Hygeia: The City of Perfect Health

[…] Served that the author considers it impossible to secure the greatest health by any system of construction if the people are left to arrange their own habits of life. He therefore calls on the aid of government to prevent overcrowding, filthy habits, and the communication of disease by clothing. It has been calculated that if the death-rate could be reduced to an average of 8 per 1,000 the average expectation of life would be raised to 60 years, and the probable mean duration of life would be 120 years, while old people would live to 160. With a death rate of 5 per 1,000 the expectation of life would be 137 years, the probable mean duration 100 years, and old people 250 years would be found. Dr. Richardson, however, did not raise this expectation above 90 years as the average length of life.

The effect upon population of such a death-rate would be simply revolutionary. England has had for thirty-five years a mean birth rate of 33.6 per 1,000. With a loss of 5 per 1,000 the increase would evidently be 28.8, and in five years "Hygeia," or the city of health, would gain 15,310 inhabitants by natural increase. If immediately built it would double its population before the end of the century, and in the year 2,000 it would contain 3,150,000. Thus, the operation of the perfect health regulations would seriously affect the balance between population and food production, and the death rate would probably rise again, in spite of regulations to keep it down.