In 1780, the annual mortality of England and Wales was 1 in 40.
By the last census (of 1821,) the yearly mortality had fallen to
1 in 58, nearly one-third. The rate of mortality is of course not
equal throughout the country. According to Dr. Hawkins, this is mainly
influenced by the proportion of large towns which any district or county
contains. The lowest well-ascertained rate of mortality in any part of
Europe is that of Pembrokeshire and Anglesey, in Wales, where only one
death takes place annually out of eighty-three individuals. Sussex
enjoys the lowest rate of mortality of any English county; it is there
1 in 72. Middlesex, on the other hand, affords the other extreme,
1 in 47; yet here, where the rate of mortality is higher than in any
part of England, great improvements in the mean duration of life are
taking place; for in 1811, the mortality was as great as 1 in 36. Kent,
Surrey, Lancashire, Warwickshire, and Cheshire, are the counties where,
next to Middlesex, the deaths are most numerous. The three last named
counties enjoy many natural advantages, but these are more than
counterbalanced by the number and density of their manufacturing towns.
It is a circumstance well worthy of note, that the aguish counties of
England do not, as might have been expected, stand high in the list.
In Lincolnshire, the rate of mortality is only 1 in 62. Dr. Hawkins
hesitates whether to attribute this to the large proportion of dry and
elevated district which that county possesses, or to the exemption of
fenny countries generally from consumption. We are strongly inclined to
suspect that the latter is the true explanation of the fact. The notion
was originally thrown out by the late ingenious physician, Dr. Wells,
who even went so far as to advise the removal of consumptive patients
to the heart of the Cambridgeshire fens, rather than to Hastings or
Sidmouth.