in force. In that state of things the defendants might have pulled down the front of the house. But they did not do that; they asked him to comply with the order, and said they would be satisfied if he pulled down his porticoes. He refused; and in August, 1875, the defendants sent men, who did pull down the porticoes. The question was now, could this Court interfere? Here was a magistrate's order, which should have been properly appealed from. It had not been, and was still in force. When the plaintiff found that his porticoes had been pulled down, he should not have reconstructed them. They were not pulled down without authority. The authority was not an illegal one, and he had not brought any action to question it. He had, in fact, acquiesced in it. Was the magistrate's order wrong? Certainly not. The plaintiff had clearly transgressed it. He had put his buildings beyond the line. This Court could not discharge the order. It had no jurisdiction whatever to do so. While it stood -and it still subsisted-it must be obeyed. The plaintiff had failed in establishing his right to the relief he sought in this action, and it must be dismissed with costs.

LIABILITY FOR UNTENANTABLE HOUSES.

THE Exchequer Division has had before it the case of Wilson v. Finch-Hatton, one of general interest to persons who take houses for short periods. The action was brought against the Hon. Murray Finch-Hatton, as representing his mother the Dowager Countess of Winchilsea, to recover 472/. 10s., being the agreed rent for three months, from May 7, 1875, of a furnished house, No. 43, Wilton Crescent. At the trial in March 1876, the judge left the question to the jury whether the house was in a habitable condition, by reason of the drains being out of order on May 7, when her ladyship came to the house, desiring to take possession? The jury found that it was not; thereupon, his lordship directed a verdict for the defendant, but reserved leave to the plaintiffs to move. The case was argued on May 10, last year, before Barons Bramwell and Cleasby, but a rehearing was ordered before three judges. It appeared that on looking at the house the drains in the lower part of the kitchen were in a shocking state; the drain was an old brick one of forty years standing, there was a deposit of foul matter 2 in. deep, and there was a cesspool close by, which was full of filth and alive with vermin, not having been cleared for ten years, and there was no trap. On these facts being ascertained by the lessor, repairs were done which lasted some 19 days; so that the countess could have commenced her tenancy on the 26th. But Lady Winchilsea declined to complete the bargain, and this action was brought. Mr. J. Brown argued that there was no implied warranty that the drains should be in a perfect sanitary condition. As the house was not the less habitable, the maxim Caveat emptor applied; and there was a broad distinction between cases where a man inspects the thing bargained for or hired, and the cases where he buys it on the seller's warranty. In a furnished or any other house the hirer could judge if the place was fit. The evidence went to show that more than half the houses in Wilton Crescent were in the same condition. More than half the houses in London said the learned counsel, nay, in England, 50 years ago, smelt a great deal worse than this house; and half the common people in this country live in houses which smelt quite as bad, and would say that this was a great deal too good for them. A vast number of cases were cited, most of them relating in some way to real property. Smith v. Marrable, the case of a house infested by bugs, was commented on; and Mr. Brown endeavoured to distinguish it from the present by saying Baron Parke overruled his own judgment therein a year afterwards, and the objection there lay to the furniture and not to the premises themselves as here. Lastly, there was at best only a covenant to repair and keep in good order, which the plaintiff had kept, and there could be no condition precedent warranting the defendant in rescinding the contract. The Court delivered an unanimous judgment in favour of

the defendant. Their Lordships held that there was a condition precedent implied that a house so let for immediate occupation should be reasonably fit for such occupa tion. This condition had wholly failed, and the defendant, had he entered, would not really have got what he had bargained for, and what was clearly the intention of the parties should be given and paid for. The cases of real property did not apply, as no estate was created from which rent could be said to issue. The sum agreed to be paid here was for the accommodation for the three months. Smith v. Marrable had been somewhat hardly treated, having been often questioned and commented on, but never overruled by a single judge. Lord Abinger's judgment still remained untouched and fortified by his subsequent decisions. Lord Wensleydale had retracted his judgment, because he felt it was wrongly founded and would tend to subvert the principles of real property. It was said that this was not a condition precedent, but merely a breach of covenant not going to the whole consideration, and that it was her ladyship's duty to go to an hotel and incur expense till the house was ready to receive her, and then bring an action for these damages. This view was erroneous, and involved in the first question-namely, that the contract was for use and occupation of a reasonably comfortable house. In these circumstances the ruling of the late learned judge at the trial was correct, the defendant was not compellable to enter, and the judgment would be for the defendant, with costs.

