AND EAST CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND NEWS. NO. 440 - Eighth Week in Quarter Registered for Transmission ABroad. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1874. PRICE 1D. ============================================ WEST WARD UNION. The ordinary fortnightly meeting was held on Wednesday last, at the Board Room, Eamont Bridge, MR. JAMES ATKINSON, chairman, presiding. The only guardians present were the REV. W. R. MARKHAM, REV. G. F. WESTON, CAPT. MARKHAM, MR. LONGRIGG, MR. MACHELL, MR. BIRD, and MR. A. WILSON. DR. PAGE was present, and read the following report of the health of West Ward Sanitary District: ...... During the quarter ending December 31st, 49 births and 36 deaths were registered. The natural increase of population was therefore 13. BIRTHS. - the birth rate was equal to 23.6 per 1,000 of the estimated population. The proportion of illegitimate to every 100 births was 16.2. DEATHS. - the death rate was equivalent to a yearly mortality of 17.3 per 1,000 persons living. The proportion of deaths of children under 1 year of age to the total number was 30.5, and to births registered 22.4. The influence of weather on the death rate is shown by the increase in the mortality from diseases of the respiratory organs over the returns of the previous quarter, when 3 deaths under 1 year were registered, against 11 deaths in the present return. The mortality from zymotic or infectious diseases was at the rate of 2.8 per 1,000, and included a total number of 6 deaths, three of which were referred to diarrhoea, 2 to measles, and 1 to typhoid fever. In the case of the latter disease, the cause was traceable to the use of a polluted water supply. DAVID PAGE, M.C., Medical Officer of Health. A conversation afterwards ensued on the sewerage of Shap, and the sanitary condition of Pooley Bridge. With reference to the latter place, DR. PAGE said that consumption had been in past years a common disease, owing to the lowness of the situation, and the soil being waterlogged. Two privies, one near the house of ANN SIMPSON and the other near to the bridge, were named as being exceedingly offensive, and calculated to be injurious to health. He recommended that they should both be removed from the present site, and it was therefore ordered that the necessary notices be served on the owners to rebuild them in the gardens at a distance from the dwellings.