persons, in prisons and workhouses, to go from four or five p.m. one day, to eight or nine a.m. the next day, without food. We have received accounts of sanitary proceedings from various parts of the country. A copy of the Scotsman' has been forwarded to us, containing a letter, printed in prominent type, concerning the sanitary improvements about to be made in that city. It is the old story-large sums of money have been voted for the amelioration of the condition of the lowest classes, by improving the closes and alleys; and that money is now said to be expended in work, no doubt in itself useful, but of a far less pressing nature. In Worcester a great battle is being fought on the question of appointing a medical officer of health. Although Worcester has been recently drained, and has got a good water supply from the Severn, its annual mortality is large. During the last three years it has been as high as twenty-seven in the thousand, and this has alarmed some of the more thoughtful and prudent of the inhabitants. In the end of the year 1866 the Sanitary Committee of Worcester appointed a sub-committee to report on the condition of the town. They report that many parts of the town, in addition to obvious abominations-such as general want of cleanliness-present nuisances, "such as overflowing privies and cesspools; imperfect drains, or an entire absence of them; houses dilapidated and rooms injurious to health for want of proper whitewashing and ventilation; which may be taken as a sample of what is always, to a greater or less extent, prevalent in the midst of the population.' same report says that, "Many dwellings are greatly overcrowded;" that "typhoid fever is endemic in Worcester, and it is clearly traceable to foul drains and privies, and the use of polluted wellwater." Amongst the evils in this fine cathedral city-although amply supplied with water from the Severn-is the use of wells for the supply of water. There are certain people in Worcester, as in London and other places, who believe that the water from wells, surrounded by drains and cesspools, and supplied by water from the leakage of these places, is better than any other water: the consequence is, they pay for their temerity with their lives. All this comes out in the report of the Sanitary Sub-Committee referred to, and they very properly recommend the appointment of a medical officer of health, whose duty it shall be to watch the health of the town, and immediately carry into effect the various sanitary laws which have for their object the saving of the lives and healths of the community. But somehow or other, the Town Council do not see their way to put down disease and death by spending money. They seem to think that doctors, and undertakers, and grave-diggers have a right to live, as well as other people. To diminish the death-rate of Worcester from twenty-seven to seventeen in the thousand (a thing easy to be done), would be to The save the lives of 400 people in the year, and 8,000 illnesses into the bargain. To be sure, that would be an enormous gain to Worcester, equal, at least, to a sum, of 10,000l. per annum, when properly calculated; but then it would not appear in the rate-books. Town councils and vestries are everywhere alike, utterly regardless of the health and lives of their fellow-creatures, but particularly anxious to keep down the rates. We are glad to report that the New Drainage at Hastings and St. Leonards has just been completed. The works have been executed by Mr. Bazalgette. The sewage is now taken out to such a distance into the sea as to render it impossible that it should ever return to the shore, and the sea will be now uncontaminated with the sewage of the town. It is to be hoped that the local authorities will take care that every house in the town is supplied with drains and a water-closet, so that all those diseases which are dependent on the retention of sewage-matters near houses may be for ever abolished. A report comes to us from Sandown, in the Isle of Wight, of a very extraordinary character. Sandown is one of those wateringplaces on our coast which are very likely to become unhealthy through the grasping economy of the tradespeople, who prey upon their visitors who come for health. Fortunately, however, for Sandown, a portion of its land became possessed by a leading barrister on the Northern Circuit, distinguished for his attainments in natural science and his practical knowledge of sanitary measures. Principally through his agency, Sandown has been thoroughly drained and supplied with an abundance of pure water. The consequence has been, that ordinary epidemics are unknown in Sandown, and the bills of the mortality in the last five years show a death-rate of only eleven in the thousand. We would call general attention to this remarkable case, as it clearly shows what may be done by ordinary sanitary activity. This is, probably, the lowest death-rate on record. Every local body in the kingdom would do well to study Sandown. It is not a rich place. It is not a place of palaces alone. It has poor and rich, and closely resembles other towns in the