DEATH-RATE IN THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL'S DISTRICTS FOR THE YEARS

The Registrar-General's Report for England, ending March 31st, makes the following remarks respecting Liverpool:-"If the map of England were shaded to represent the rates of mortality of last quarter in the registration districts, the eye travelling from the lighter south to the darker north would be instantly drawn to a spot of portentous darkness on the Mersey; and the question would be asked whether cholera, the black death, or other plague, imported with bales of merchandise, had been lately introduced into its busy and populous seaport. Happily this has not been the case; but fever probably developed or aided by the mild and damp atmosphere of the season, and by overcrowding in an increasing population, has been busy and fatal in Liverpool and in other towns of the same county, and of Yorkshire. The annual mortality of the borough of Liverpool in the three months was excessive, and demands immediate and earnest consideration; it rose to 4.593 per cent. This implies that if this death-rate were maintained for a year, forty-six persons out of a thousand in the population would die in that time, or fifteen more than died in Glasgow, its northern rival, and nineteen more than in London."

On the Number of Graduates in Arts and Medicine at Oxford for the last two centuries. By Dr. DAUBENY, F.R.S.

Dr. Daubeny communicated a statement of the number of degrees of Bachelor in Arts conferred by the University of Oxford each year from the middle of the seventeenth century down to the present time, from which it would appear that the increase in that respect which has taken place is by no means proportionate to the progress of the country, in population, wealth, and intelligence.

Amongst the causes which have led to this result, he would suggest as one, the circumstance that an University education, instead of being regarded, as is the case in other countries, the fitting preparation for all the liberal professions, has by us been chiefly confined either to youths educated for the Church, or to those not intended for any profession at all.

Confining himself to the Medical Profession, he had ascertained that the number of Gradutes had sunk in Oxford from about four annually to every five millions of the population, which was the case two centuries ago, to less than one at the present time.

The reasons assigned for medical students so rarely resorting for their education to the University, may be briefly stated as follows:

1. The prevailing notion, that neither professional knowledge, nor even the sciences regarded as preparatory to it, can be acquired so well there as elsewhere. 2. The large outlay which a University education is supposed to entail.

3. The necessity imposed upon the student of devoting the greater part of his time during his residence to the dead languages, thus throwing back pursuits of a more professional character to a later period of life than that at which they are commenced elsewhere.

4. The danger of acquiring habits and tastes incompatible with the successful career of a medical man, from daily intercourse with a class of youths intended for different walks in life.

Now the first of these obstacles has been removed, so far as relates to the preliminary studies, by the recent establishment in Oxford of a staff of Professors as efficient, and of means and appliances for the prosecution of Chemistry, Anatomy, and the like, as ample, as are to be found in any other rival institution, whilst with regard to studies purely professional, it is conceived that they can be best acquired after the preliminary ones are fully mastered, and may therefore be reserved with advantage till the time when the necessary residence in the University has been completed.

Secondly, that the large sum supposed to be required for an Oxford education,

arises, not from the charges of board, lodging, and tuition, which every student must incur, but from the expensive habits and costly amusements in which so many indulge. The latter, therefore, might be avoided by any body of youths who were sufficiently considerable in point of numbers to associate chiefly amongst themselves, and who were placed where they would not be in constant communication with students of ampler means and different pursuits.

Thirdly, the objection raised from the undue postponement of their studies has been already in part removed by the new regulation, which enables the Undergraduate to terminate his classical reading after two years of residence at the University.

Fourthly, in reply to those who apprehend that habits unfitting for a medical man are likely to be acquired by a residence at the University, it was suggested, that the risk of this would be much lessened by establishing a Hall or College which should be resorted to principally by medical students, who would thus form a community of their own, and feel less temptation to join in the pursuits of the wealthier and idler portion of Oxford society.

It is not, however, suggested that Oxford should be substituted for London as a place for acquiring clinical instruction. All that is maintained is, that the preparatory studies, such as Chemistry and Anatomy, may be mastered as well out of London as in it, and that it can never be advisable that the acquisition of so large a part of that knowledge which is looked for from an aspirant to a Medical Degree should be compressed within the short compass of the time he is expected to reside in the metropolis, whilst all the previous years of his life, since the period of his leaving school, have been engrossed by an apprenticeship to an apothecary, with few opportunities of learning anything beyond the art of compounding medicines. Would it not, it was asked, be more advantageous to a large proportion at least of these students, if, before they were considered old enough to reside in London, exempt from all moral supervision, they were to spend half the year in keeping terms at the University, and in there obtaining a sound knowledge of those sciences which constitute the basis of a medical education? And would it not be found sufficient for them to devote merely the remaining half to the routine of an apothecary's shop, for the purpose of acquiring whatever knowledge can be derived from such a quarter?

