Mr. Noel A. Humphreys read a paper of much interest
last week before the Statistical Society, on "Class Mortality," in which he drew attention to the fact that in the Peabody buildings in London, which now accommodate some 20,000 persons of the poorer classes, the number of infant deaths has been reduced seven per 1,000 below that of infants in London generally during the five last years. This shows, he said, how much housing has to do with our rate of death ; and this is confirmed by the fact that the poorer classes who live much in the open air, like gardeners, nurserymen, and agricultural labourers, attain an average age almost as good as that of clergymen themselves, in spite of their much greater privations. It is impure air, in the long-ran, which shortens life even more than any other cause. It is a pity that the insurance offices and benefit societies cannot inspect the houses of their clients, and charge a higher fee for insuring the lives of those who live in ill-drained and ill-ventilated houses than they charge for insuring the lives of those who live in well-drained and well-ventilated houses. What a reform in house-structure that might bring about !
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