rapid, efficient, and economically cleansing of a town of surface refuse, mud, and filth.

"It appears from the unanimous statement of the visiting Commissioners, in addition to an examination of the replies of the fifty towns on the subjects of drainage and cleansing, that in scarcely one place can the drainage or sewerage be pronounced to be complete and good, while in seven it is indifferent, and in 42 decidedly bad as regards the districts inhabited by the poorer classes. The investigations within the several towns of the arrangements for house as connected with street cleansing, present nearly the same results.

"It appears that the local statements and opinions on what is deemed to be good, can only be received with reference to the imperfect standards known in those places. In the answers it is often stated that the drainage of a town is good, where it has been found that only the principal streets have main drains or sewers, and where the houses in those streets are but imperfectly provided with house or branch drains; while the most crowded portions of the town, those most densely inhabited by the poorer classes, are utterly neglected, and have no drainage, the refuse being allowed to accumulate and decompose in open channels and pools, or to run into open and stagnant ditches in the immediate vicinity of the houses.

"The medical witnesses have brought before us facts in support of their strongly urged and unanimous opinion, that no population can be healthy, which live amid cess-pools, or upon a soil permeated by decomposing animal or vegetable refuse, giving off impurities to the air in their houses and in the streets. They state the necessity of preventing all accumulations of stagnant refuse in or near houses, and of substituting a system of house-drainage and cleansing, aided by the introduction of better supplies of water into the houses. They have brought forward instances where the main drains or sewers were tolerably well formed, and subordinate or house-drains attached, but where, from the want of properly directed supplies of water, both house-drains and sewers only acted as extended cess-pools."-Report, p. 10.

The evident truth of this is allowed at once. We at once perceive how barbarous is the custom of allowing fæculent matter and foul water, and refuse and filth of all sorts, to lie decomposing on the surface of the ground, poisoning the air with their fœtid effluvia. We unhesitatingly condemn as hurtful, practices such as that described in the Rev. Mr. Clay's Report of Preston, in which an example is given of two rows of cottages between which there is an open cesspool, receiving all the filth from twenty-two houses and privies. In this cesspool the filth remains putrefying, until the receptacle is full, or until the manure-gatherers (the muck-misers as they are quaintly called) find it their interest to carry it away. We see at once that such a practice must be injurious to the health as it is to the comfort of the surrounding inhabitants; and yet it is but a slight exaggeration of the custom which is all but universal-that of keeping in cesspools or middens, closed or open as the case may be, large accumulations of every sort of abomination. Nor is the empoisoning of the surrounding air the only evil, great as that is. The liquid filth often finds its way by filtration to the foundations of the houses, and cellars, and so may pervade the whole dwelling. Nay sometimes it even reaches the springs of water, and renders them foul and even fœtid. When the evil reaches this extent, it is less dangerous than when in a less evident degree, for now another supply of water must be sought. There can be little doubt that the use of water for drinking or cooking so contaminated as to be perceptible to a delicate taste only, but bearable to those accustomed to it, will gradually undermine and destroy the health. Another evil even more injurious is indirectly produced;-that of discouraging water drinking, and fostering the habitual use of stimulating beverages. Dr. T. Clarke of Aberdeen University remarks on this point—

"There is one very obvious consideration as regards the health of the inhabitants, that if you have water not fit for drinking, in which there is matter offensive in any degree, by so much as the water is offensive you lessen the habit of drinking water. Now, you cannot restrict the supply of water to such quality as is naturally repulsive; you cannot thus render the inhabitants abstinent from water, without interfering with the healthful functions of their bodies. It was with no small concern that I learned how few of the inhabitants of London, and especially of the lower orders, drink water. In making my experiments upon these waters, when I enquired of the servants about me how they liked particular waters, it was with particular surprise I discovered that they generally mere lads-knew nothing about the taste of the water. They are the same sort of persons as would be accustomed to drink water in other places, but they have other beverages here. I should perhaps not speak as to the general habits of the inhabitants, but only of what little I have observed in such circumstances."-Dr. T. Clark's Evidence, p. 7.

Some of the direct evils of the present common arrangements are thus pointed out in Mr. Holland's Report.