On the Lace and Hosiery Trades of Nottingham. By W. FELKIN. The author observed that the progress of the town and suburbs of Nottingham in population and material wealth during this century has been much advanced by the increase of the lace manufacturers of the place. In regard to the population of Nottingham, from the figures which appear in the population returns, much misconception prevails. Nottingham there appears to have a population of about 75,000, that is within the limits of the municipal borough only; while, including the suburban parishes, which are practically parts of Nottingham, there are about 150,000 in all. It has risen from 35,000, the number in 1811.-The following account of the machine-wrought lace trade in 1865 is based on a census made by Mr. Birkin and Mr. Heymann in 1862, of the machinery in the business, and given by the former in his report to Class 24 in the London Exhibition of that year. At that time there were 1797 circular machines making bobbin net; of these 200 were at Tiverton, 100 at Barnstaple, 360 at Chard, 500 in Derbyshire, and 700 in and near Nottingham. Also 1588 levers, 125 traverse warps, 42 pushers, all in Nottingham and its neighbourhood, making a total, with 353 standing, of 3552 bobbin net, and 400 warp lace frames. Of these, 2149 were making silk lace, and 1450 cotton lace. There were employed on plain net 1442, and on fancy 2157, the latter being closer imitations of cushion lace than ever before made. Although since 1862 there have occurred great fluctuations in demand, and the prices of both silk and cotton materials have advanced full 75 per cent., the amount of machinery and employment was in 1865 about the same as in 1862. The entire production continues to be finished and sold in Nottingham, except that at Tiverton, which is of silk, and sold in London. The approximate number of hands employed in 1865 is calculated upon the account taken by the writer recently of the hands actually engaged in making and finishing the production of lace from a large body of bobbin

net machines. These, for the whole body of the lace machinery, may be thus stated:900 men employed in 180 shops for making machines, bobbins, carriages, points, guides, combs, needles, &c., at average wages of 338. a week; 10,300 men and youths at work in 130 larger factories and in lesser machine shops, 1800 of whom may earn 16s., 5000 25s., and 3500 first-class Levers' hands 35s. a week on an average. These all work alternate shifts of four and five hours each, in the entire day of 18 hours, during which the engine is going. 4200 boys clearing, winding, threading bobbins, 58. 500 women filling bobbins and overlooking, 12s. 15,000 brown net menders, who usually receive nets from factories, and free them from foul or uneven threads. It is generally supplementary labour to household work, by which 4s. to 8s. may be gained, averaging 5s. a week. 300 men, warpers, 25s.; 300 men, moulders, founders, and superintendents of machinery, 35s.; 60 carpenters, 30s.; 360 porters, 178.; 120 carters, 20s.; 90 watchmen, &c., 20s.; 260 steam engineers, 22s.; 150 bleachers, 30s.; 100 male dressers of lace, 88. to 30s.; 900 female dressers, 10s.; 1000 female white menders, 128.; 500 female lace-folders, 10s.; 1000 paper-box makers of both sexes, 7s.; 450 warehouse women, 138.; 250 female overlookers, 158.; 100 draftsmen and designers, 40s.; 1300 warehousemen and clerks taking salaries. There are employed in each finishing lace warehouse from 6 to 600 females, as the size and nature of the business may require. The number cannot be known except by actual census. They are taken from outdoor hands in brown-mending and other employments on lace. The hours are 8 A.M. to 6 or 7 P.M., and the wages are about 9s. on an average; overtime is paid for. The kinds of work must be seen to be understood, but are in general more wearisome than heavy. In some of the factories and work-rooms, in lace warehouses, and in dressing-rooms, the heat is sometimes oppressive. In general ventilation is provided for, but hands do not always care to make use of it. There is a far greater number of females employed, sometimes from a too early age, in the houses of "mistresses," often their own mothers, upon drawing, scolloping, carding, &c., processes light and simple enough, upon goods which have been obtained from finishing houses. These young people must exercise care and cleanliness on the goods, or they would be spoilt. When returned to the warehouse the mistress receives a price, out of which she takes a portion for her labour, risk of damage, fire, light, house-room, &c. Some of these persons employ twelve to twenty young girls. The total number cannot be known accurately except by census. It being considered domestic employment, they are not under registration or visitation, except upon complaint made on sanitary grounds. A great improvement has been going on in regard to the age at which these children begin to do this kind of work, and the hours of their daily labour. The change dates from Mr. Grainger's report on this important subject in 1844. The remaining department of female labour in connexion with the machine lace trade is that of embroiderers with hook or needle, Tambourers, or lacerunners, once amounting to 150,000, now reduced to a sixth of that number. Their average weekly earnings in 1836 was 4s.; now it is doubled, and more for the better kinds of work. As fast as the improved machinery produced figured work, nearly finished on the machines ready for sale, the lace-embroiderers were cast aside. About 1840 an emigration set into Nottingham from all the districts within fifty miles, to supply the increasing warehouse and outdoor female labour required in both the lace and hosiery trades. There has thus been added to the already preponderating female population of the place 13,000 within the last 26 years. In these three classes are computed from 90,000 to 100,000 females, which, added to the 38,000 above enumerated, makes a total of about 135,000 employed in the lace trade of Nottingham in 1865. The materials worked up cost about £1,715,000; the wages and profits amounted to £3,415,000 or thereabouts; and the net returns may be stated at £5,130,000.—In the hosiery business of Nottingham there were at work in 1865 11,000 narrow hand-machines, employing domestically 7500 men and 3500 women and youths, at wages from 6s. to 26s., averaging by the statements of the hands themselves 10s. 6d. weekly; also 4250 wide hand-machines, likewise domestically employing 4250 men, from 10s. to 30s., averaging, according to the workmen's statement, 15s. weekly wages. These 15,250 hand-frames were place in 4620 shops in 80 parishes spread over the county of Nottingham. The entire average wages of 42,000 frames in 1844 was about 6s. a week only. These two 1866.