character of its population, but it has this peculiarity, its drainage and water supply are perfect. As an instance of how an otherwise healthy village in the country may be made to rival the largest towns in its filth, disease, and death, we may mention the village of Child's Hill, in the parish of Hendon, in Middlesex. The village has no system of drainage; to many of the houses there are privies with open cesspools, which overflow into the neighbouring ditches, which ultimately empty themselves into the Brent. The population is about 1,000. During the summer of 1860, dropping cases of typhoid fever occurred in this village, and in 1867 this disease became an epidemic, so that during the months of July and August last, the mortality of the district was equal to seventy in the 1,000 per annum. We are glad to hear that the village has now constituted itself a sewage district under the Sanitary Act of 1866, and that a vestry for the district has been appointed, and that a perfect system of drainage will be completed before the next summer. Would that parishes would be wise in time, and act before so much life and health has been destroyed. There must be many thousand villages in England suffering in the same way as Child's Hill. It cannot be too widely known that typhoid fever is the child of deficient drainage, and that it cannot arise or be propagated where this agent does not exist. Quarterly List of Publications received for Review. 1. Miscellanies: being a Collection of Memoirs and Essays on Scientific and Literary Subjects, published at various times. By Charles Daubeny, M.D., F.R.S. 2 vols. 8vo. James Parker & Co. 2. Siluria. A History of the Oldest Rocks in the British Isles and other Countries; with Sketches of the Origin and Distribution of Native Gold, the General Succession of Geological Formations, and Changes of the Earth's Surface. By Sir Roderick I. Murchison, Bart., K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S. Fourth Edition. 600 pp. 8vo. 42 Plates and 206 Woodcuts. John Murray. 3. The States of the River Plate. By Wilfred Latham. Second Edition. With a Map. Longmans & Co. 4. Practice with Science. A Series of Agricultural Papers. Vol. I. 400 pp. 8vo. Longmans & Co. 5. Handbook of the History of Philosophy. By Dr. Albert Schwegler. Translated and annotated by James Hutchinson Stirling, LL.D. 420 pp. Post 8vo. Edinburgh: Edmonstone & Douglas. 6. The Darwinian Theory of the Transmutation of Species Examined by a Graduate of the University of Cambridge. 400 pp. 8vo. Nisbet & Co. 7. Germinal Matter and the Contact Theory: an Essay on the Morbid Poisons, their Nature, Sources, Effects, Migrations, and the Means of limiting their Noxious Agency. By James. Morris, M.D. (London), Fellow of University College. Second Edition. 120 pp. Crown 8vo. John Churchill & Sons. 8. Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Melbourne Observatory, under the Direction of Robert L. J. Ellery, Government Astronomer to the Colony of Victoria, Australia. Melbourne: Blundell & Ford. 9. Report of the Secretary of War, with Accompanying Papers. Washington, U.S.A. 10. Schriften der königlichen physikalisch-cekonomischen Gesellschaft zu Königsberg (for 7 years). 4to. With numerous Illustrations on Stone, Copper, and Wood. Königsberg: Graefe & Unzer. 11. The Botany of Worcestershire, by Edwin Lees, F.L.S., F.G.S. 290 pp. 8vo. With Map. The Worcestershire Naturalist's Field Club. 12. Outlines of Physiology, Human and Comparative. By John Marshall, F.R.C.S. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 1,300 pp. With 122 Woodcuts. Longmans & Co. PAMPHLETS, PERIODICALS, &c. On the Recent Zoology and Paleontology of Victoria. By Frederick McCoy, Professor of Natural Science in the University of Melbourne. 24 pp. 8vo. 20 pp. Observations and Experiments on Living Organisms in Heated Water. By Jeffries Wyman, M.D., Harvard College. 8vo. Practical Hints to the Medical Student. By William Allen Miller, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 32 pp. 8vo. Longmans & Co. New Facts and Old Records: a Plea for Genesis. By S. R. Pattison, F.G.S. 30 pp. 8vo. Jackson, Walford, & Hodder. An Investigation of the Distance of the Sun, and of the Elements which depend upon it, from the Observation of Mars, made during the Opposition of 1862; and from other Sources. By Simon Newcomb, U.S. Navy. 30 pp. 4to. On State Medicine in Great Britain and Ireland. By Henry W. Rumsey, M.D., F.R.C.S. 58 p.p. 8vo. From the Author. On the Middle and Upper Lias of the South-West of England. By Charles Moore, F.G.S. 7 Plates. 130 pp. 8vo. From the Author. Sun-Views of the Earth, or The Seasons Illustrated. By Richard A. Proctor, B.A., F.R.A.S. 18 Coloured Plates. 4to. Longmans & Co. Note on the Surface Geology of London; with Lists of Wells and Borings, showing the Thickness of the Superficial Deposits. By Wm. Whittaker, B.A., F.G.S. 22 pp. 8vo. On the Physiological Action of the Calabar Bean. By Thos. R. Rain: How, When, Where, Why, it is Measured? London: Churchill & Sons. Liverpool: Holden. Lichenes Spitzbergenses. Determinavit Th. M. Fries.. Stockholm: Norstedt & Söhne, |