The weight of city mortality falls upon the poor.
Careful statistics justify the conclusion that the death-rate of an average poor district in London, Liverpool, or Glasgow, is quite double that of the average country district which is being drained to feed the city.

We now see what the growth of town population, and the decay of the country really means.

It means in the first place that each year brings a larger proportion of the nation within reach of the higher rate of mortality, by taking them from more healthy and placing them under less healthy conditions.

In the case of the lower classes of workers who gravitate to London, it means putting them in a place where the chance of death in a given year is doubled for them.

And remember, this higher death-rate is applied not indiscriminately, but to selected subjects.