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classes of hand-machines, it is computed, give employment to about 20,000 women and girls as winders and seamers, earning 4s. each on an average. There are about 1000 wide-power rotary frames, employing 700 men, at from 20s. to 32s.; and about 16,000 girls and women, seamers and winders, on an average of 58. weekly. There are about 1200 sets of circular round-power frames improved, employing 500 men and 500 youths, at from 12s. to 35s. weekly; and 1000 women, getting 12s. to 20s. weekly wages. The winders, cutters, menders, and others attached to these are about 11,000 women and girls, averaging 78. to 128. a week. And there are about 400 warp machines making hosiery by power, employing 400 men, at 14s. to 358.; and 200 youths, at 12s. to 20s.; besides 400 warpers, &c. (men), gaining about 25s.; and also 2000 women and girls stitching, &c., at 88. a week on an average. It is probable that there are 2000 men employed in bleaching, dyeing, &c., and as porters, &c., at 20s. to 35s. weekly; besides 5000 menders, folders, &c., working in warehouses, at from 88. to 12s. weekly. To these must be added the warehousemen and clerks in 80 establishments for finishing and sale of goods in Nottingham. The Nottingham hosiery business is now believed to be giving employment to about 17,000 males and 44,000 females-together, 61,000 workpeople. The estimated returns amounted in 1865 to about £3,000,000. The two staple trades of Nottingham, therefore, distributed in returns an amount of somewhat more than £8,000,000 sterling last year, and furnished, in the aggregate, employment to nearly 200,000 workpeople. The hosiery hand-frames here stated were enumerated throughout the whole trade by my census in 1844; and the results are given with much minuteness in a paper read in this Section at the York Meeting of the British Association, where the terrible details of suffering then, and for forty years previously, endured, caused much interest and sympathy. Happily the state of things then described is now entirely changed, and the labour of the stocking-maker being in larger demand than the supply, both employed and employer are enjoying an amount of prosperity never before realized, but which, we hope, may be long con tinued. It will be an explanation of some interest to those who are strangers to the process of these trades, to state that the hand-knitter of a stocking, if assiduous and clever, will knit 100 loops a minute; and that Lee, on his first machine, made 1000 of worsted, and on his second 1500 loops of silk per minute. The visitor may now see made on the round frame, patented by Brunel in 1816, but since modified and improved, without any effort of the attendant but to supply yarn, 250,000 loops of the finest textures made, in various colours, per minute, with safety; an advance of 2500-fold upon the hand-knitter. Also, that while a pillow-lace maker can form 5 meshes per minute by her skilful and pliable fingers, Heathcote, on his first essay upon his bobbin-net machine, made 1000, and, before the expiration of his patent, 10,000 of these meshes per minute; a man sitting to overlook his machine now will watch its movements, producing 50,000 meshes per minute-an increase of 10,000-fold on the cushion labourer's arduous and painstaking task. The mathematical nicety of the construction of each of these machines necessary to their secure working, the beautiful simplicity of the looping stocking frames, contrasted with the complexity and rapidity of movement through confined spaces of the thousands of bobbins and carriages, in the mesh-making and embroidering bobbinnet machines, will be found to surpass the greater part of the machinery employed in any other manufacture whatever. Two or three particular points in connexion with the present operations of these trades will interest this Section. A hundred years ago almost all stockings were widened and narrowed on the frame, as they had been by hand-knitting, so as to fit the leg and foot exactly with neatness and comfort to the wearer. These were called full-fashioned hose. Seventy or eighty years ago the practice of making goods straight down in the leg first began; these were called spurious goods. From that time till 1845 Parliament was on several occasions informed that this practice caused distress, and applied to to declare this mode of making stockings illegal; but these petitions were without legislative result. Brunel's round frame makes knitted socks without fashion, and the round web is shaped by scissors and sewn up by stitching machines or hand. One head will produce weekly 30 dozen of women's hose, sold at 3d. to 6d. a pair. At first these goods were hateful to the greater portion both of masters and men. So far from the trade being ruined, it has become better than for a century past, in every