Reviews.

Forms of Bills by Dr. Angus Mackintosh for the Protection of Public Health. J. BARKER, Chesterfield.

A Placard issued in Macclesfield by Dr. Bland as to the Prevention of Infectious Diseases.

DR. ANGUS MACKINTOSH'S forms on the subject of water-supply, prevention of fever, scarlet-fever, and smallpox will be found useful by those who desire to have such notices in one collection. The sanitary precautions published in the Times and SANITARY RECORD in 1875 are also useful, as they give, under the headings 'atmosphere,' 'water-supply, house accommodation,' pigsties,' etc., information as to the requirements necessary for health. Suggestions as to the selections of sites for burial-grounds are also inserted in the pamphlet. Dr. Bland's poster contains nothing new, but is concise.

The Law relating to the Pollution and Obstruction of WaterCourses. By C. HIGGINS, Barrister-at-Law. Stephens and Haynes.

It is not often that lawyers are fortunate enough to have provided for their use books on technical branches of law, written by authors who are not only lawyers, but at the same time experts in the matters of which they treat. The present work, being by a gentleman who is an exdemonstrator of chemistry at King's College, furnishes a good illustration of the advantages of having to rely upon an author who is qualified by training to write in two capacities, and his book will be certain to become the standard text-book on the law respecting the pollution of running streams. Mr. Higgins divides his treatise into two parts.

Part I. is headed The Rivers Pollution Act, 1876,' and the respective chapters deal with the following matters - What constitutes an offence under the Act,' 'Solid Matter,''Sewage Pollutions,' 'Manufacturing Pollutions,' 'Mining Pollutions,' 'The Institution of Proceedings,' and 'Facilities for Factories draining into Sewers.' Part II. is headed 'Riparian Rights and their Protection." The chapters treat of 'Riparian Rights arising ex-jure natura,' Riparian Rights arising by way of Easements and by Cus tom,'The Protection of Riparian Rights by Injunction,' and Actions for Damages for Infringements of Riparian Rights.' An appendix contains some statutory provisions

relating to water-courses and the vesting of sewers, etc. Our readers will not wish us to comment at any length on Mr. Higgins's book for the simple reason that naturally it owes its immediate origin to the Rivers Pollution Act, the features of which we discussed in several articles at the time when the Act was before Parliament as a bill. We will, therefore, only state that Mr. Higgins has woven together the material supplied by the statutes and cases with great skill and care, and his book is calculated to be very useful to all parties concerned in questions involving the pollution of streams. The chapters in which he brings to bear on the prohibitions provided by law, his chemical knowledge and experience constitute an important feature of the book. He might even have gone more fully into this branch of the subject without running any risk of laying himself open to the charge of obtruding too much technical matter.

Unfortunately, however, this conception is very far from being realised.

In the first place, owing to the circumstance that narrow passages offer more resistance to the flow of air than wide passages offer, the thermometer would be encircled with air which had traversed channels rather than capillary spaces; and, in the second place, owing to the uneven distribution of moisture and to pressure, the horsehair would be, in many places, matted together, and in that manner the contagium would be much more effectually protected than if it were in the centre of isolated hairs.

From the language used by Dr. Kansom it might possibly be imagined that the question between us is, whether the temperature to which the bedding was raised wassay, 249° or 250° Fahr. My contention is, on the contrary, that the evidence adduced by Dr. Ransom does not prove that considerable portions of the bedding had been raised more than a few degrees above the common temperature of the atmosphere outside of the chamber. J. ALFRED WANKLYN.

COMMITTEES OF GUARDIANS.

(To the Editor of the SANITARY RECORD.) SIR,-Will you kindly inform me whether all the elected guardians of a union together with one-third of exofficio guardians can constitute a committee in conformity with section 201 of the Public Health Act of 1875?

