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LOCAL TAXATION IN COPENHAGEN. 17 When I prepared the part of this table relating to Man- ehester I looked to find in it even more marked traces of improvement than are actually shown. The township of Man­ chester is subject to special influences, and the migration which is going on probably causes the estimates of population at the different ages to be but approximations to the truth. The first two columns are from figures given in the last two decennial reports of the Registrar General, the later figures are derived from information in the reports of the Medical Officer of Health for the city. The improvement in the figures for childhood and adolescence is the only bright feature of the table for the town­ ship, and this is, possibly, largely a fictitious improvement, for a shift in the age-distribution of the population might consider- ably affect these small figures without seriously improving the others. Some improvement is shown as against twenty years ago, but not in the rates of infancy and old-age. In the figures for the city, the general improvement is satisfactory, though the want of improvement in infant death-rates is quite the opposite, especially when these are placed alongside the corre- sponding figures for the township in 1881-90. A good deal has been done, perhaps more than the tables would suggest, but we are as yet far behind the possibilities suggested by the figures of the second half of the table. The improvement shown in these last figures is a general improvement touching all ages, but the part of it which weighs most in reducing the general average is undoubtedly the reduc- tion in deaths of young children. In Copenhagen, as in Manchester, nearly 30 per cent of all deaths take place under one year of age. Twenty years ago it stood at a considerably higher figure, rising in several years to 35 per cent and over. T o what should we attribute the striking improvement in a special degree 1 Many causes have undoubtedly concurred, causes whose operation is also reflected in improvement at the higher ages, such causes as improved housing, better water supply, improved eamings, and the like. A special influence, however, nppears to be needed, an influence affecting especially infant 2