The fencing school is a favourite place of resort to the students of all ranks in the German Universities. Prince Albert, while at Bonn, displayed great skill among his youthful contemporaries, in the use of the foil, and the art of fencing has been popular in Germany, ever since the time when the possession of a sword was a mark of gentility. Duels are still occasionally fought with a species of broadsword, the top of the head to the body of both combatants being carefully protected by strong leather guards, so as almost entirely to prevent the possibility of a fatal encounter. Drinking clubs among the students, greatly encourage this singular method of settling what was at first too frequently a mere boyish dispute. Officers are also elected in the more old fashioned clubs, from the number of duels in which they have been engaged, but fortunately, new clubs have been organized of late years, on a more reasonable basis, and the practice of duelling has in consequence greatly diminished at the best regulated Universities. Smoking, however, is still characteristic of the German students; the pipe is their constant companion in their leisure hours, and they become so much attached to it, that the more talented among them smoke for relaxation, after their long continued and laborious academical exertions.

Table showing the Quantities of Salt Exported from Liverpool during the Twelve years from 1833 to 1844. Computed by BRAITHWAITE POOLE, F.S.S.

Table showing the quantities of Earthenware and China-ware as conveyed from the Staffordshire Potteries during the Year 1844. Computed by BRAITHWAITE POOLE, F.S.S.

Formerly the average number of crates contained in a boat was 40, and weight 10 tons; but earthenware is now packed much closer, and the packages are consequently heavier; they are also made proportionably larger, so that the present average number in a boat is 36, and weight 11 tons 8 cwt.

* Some earthenware is now carried in the boats loose, but if packed in crates the total would average 33,696 yearly, as above stated.

The above statements respecting the several denominations have been derived chiefly from recent official documents published by the different denominations; but the last column contains rather a vague estimate of the total number of people who are attached to the several different religious persuasions.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF

LONDON.

First Ordinary Meeting, 1846-7. Monday, 16th November, 1846. The following papers were read :

1. Report of the Proceedings of the Statistical Section of the Southampton Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. By Joseph Fletcher, Esq., Hon. Sec.

2. Statistics of the Prussian Monarchy. By Bernard Hebeler, Esq. F.S.S., Consul-General for Prussia.

MISCELLANEOUS.

STATE OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH IN THE SUMMER QUARTER. "THE Quarterly Returns are obtained from 115 Districts, sub-divided into 576 Sub-Districts. Thirty-four Districts are in the Metropolis, and the remaining 81 Districts comprise, with some agricultural Districts, the principal towns and cities of England. The population was 6,579,693 in 1841."

51,235 deaths were registered in the summer quarter ending September 30th—a number greater by 15,227 than the deaths (36,008) in the corresponding quarter of last year. In the mild winter quarter of this year ending March, 1846, the deaths were nearly 5000 below the average; in the spring quarter (June), the mortality was slightly above the average: intestinal complaints then arose, and becoming epidemic, have been the principal causes of the immense loss of life on record.

The relative salubrity of the hottest season of the seven years, 1839-1846, is displayed in the annexed Table.

Deaths Registered in)

1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846

the September quar- 34,614 37,189 39,337 35,899 39,249 36,815 38,782 36,008 51,235 ters of 9 years

Deaths which would

have been registered

if the mortality had

been uniform, and

the numbers' had 36,191 36,825 37,469 38,125 38,792 39,471 40,162 40,864 41,580

Respecting the proximate causes of the mortality in London, the weekly tables furnish full information. The deaths in the summer quarter were 10,842 in 1845, and 12,409 in 1846. Of the excess of 1,567 deaths, 1,303 were from diarrhoea, cholera, and dysentery, which proved fatal respectively to 1549, 197, and 75 persons. The mortality by intemperance, delirium tremens, jaundice, liver diseases, and rheumatism was also greater than usual. Inflammatory diseases of the lungs and influenza lay in abeyance, as if the morbid force had directed and expended itself on the digestive organs. No deaths from hydrophobia appears to have been registered in London during the last three summers. The five weeks from July 11th to August 15th, were the unhealthiest; 1,100 deaths, exclusive of those by violence, were registered in the first week of August; the numbers then fell off, and only amounted to 783 on the last week of the thirteen. Upon comparing the facts in the four last columns of the Table, p. 372, it will be seen that young children were the chief sufferers. Indeed the form of the disease, which has long been prevalent in the cities of America, is designated in their bills of mortality cholera infantum. The disease also proved fatal to many old people. And some adults died of attacks which could not in their symptoms be distinguished from Asiatic cholera. It was, however, quite evident from the first, that the epidemic had not the characters of that malady which broke out here in the winter of 1832, but was closely allied to the cholera described by Sydenham, which he says lasted a month, and—“eam_anni partem, quæ æstatem fugientem atque autumnum imminentem complectitur, (unice ac eadem prorsus fide, qua veris primordia hirundines, aut insequentis tempestatis fervorem cuculus,) amare consuevit*."