ENQUIRER. [Apparently the proposal to which our correspondent has directed our attention is quite legal.]

Sanitary Inventions.

The tongue dips into the water about 1 ft. 3in. The bottom is formed of a stone slab, and upon these the walls are raised, brick on bed, the whole being closed at top with another stone. The inlet pipe being the lower of the two, the foul water will lie a considerable distance along the drain on the house side, unless prevented by leaking joints. All this was to prevent the bad smell!

Further comment is unnecessary, more especially as I expect the foolish affair will be done away with by the time this is in type. W. P. BUCHAN.

Glasgow, April 14, 1877.

THE CONSERVATION OF DISEASE.

(To the Editor of the SANITARY RECORD.) SIR,-From Dr. Ransom's letter it would appear that he now perceives that the temperature registered by the thermometer in his experiments was not the temperature of the substance of the horsehair, but the temperature of the atmosphere surrounding the bulb of the instrument; and his conception of the condition of things seems to be that the contagium was sitting on the surface of the individual horsehairs, and that the heated air encircled each individual horsehair, and therefore came into direct relation with all the particles of contagium.

sirable luxury in the sick room. It is manufactured by the Invalid Patent Bed Company, Limited, Angler's Lane, Kentish Town, N. W.

THE CABINET TURKISH BATH.

ON March 25, 1876, we mentioned an instance of how gas was made use of in preparing a portable Turkish bath, and we have now the pleasure of calling the attention of our readers to a bath of this description, which can be prepared by the simple aid of a Duplex heating lampspecially adapted for the purpose. This bath is also portable and is indeed an agreeable piece of household furniture when not in use, and, when in use, it not only takes up little room, but is made with an adjustable seat, and foot rest, so that the bath can be adapted to persons of any age. For the rest it is mounted on castors, is easily moved about, and is an excellent and useful adjunct to the bathroom, dressing-room, or even bedroom.

In making use of these portable Turkish baths it is necessary to keep the head outside, by which course of procedure the heat or vapour is distributed without the slightest inconvenience to respiration, and the peculiar stifling feeling and headache produced by the ordinary close-room Turkish bath is avoided. We do not require

APPOINTMENTS OF HEALTH OFFICERS, INSPECTORS OF NUISANCES, ETC.

DOWELL, Mr. Thomas, has been appointed Collector to the Stroud Local Board and Urban Sanitary Authority, vice Webb, deceased. HABBISHAW, Atkinson, Esq., has been appointed Treasurer to the Newcastle-under-Lyme Guardians and Rural Sanitary Authority, vice Gemmell, resigned.

HANNAN, Francis J., M.D., has been appointed medical officer of health for the No. 2 Sub-District of the Alderbury Rural Sanitary District, Wilts.

HOLMES, Mr. Joseph, has been appointed Surveyor and Inspector of Nuisances to the Selby Local Board and Urban Sanitary Authority, vice Broughton, appointed Surveyor to the Corporation and Urban Sanitary Authority of Warwick.

DE NORMANVILLE, W., C.É., has been appointed Surveyor to the Corporation and Urban Sanitary Authority of Durham, vice Brunton, resigned.

SWORN, Mr. Robert, has been elected a Member of the Board of the Bournemouth Improvement Commissioners, vice Tuck, resigned.

YOUNG, Mr. John Gudgeon, has been appointed Clerk to the Newbold and Dunston Local Board and Urban Sanitary Authority, Derbyshire, vice Williams, resigned.

ST. MATTHEW, Bethnal Green. Surveyor: 150l. per annum. Voss, Vestry Clerk.

Surveyor: 400l. per ann. Assistant
Applications, 17th instant, to Robert

ST. NEOTS URBAN SANITARY DISTRICT. Huntingdonshire. Inspector of Nuisances: 50l. for one year. Application, 29th instant, to C. R. Wade Gery, Clerk to the Authority.

ASTON URBAN SANITARY DISTRICT, Warwickshire. Inspector of Nuisances: 150l. per ann.

