franklin county, is thirty-eight years ten months and twenty-four days, but in Middlesex, only twenty-eight years, two months and twenty-two days.

But there is a still greater difference between the relative mortality in cities and in the country. We will here quote the words of the Statistical Association.

"In the appendix to the third annual report of the registrar-general of births, deaths, and marriages of England, there is a statement of the relative mortality of city and country districts in England, for the years 1838 and 1839.

"A similar statement is made in the fourth report, from which it appears, that, for every hundred that died in the country districts, one hundred and forty died in the city districts. In the country 20 per cent., and in the towns nine per cent., survived their 70th year. The report of the Health of Towns Commissioners, made to the House of Lords in 1844, states that, in some cities, the density of the population is greater than the above high average of 5,045 in each square mile. Leeds has 87,000, Manchester 100,000, and Liverpool 138,222 inhabitants on each square mile of their respective builded areas; and the frequency of death corresponds to the density of the population, being in Leeds one in 36, in Manchester one in 29, and in Liverpool one in 28, of the living. Even in the same city, the difference of density is accompanied with a difference of mortality, which ranges in Liverpool from one in 41 inhabitants in the best, to one in 23 in the worst wards. Still further proof of the danger to health and life from crowded population, is shown in the same report. One district in Liverpool contains 49,000 square yards, and 7,938 inhabitants, 'giving a ratio of 657,963 to the geographical square mile.' In one part of this district, one-tenth, and in another one-seventh, of all the inhabitants, were annually attacked with fever. The Broad Street section of Boston is nearly as closely crowded with its population; and Mr. Shattuck, in his report on the census of Boston, calculates, from all the data that he can obtain, the rate of mortality to be very much higher than in the less densely inhabited parts of the same city.

"Density of population appears to be unfavorable to infant life, even more than to adult life. During five years, the deaths of children under five years were in Massachusetts, 33 per cent., in Boston, 46 per cent., and, among the Catholics of this city, 61 per cent. of the whole number of deaths."—pp. 28, 29.

There is also a great difference in the vigor of constitution in different classes of the community. We again quote from the memorial of the Statistical Association, pp. 36, 37.

"The difference of strength and of power for labor and endurance without disease, in various classes, has been remarkably shown in both the English and French reports. They show that the stature, constitution, and health of the manufacturing laborers render them less fit for usefulness than the agricultural laborers in the country. In France, in order to obtain 100 men fit for military service, it was necessary to have as many as 343 men of the poorer class; whilst 193 conscripts sufficed of the classes in better circumstances.' Similar differences were found in England. A corps levied from the agricultural districts will last much longer than one recruited from the manufacturing towns.' These men were all presumed to be free from perceptible disease, and yet the strength and the energy of life was very much less in one class than in the other, and that difference of power and life was produced by causes partially within the control of mankind, and perhaps, in some degree, of the Legislature."-pp. 36, 37.

These differences are facts, facts which though surprising to such as have not examined the subject, can not be denied; but that the difference in health and life is to be attributed to the differences in the circumstances, is an inference, an inference, however, which is almost demonstrably certain. Still there remains the difficult question, What is it in these circumstances which affects so diversely the powers of life? And it is only experiments conducted on an extensive scale and extended through many years, which can give a complete answer to this question. Enough however has already been determined to encourage governments to make farther efforts. In England, says the petition of the Statistical Society, many examples are shown of the improvement of public health, and of the increase of life, in consequence of improvements in the localities, drainings of the soil, removal of stagnant water, of filth, and of the sources of offensive effluvia, and by reforming the habits, which had acted as causes of the ill-health of the people. Indeed, when we consider how much the average of life in civilized countries exceeds that of the uncivilized, and that this increase is due to the greater comforts and security of civilized life and the advancement of medical science founded on the investigation of classes of facts similar to those which fall within the scope of a sanitary survey, we can not doubt that thorough investigation will point out both what it is in the various circumstances of life which affects it unfavorably, and also the means of removing the evil. And when this is done, we may safely assume that the state will find some provisions proper to be made within the sphere of its action, or if it should not, that the benefits of such knowledge in the hands of individuals will fully justify the state in undertaking such surveys, more especially since otherwise they will hardly be made.

We should be glad to dwell upon another most interesting topic, the effect which this increased length of life would have upon the prosperity of the state, adding to its productive industry, and imparting stability and dignity to the government by the enlarged wisdom of the people. Upon this latter point we may add a fact from the English reports, that, "in some of the manufacturing towns, there are not wisdom and prudence enough of the mature and the aged, to repress the excitement and to govern the actions of the young and volatile, and, that in the mobs and public crowds in the streets, youth so far predominates that it is no wonder that rash and sometimes unlawful acts are committed." The memorialists of the Medical Society enter into some curious estimates as to what would be the augmented productions of the people annually in consequence of the prolongation of the life of man so as to reach the limit of three score and ten years. They place the net earnings of the present population of Massachusetts at $75,000,000. This is produced by the inhabitants of the state who are over fifteen years old. The average life of those who have died in the state during the last six years, as appears from the registration, is about 39 years, which would leave but 244 years of productive industry. But if the average of life should be extended to seventy years, then the productive period would average fifty-five years. This would increase the net earnings from $75,000,000 to $168,000,000, thus showing that there is "an annual loss to the commonwealth of $93,000,000, by the premature death of persons over fifteen years of age." But without going into these estimates, it is obvious that in a pecuniary point of view, and, hence, necessarily in a moral and intellectual point of view, there is a vast loss suffered by the state through the premature deaths of the people.

We do not know whether the resolve proposed by the joint committee has become a law, but we hope that the step already taken is the beginning of new and enlightened legislation on this subject in all the states of the Union.