DEATH-RATE

is the number of deaths per 1000 living that would oceur in the course of a year were the death-rate of the week quoted to remain uniform during the year. The death-rate is published weekly by the Registrar-General, oy him from the death certificates. The returns show a in the death-rate of comumption, diphtheria, typhoid and many of tho infectious d.«ases during recent years, but a riso in that from cancer and lunacy, whilst tile mortality is still disgracefully high. The death rate is higher in overcrowded districts than elsewhere. The high infantile mortality is due ies b to ignorance of the way to rear a baby, but also to over-laying and to the free use of soothing syrups, many of which are readily obtained by the poor, though opium is the chief ingredient. In Germany over-laying is a criminal offence. There can be little doubt that oe death from over-laying and from soothing rep is deliberate murder, a crime incited i the disgraceful system of child-insurance, which is still legal. The comparative mortality of different occupations shows that clergy and farm labourers have the lowest death-rate, that doctors have a higher death-rate than most rs. ge higher even than coal miners, that the dusty trades, like knife Va and sweeps, have a high death-rate, and that highest is that found amongst coster a, general labourers in large towns and public-house servants. [s. 350]