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18

MR. A. W. FLUX, M.A., ON CITY GOVERNMENT AND

lifø, and it seems hard to resist the suggestion that it is to be sought in such facts as the continuously increased stringency of Control of the milk supply. One of the great advantages of the Copenhagen workman over his Manchester comrade is an excel­ lent supply of milk at half the cost of the article here. The authorities are not overborne in their enforcement of regulation by fear of raised prices. The milk-producers themselves find advantage in adopting methods in accord with the wishes of sanitary authorities. There was certainly a considerable advance. in this latter respect in the latter part of the eighties, and one is tempted to link the startling improvement shown in our table with that change, even if that be but one of the operating causes of the improvement. One should not, perhaps, pass by without mention of the high rate of illegitimate births in Copenhagen. It has risen in twenty years from about 19 to about 23 per cent of total births. The deaths under one year of age of legitimate children were as low as 150 per thousand births in the last four years, while the corresponding figure for illegitimate children was 244. The improvement in the deafh-rate over the last twenty years has, it istrue, been more marked in the case of illegitimate than in that of legitimate children, but the regretable increase in the proportion of illegitimate births has offset this, so that they contribute as large a proportion as formerly of the deaths under one year of ago. The high rate of illegitimacy is not entirely unconnected with the existence of institutions in the, city offering facilities to unfortunate mothers, whether properly belonging to the city or not. Similar influences are recognised as affecting the problem elsewhere, and it is only right to refer to them here. Into deaths from particular diseases I do not propose to enter to-night. It is not a question to be lightly håndled by a layman. I do not quote, either, the excellent and useful returns of the attack-rates of various diseases. I am doubtful if the retums are comparable with those made here. They afford a quantity of information about the health conditions of