Copenhagen

CLIMATE AND HEALTH.

THE SANITARY COND IT ION O F CO PENHAGEN . The sanitary conditions of a town are generally g aug ed by its annual death rate, that is the num ber of deaths in a year per thou sand inhabitants. O f all the European capitals, Co­ penhagen had in i8g6 the lowest rate o f mortality only 16.5 per thousand, while Stockholm had 16.8, Berlin 17.9, London 18.2, Christiania 18.3, Dresden 18.9, Paris 19, Rome 19.1, V i­ enna 22.3, Munich 23.2, Buda-Pesth 25.4, St. P etersbu rg 30.9. This low death rate m ight, in the case of a single year, be due to exceptionally favourable circumstances; bu t that such is no t the case in this instance may be gathered from the fact, that the mortality of Copenhagen has been g radually decrea­ sing d u rin g the last 20 years. In 1875 it was 27.4; in 1880, 24.7; in 1885, 20.1; in 1890, 20.3; and in 1895, 19 per 1000. O ne cause of this is to be found in the circum stance that C openhagen is almost perfectly free from those epidem ics which an English autor very practically has term ed: "dirty diseases". Cholera has only once, in 1853, seriously attacked C o p en ­

hagen; in 1857, when the disease broke out again, the epidem ic was very li­ mited. Exanthematic typhu s has only made its appearance once since 1872; this was in 1893, when the outbreak was confined to a large b u ild ing oc­ cupied by w orking people. T ypho id fever has never spread very widely, as will appear from the fact that in 1875 only 52 deaths from it occurred; in 1880, 60; in 1885, 23; in 1890, 26; in 1895, 56; in 1896, 24; whilst it must be rem em bered that the p o p u la ­ tion has increased from abou t 210.000 in 1875, to about 340.000 in 1896. It is ^almost unnecessary to add that m a­ larial fever is quite unknow n. Small-

A PART OF T H E TOW N HALL, SEEN FROM "TIVO LI"

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