"Sometimes the midden of a necessary is separated from a house by a wall only, which is not always impervious to liquid. I have known instances, where the wall of a dwelling-house has been constantly wet with fœtid fluid, which has filtered through from a midden, and poisoned the air with its intolerable stench; and the family was never free from sickness during the six months they endured the nuisance. Instances in which foetid air finds its way into the next dwellinghouse are not unfrequent. I know an instance (and I believe there are many such) where it is impossible to keep food without its being tainted for even a single night in the cupboards on the side of the house next to the public necessary, and where the fœtor is offensively perceptible always, and is oppressive in the morning before the door is opened."

In another part of this Report a back street is described “about 4 feet wide and not 300 long in which there are 38 necessaries, each with an open midden. The street being too narrow to admit a cart, the manure has to be carried in wheelbarrows, and much of it is spilt during this tedious operation, and the passage is not generally carefully cleaned afterwards. Each of these middens will contain more than a ton of manure, and as they are not emptied till they are full, there will be on the average in each more than half a ton, or nearly 20 tons of decomposing filth in the very confined space between two rows of houses only about five yards apart, a space, including the yards, of less than 500 square yards. It is evident that the only complete remedy is to prevent the accumu lation of manure in such large quantity in the immediate neighbourhood of dwellings, by washing it away into the sewers; that is, by the erection of waterclosets in all cases where houses are built closely together."

The adoption of this very effectual remedy need not, we are informed, cost more than two pounds for each house.

We shall not enter upon the consideration of the best mode of completely getting rid of all the refuse matter of towns. The evidence in favour of employing it by means of foul water irrigation appears to us exceedingly strong. This is a point, however, for the determination of the engineer rather than of the physician, and to him we leave it, merely reiterating our conviction, that all accumulations of refuse matter in the neighbourhood of dwellings closely congregated together must be prevented at whatever sacrifice of money, unless we would submit to the far more extravagant sacrifices of comfort, health and life.

A very large portion of the excessive mortality of towns arises from the cause we have already mentioned, an impure state of the air generally but it is perhaps still more owing to causes existing within individual dwellings. Of the general absence of house drainage we have already spoken; the next great evils are overcrowding, and the want of ventilation, especially in bed-rooms. The

difference in the rate of mortality among the inhabitants of well constructed dwellings, and among those living in houses of an opposite description, built back to back, with only one door, and generally two rooms only, is very remarkable. The most unexceptionable evidence on this point which has come under our notice is furnished in Mr. Holland's Report. He has made an analysis of the deaths registered during five years as occurring in each individual street of Chorlton upon Medlock, which is a section of Manchester. The streets were divided according to their condition into three classes, first, second, and third, each of which classes were subdivided into three other classes, according to the character of the dwellings, thus making nine subdivisions. The number of inhabitants of each street was computed from the number of inhabited houses, taking the same ratio in each, between houses and inhabitants as was ascertained by the Census. From the number of deaths occurring in each, the rate of mortality among the inhabitants is easily calculated. The results are exhibited in the following Tables.

"The following table (1) exhibits the proportion per cent. of each class of streets and of houses, in which the rate of mortality has been, during the last five years, below 2 per cent. per annum, between 2 and 3 per cent., and above 3 per cent.

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Examples of Classes of Streets and Houses.

Oxford-street, Grosvenor-street,
Sidney-street, Rutland-street.
Greek st. Clarendon-st. Chatham-st.
Charles-street, York-st. Chester-st.

Angle-street, Carver-st. Prospect-st.
Ann-street, Benton-st. Caygill-st.
Cross-street, Evans-st. Rathbone-st.
None of the third-class of streets

have first-class houses.
Bell-street, Mark-lane, Charlotte-st.
Medlock-street, Makin-street, Bury-
street, Burns-street.

Inspection of the above table will show how constantly a low rate of mortality has accompanied a good condition of streets and dwellings, and a high rate of mortality the contrary condition. Among the inhabitants of the first class of houses and streets, it will be seen that in none has the rate of mortality exceeded 3 per cent.; and of the second-class houses and first-class streets, in 1 in 15 only has it risen above that amount. But of the third-class houses, in 67 per cent. of the first, 43 per cent. of the second, and 80 per cent. of the third-class streets, has the rate of mortality exceeded 3 per cent.; while in some particular streets it has been twice that amount. Among the worst are Bury Street, Burns Street, Heyes Street, Dorning Street, Medlock Street, Tebbutt's Court, Wilson Street, Woburn Place, Back Temple Street, Back Kay Street, Allen Street, and Bond Street. All of these streets have some evident defect; the seven first mentioned are not thoroughfares, and are built up, or nearly so, at one end; all of them are unpaved and undrained; the houses are built back to back, and have no back doors. They are all of them little better than courts.