* Sydenham Opera. Obs. Med. Anni 1669. He also describes the severer epidemic of 1676, "Insueto tempestatis calore evectus."

While the deaths in London were little more than 14 per cent. above the return of 1845, the deaths rose from 25,166 to 38,826-or about 52 per cent. after a correction for increase of population-in the towns and other districts of the kingdom, included in the return. In some of the densely-peopled towns the mortality was doubled. The deaths in the corresponding summer quarters of the past and present year were-in Maidstone 124, and 239; Brighton 219, and 372; Portsea Island 239, and 433; Winchester 89, and 141; Oxford 89, and 194; Northampton 182, and 221; Bedford 182, and 254; Ipswich 119, and 240; Norwich 306, and 451; Plymouth 191, and 279; Clifton 323, and 436; Worcester 106, and 173; Dudley 457, and 744; Walsall 158, and 288; Wolverhampton 439, and 687; Wolstanton and Burslem 164, and 315; Coventry 188, and 300; Nottingham 285, and 469 Lincoln 154, and 246. No such mortality has been witnessed in Birmingham for many years; the deaths in 1845 were 694, in 1846 they amounted to 1,627. In Liverpool and the adjacent district of West Derby the deaths in the summer quarters of 1845 and 1846, were 2,595, and 4,090; in Manchester, and the contiguous districts of Salford and Chorlton, 2,411 persons died in 1845, and 4,248 in 1846. Stockport, Macclesfield, Chester, Blackburn, Preston, Bury, Bolton, Wigan, Prescot, Ashton,-and other districts of Cheshire and Lancashire-suffered to an equal, or a greater extent. The districts of Yorkshire did not escape; 1,039 persons died in Sheffield, where only 445 died in the summer quarter of 1845, and the mortality in any preceding summer since 1838 had never exceeded 647. Huddersfield, Leeds, Hull, and York suffered severely. In Sunderland, Gateshead, Tynemouth, and Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1,172 deaths were recorded in the summer quarter of 1845, and 2,313 in the corresponding quarter of 1846.

Upon the other hand, the mortality of the quarter was below the average in Pontypool and Newtown; bnt slightly above the average in the other districts of Wales; and generally the country and southern districts suffered comparatively little.

In the above summary, and in Table, page 370, the mortality of the summer quarter of 1846 is compared with the mortality of the same districts in the corrresponding seasons of previous years. The proportion which the deaths bear to the population shews the relative mortality of different districts, and is still more important. Thus, at the last census, the population of Anglesea was 38,105, the deaths in the last quarter were 160; the population of Gateshead was 38,747, the deaths in the same quarter 473; the population of Abergavenny and Newtown, 77,000, the deaths 378: the population of Sheffield, 85,000, the deaths 1,039. Again, the population of the seven Welsh districts was 273,000, the deaths in the last quarter 1,465; the population of Manchester and Salford 263,000, the deaths 3,149! The population of the six districts of the South Eastern division was 218,000, the deaths in the last quarter (ending September 30) were 1,458; the population of Liverpool was 223,000, the deaths in the same quarter 2,946!

In the Annual Reports and Quarterly Returns the causes of these differences in the mortality of the several parts of the country and the population have been discussed. The high mortality of towns has been traced to crowded lodgings, dirty dwellings, personal uncleanliness, the concentration of unhealthy emanations from narrow streets, without fresh air, water, or sewers. The rapidity of decomposition, and the facility with which all kinds of animal matter become tainted, and run into putrefaction, enable us to understand how, in a summer like the past, in which the temperature was unusually high, the diseases referable to an impure atmosphere should be so prevalent and fatal.

The Seventh Annual Report, 8vo. edition (pp. 330-338) contains some calculations which set in a striking light the extent to which human life and health have hitherto been sacrificed. The calculations have been made with great care; they are based upon the Returns of Deaths for the seven years, 1838-44, and the census taken in 1841, the middle of the period. It appears—to give a few examples of the results-that the annual deaths in the town districts of Manchester to 1,000 males living are 37; in the extra-metropolitan parts of Surrey 19 in 1,000. To take particular ages, the annual mortality of boys under 5 years of age is 48 in Surrey, 148 in Manchester to 1,000 boys living.

Of men of the age of 35 and under 45, the annual mortality is 11 in Surrey, 21 in Manchester to 1,000 living: The enormous difference will be rendered more obvious to some by the simple facts—