branch. No doubt several thousands have been at work to produce this result; but, meanwhile, we are clothing the feet of millions of people, who twenty years ago knew nothing of stockings; and will in all probability prove precursors of demand for the better and more costly articles; 30,000 persons are employed by these round frames. In the working of power lace machines there is the anomaly of eighteen hours' continued working of the engine in the midland factories. The women and children are now withdrawn from night labour. It is more than questionable whether the natural hours of adult male labour might not now, if universally adopted, result in, at least, equal advantage to the owners of these machines, costly as they are, yet working to little profit, and with greater comfort to the workmen and their families. In conclusion, the condition of the children, probably not much lower than 40,000 employed by mistresses, and the circumstances attending such numbers being confined so many hours in rooms not intended for workshops, would seem to call for authorized inspection, and, I think, for registration also.

On Inventors and Inventions. By G. BELL GALLOWAY.

On the Subjects required in the Classical Tripos Examination and in the Trinity College Fellowship Examination at Cambridge. By JAMES HEYWOOD, M.A., F.R.S.

The author contended that a wider range of subjects in the triposes or examinations for honours at Cambridge and in the fellowship examinations would raise the standard of qualifications for schoolmasters, who are often selected from the classes of honour-men and college-fellows at the University. Royal Commissioners, who regulated public schools and academical studies in the reigns of the Tudor sovereigns, no doubt acted conscientiously according to the ideas and enlightenment of the sixteenth century; they followed in the same line with their Roman Catholic predecessors, deeming Latin and Greek learning the only sure basis of the higher education of the country. An example of their plans for the supremacy of Roman and Grecian studies may still be seen in the papers which are every year set to the candidates for fellowships at Trinity College, Cambridge. Of nine papers appointed at this fellowship examination, six are classical, two mathematical, and one comprises mental and moral philosophy. It is probable that a revision of the Cambridge Classical Tripos system will shortly take place in the University, and Mr. E. C. Clark, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, has suggested that both the verse composition papers in Greek and Latin should be omitted from the subjects of examination for the Classical Tripos; he proposes to substitute for them a general philosophical paper, and a philological paper, including questions not only relative to the languages of Greece and Rome, but also to the connexion between these and other languages. Such an alteration would enlarge the scope of the Classical Tripos, and increase the knowledge of the future schoolmasters, who distinguish themselves whilst at Cambridge in that important examination.

On the Practicability of employing a Common Notation for Electric

Telegraphy. By J. G. JOYCE.

The author proposed a very elaborate scheme for the establishment of a system of international electric telegraphy. He suggested that numbers should be used instead of words, the suggestion being derived from the fact that signals between ships of different nations were made by means of numbers.

On the State and Prospects of the Rate of Discount with reference to the recent Monetary Crisis. By Professor LEONE LEVI.

On the Influence of Science Classes in Mechanics' Institutions.

By E. RENALS.

first sketched the history of these classes, and then traced their influ