"It will further be observed, that in none of the worst-conditioned streets has the rate of mortality been lower than 2 per cent., whilst those of the best condition a considerable proportion have had a lower rate of mortality; and further, of the worst-conditioned streets, in half of those with second-class houses, the mortality has been less than 3 per cent., while of those with third-class houses four-fifths have had a mortality exceeding that amount.

"These facts present a striking illustration of the ill effects of badly conditioned dwellings and streets, but still more strikingly exhibit the destructive influences of poverty, as shewn by the high rate of mortality among the inhabitants of low-rented houses.

"The following table (2) exhibits the rate of annual mortality in the different classes of streets, of the town part of Chorlton upon Medlock, in the average of the five years ending June 1843. The amount of the population of this part of the township is computed at 24,682; among whom there have been 3235 deaths, or 647 a year, being an average annual mortality of 2.6 per cent., or 1 in 38. The rate of mortality in the different classes of streets will be seen to differ very widely.

Exhibiting the Rate of Mortality in different Classes of Streets, the houses being of all rates.

Exhibiting the Rate of Mortality among the Inhabitants of different Classes of Houses, the Streets being of all Classes.

"From comparison of these tables it would appear that the rate of mortality is more influenced by the class of house inhabited, than by the condition of the street. For we find that the mortality in the first, second, and third classes of streets, the houses being of all classes, has been in the proportion of 100, 118, and 168: but in the houses of the first, second, and third classes, the streets being of all classes, that the proportion of mortality has been 100, 131, and 178; there is therefore a greater difference in the rate of mortality among inhabitants of different classes of houses, than in those of streets of different condition. When, however, the evil influences of both badly-constructed dwellings and of badly-conditioned streets operate together, the effect is very striking. For instance, the third-class houses of the first, second, and third-class streets are nearly alike in construction, are about the same size, are charged about the same rent, and are inhabited by about the same class of persons, but the rate of mortality in the third-class houses in first and second-class streets, has been 2.7 and 2.8 per cent. respectively, while in those of the same class of houses, but in third-class streets, the rate has been 4 per cent., or a higher rate of mortality, in the proportion of 10 to 7. I am aware of no circumstances but those connected with the bad condition of the streets, which will account for this great difference.

"It may be thought that these streets are inhabited by a poorer class than the others, but I do not believe that that is the fact, except so far as their poverty is increased by the expenses of sickness and death in their families, and by consequent loss of work. Their incomes while at work must be much the same, for they have the same sort of employments. There seems every reason to hope that if these worst streets were put into good condition, the rate of mortality would fall 25 per cent., or more. The diminution in the rate of mortality has been nearly 20 per cent. in the streets which have been improved; as before stated, it has fallen from 3.1 per cent, or 1 in 32, to 2.53 per cent., or 1 in 39; the effect of a permanent good condition, as we have just seen, appears to be still more beneficial; and there can be no doubt that if the houses, as well as the streets, were put into proper condition, the rate of mortality would fall still more. It is, indeed, unreasonable to expect that the general state of health and longevity of the poor can be raised as high as that of those in more comfortable circumstances by any, the best, sanatory arrangements, but I think the evidence here adduced distinctly shows that the rate of mortality, among the poor certainly, among all classes probably, is unnaturally high, from the operation of removable causes of disease.

"When we find the rate of mortality four times as high in some streets as in others, and twice as high in whole classes of streets as in other classes, and further find that it is all but invariably high in those streets which are in bad condition, and almost as invariably low in those whose condition is good, we cannot resist the conclusion that multitudes of our fellow creatures, hundreds of our immediate neighbours, are annually destroyed for want of the most evident precautions."

We have spoken of the two principal evils attending household arrangements, the destructive effects of which we have here in evidence, as being overcrowding and bad ventilation. The first of these is to a great extent an unavoidable evil. It results from poverty, and is one of the means by which poverty acts destructively upon health. The want of ventilation in houses is to a great extent remediable and when its vital importance is properly understood, we doubt not the evil will be considerably alleviated.

The next great evil is dirtiness. This arises in a great measure from a deficient supply of pure and soft water. When cleanliness is of very difficult attainment, many persons give it up as hopeless, and a gradual deterioration in the habits of the people is an observed consequence of such difficulty. We have no means of estimating the exact amount of unhealthfulness arising from this