FEATHERSTONE LOCAL BOARD AND URBAN SANITARY AUTHORITY,

Yorkshire. Surveyor and Inspector of Nuisances: 120 per ann. Application, 16th instant, to Isaac Kabery, Clerk, Pontefract. HEBDEN-BRIDGE URBAN SANITARY DISTRICT, AND TODMORDEN RURAL SANITARY DISTRICT. Medical Officer of Health. Inspector of Nuisances. Application 17th instant, to J. E. Craven, Clerk to the Hebden Bridge Urban Sanitary Authority. HOVE, Sussex. Town Clerk; 300l. to 500l. per ann. Application, 16th instant, to Charles A. Woolley, Town Clerk. LEWISHAM BOARD OF WORKS. Assistant Surveyor: salary not exceeding 250l. per annum. Application, 12th instant, to Samuel Edwards, Clerk, Catford.

WESTHAMPNETT RURAL SANITARY DISTRICT, Sussex. Medical
Officer of Health: 100/. for one year. Application, 11th instant,
to R. G. Raper, Clerk to the Authority, Chichester.
WOODSTOCK RURAL SANITARY DISTRICT, Oxfordshire. Inspector

of Nuisances: 80l. per ann. Application, 12th instant, to
R. B. B. Hawkins, Clerk to the Authority.

A

in these days to point out the many advantages of vapour baths, or how useful they are in eliminating effete matter from the system without in the least debilitating it. bath of this description, for a moderate length of time, and a shower or spray bath afterwards, constitutes in the opinion of nearly all medical men, one of the most exhilarating and bracing habits of life, and this combination is as great a luxury as it is a source of health.

To those who desire to see this, the latest contribution to sanitary practice in mansions, hotels, schools, or even vessels at sea, we advise a visit to the patentees Messrs. Ellis and Co. Hart Street, Bloomsbury, London.

SANITARY PATENTS.

835. Improvements in the treatment of sewage and other polluted waters and their deposits, and apparatus therefor. Gustave Alsing, Bradford, Yorkshire.

1022. An improved liquid composition to be used for embalming, deodorising, and disinfecting purposes. George Gould, Linfield, Sussex.-A communication from John Welsford Drake, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

ABSTRACT OF SPECIFICATION. 2629. Infants' feeding bottles. E. Collins.

This invention consists of the improvements in manufacturing infants' feeding bottles hereinafter described, and which are made more economically and durable than hitherto. The inventor thus describes his invention: In shape it is conical, and made of tin or other metal, tin preferred; at its upper part or aperture is screwed a ring, and this is screwed either interiorly or exteriorly, and upon gr into this is fed a metallic stopper, the india-rubber tube that is ordinarily used passing through the centre, or he may employ a stopper made of wood or cork at its base, with an india-rubber washer upon the check or seat, for additional security; in this case the screw may be dispensed with. By these means he constructs a feeding bottle that is durable, light, economical, and from its shape readily cleansed.

NOTICE.

THE SANITARY RECORD will in future be published every Friday morning, and may be ordered direct from the Pub lishers. Annual Subscription, 175. 4d.; free by post, 195. 6. Reading Covers to hold 12 numbers of THE SANITARY RECORD have been prepared, and may be had direct from the Publishers or through any Bookseller, price 3s.

Original Papers.

OPEN SPACES.

AN ADDRESS,

Delivered before the National Health Society,

Wednesday, May 9,

BY OCTAVIA HILL.

ALL that is strictly practical that I have to say to-day could be summed up in a very few words. I have no changes in the law to suggest. I have not thought it well to relate the past history of enclosures, nor even to prepare for you statistics, neither have I touched on recent legislation respecting commons. I have had but one end in view in writing this paper-the laying out and opening small central spaces as public gardens.

I have to interest you in accomplishing the object. 'There is little to see, and little to say; it is only to do it,' as was once said by a hard worker. I cannot transport you all to see the good sample-work which there is in some few neighbourhoods in London. I can, therefore, only ask you to let me describe in some detail the need of these gardens, then what has been, and what, it seems to me, should be done, with various kinds of small spaces. This paper contains this description and information, as to the very simple preliminary steps necessary to be taken to render some of these spaces available for public use; but though so much of it is thus necessarily descriptive, it is only on the ground of its bearing on distinct practical results that I trouble you with it.

There are two great wants in the life of the poor of our large towns, which ought to be realised more than they are the want of space, and the want of beauty. It is true that we have begun to see that a whole family living in one room is very crowded, and we have been for some years well aware that it would be a good thing if we could manage so to build that a working man could pay for two, or even three rooms; it is true that we have learned that the extreme narrowness of our courts and alleys, and the tiny spaces, often only four or five feet square, called by courtesy 'yards,' which are to be found at the back of many of the houses filled with families of the poor, appear to us insufficient. We wish we could enlarge them, we wish that Building Acts had prevented landlords thus covering with rent-producing rooms the gardens or larger yards which once existed at the back of high houses, and we are alive to the duty of trying to obviate, so soon as may be, this want of space, to any degree to which it may yet be possible. But there is a way in which some compensation for this evil may be provided, which appears only to have begun lately to dawn upon the perception of men. I mean the provision of small open spaces, planted and made pretty, quite near the homes of the people, which might be used by them in common as sitting-rooms in summer. Even in England there are a good many days when at some hours sitting out of doors is refreshing, and when very hot days do come, it seems almost a necessity.

I fancy very few of you know what a narrow court near Drury Lane or Clerkenwell is on a sultry August evening. The stifling heat, the dust lying thick everywhere, the smell of everything in the dirty rooms, the baking, dry glare of the sun on the west window of the low attic, just under the roof,

The

making it seem intolerable-like an oven. father of the family which lives there, you may be pretty sure, is round the corner at the public-house, trying to quench his thirst with liquor which only increases it; the mother is either lolling out of the window screaming to the fighting women below, in the court, or sitting, dirty and dishevelled, her elbow on her knee, her chin on her hand, on the dusty, low, door-step, side by side with a drunken woman who comments with foul oaths on all who pass. The children, how they swarm! The ground seems alive with them, from the neglected youngest crawling on the hot stones, clawing among the shavings, and potato-peelings, and cabbage-leaves strewn about, to the big boy and girl 'larking' in vulgarest play by the corner. The sun does not penetrate with any purifying beams to the lower stories of the houses, but beats on their roofs, heating them like ovens. The close staircase is sultry, the dust-bins reek, the drains smell, all the dirty bedding smells, the people's clothes smell. The wild cries of the thirsty, heated, irritated crowd driven to drink, the quarrelling children's voices echo under the low and narrow archway by which you enter the court. Everyone seems in everyone else's way. You begin to wonder whether a human being, man, woman, or child is in very deed, in any sense precious, either to God who made them, or to their own family, or to their fellowcitizens. Somehow you wonder whether when one of them is carried out by the undertaker at last, to use a common old saying,' His room is not worth more than his company,' so fearful is the life to which people take under such conditions, so terribly does the need of a little more space strike you, so impossible seems any quiet in which tone might be recovered by these exhausted creatures. And yet every one of those living beings, crowding almost under your feet, having to move from doorway or stair as you enter, has a human form, a human character, too; somebody knows and loves him, some mother, father, sister, brother, child, watches for that face among the many, and would feel a great gap left in the world if that one came never any more up the court. Even the reeling drunkard would be missed. Each is surrounded by a love which makes him precious, each has also some germ and gleam of good in him, something you can touch, or lead, or strengthen, by which in time he might become the man he was meant to be. Each is a child of God, meant by him for some good thing. Put him in a new colony with wood, or heath, or prairie round him, or even lead him into the quiet of your own study, and you will begin to see what is in the man. It is this dreadful crowding of him with hundreds more, this hustling, jostling, restless, struggling, noisy, tearing existence, which makes him seem to himself or you so useless, which makes him be so little what he might be. Can you give him a little pause, a little more room, especially this sultry summer afternoon?

I think you may. There are, all over London, little spots unbuilt over, still strangely preserved among this sea of houses-our grave-yards. They are capable of being made into beautiful out-door sitting rooms. They should be planted with trees' creepers should be trained up their walls, seats should be placed in them, fountains might be fixed there, the brightest flowers set there, possibly in some cases birds in cages might be kept to delight the children. To these the neighbouring poor should be admitted free, under whatever regulations should seem best.