of the digestive organs, and, finally, to diarrhoea and dysentery, all diseases of disordered nutrition. Now, 102 of these, or more than half, died before they reached six months old. As a rule, infants of this age are not consumers of water, unless boiled with their food; nor are they carried off by zymotic diseases, such as typhoid, diphtheria, or other fevers, the result of bad drainage. In the summer and autumn months some die from diarrhoea, which is almost everywhere more or less prevalent at those seasons. But even these are not numerous, and the mortality from summer diarrhoea has greatly declined of late years, whilst the deaths from typhoid fever and diphtheria have been reduced to a minimum. Again, children under six months old are not much exposed to cold, and, consequently, only nineteen of this age are set down as dying from any disease of the lungs, or other organs of respiration. If, then, we cannot accuse the water or the drainage, or cold, of having had much to do with these results, what else is there in the realm of sanitary measures? Possibly the condition of the dwelling-houses and of their surroundings. On reference to the table to which I have referred, we find that many dwellings are set down as good, fairly good, and fair; whilst others are classed as indifferent. A certain number, doubtless, are old and tuinble-down places. Some of them, which I have called dilapidated, must be taken as still fit, when kept clean, for human habitation, because they are water-tight, and have no nuisances around them; others, again, are scarcely fit to remain as the abodes of human beings, and ought to be swept away. In the seven first-named streets, 68 deaths under five took place. Every one of these streets have a good supply of water and drainage, but in each case the houses are old and small, or crowded in dark courts behind the main streets. No dirt or accumulation of rubbish is long allowed to remain in these localities, and they receive the largest share of the inspector's attention. Most of the privies, formerly so numerous in the courts, have been removed, and water-closets substituted for them, so that the sanitary surroundings of these old dwellings are not so much to be blamed as the houses themselves. In the next ten or eleven named streets there are several which are in no way amenable to the charge of containing old dilapidated dwellings, or close, confined, air. Indeed, some of them are new, and to the eye look everything that can be desired. I may name Lansdown Street and Sandy's Road at Barbourne, and Chestnut Street, as new localities; and the London Road and Upper Henwick Road, as open and airy situations. Yet in none of these do we find less than five deaths of infants. Thus, a bad condition of the dwellings, which in some parts must have a certain effect in determining the ill-health which leads to this infantile mortality, is totally absent in others where an almost equal number of deaths took place. The sanitary surroundings, so bad in the first six or seven named streets, are set down as good in many of the succeeding ten or eleven, and this, be it remembered, from knowledge derived from personal inspection. We come, lastly, to the so-called zymotic diseases, which sometimes cause much havoc amongst young children. Although scarlet fever, measles, and whooping-cough, were prevalent during the year 1878, there were only forty-seven deaths from all these causes, ten only of which were of infants under one year. These deaths were not confined to any one locality, but prevailed pretty evenly over each of the sub-districts. As they arise mostly from infection, we may safely set down as the great cause of their dissemination the reckless way in which children are allowed to congregate in groups whilst infection is amongst them. The outcome of this enquiry, then, amounts to this: That whilst situation as to damp, crowded, or dilapidated streets or houses has a certain yet undefined effect in causing the deaths of infants; whilst exposure to cold and insufficient clothing account for a few more; whilst contagious diseases, which have prevailed epidemically of late, carry off some others; the great bulk of the deaths are inexplicable from any of these causes, or all of them combined. Now, what becomes of the dictum with regard to infantile mortality to which I alluded in the beginning of this paper? If all the sanitary surroundings are nearly the same throughout the city, if all have free access to good water, drainage, and scavenging, how can we blame the external sanitary conditions? Granting that in the poorer houses, and in the most crowded parts of the city, the greatest relative number of deaths took place, we have seen that they were scarcely less numerous in the airy situations or in houses with which no fault could be found! Again, if few children of the wealthier classes died, still the deaths amongst the very poor, living in the worst localities, were exceeded proportionately by those of artizans earning good wages, and living, many of them, in model cottages. I think, then, that I am justified in asserting that, as regards Worcester, and, I conclude, other towns of a similar character, the dictum, that the proportion of the deaths of infants under one year of age to every 1,000 births is a true test of the sanitary condition of any town or neighbourhood, is not true.* The only remaining circumstances which we can conceive of as materially conducing to this lamentable waste of infant life, are those arising out of the Ignorance, Neglect, or Poverty of the parents. It may appear harsh to the poorer classes to make this statement, but I am convinced of its substantial truth. Ignorance is exhibited in the faulty mode of feeding young children, so prevalent amongst all except the educated classes. A larger number of all the deaths arise from this cause than from all the others put together. With regard to exposure to cold, poverty on the one hand, and vanity on the other, are accountable for most of the seventy-five deaths from this cause. But if we call to mind the great number of deaths amongst the children of artizans, poverty is excluded, whilst ignorance and neglect remain. Now, neglect may be of two kinds, the neglect that arises from ignorance, or that which arises from vice-criminal neglect. In the case of artizans earning good wages, and whose wives remain at home, neglect must be involuntary, from ignorance; in the case of illegitimate children, mostly put out to nurse, I fear the vicious or criminal element sometimes comes in. Here are a few actual specimen cases illustrating the above. Ist. Feeding. An illegitimate child, out at nurse, dies at three months old. Asked what the child was fed upon, in the absence of the mother's milk, the My observation of the working classes, both urban and rural, convinces me that the children of the artizans in towns are infinitely worse fed and managed than those of the rural poor. The artizan generally marries a girl who has worked in factories, or in some employment other than domestic service; and the result is that the young wife is generally about as well taught in all that relates to the management of an infant as the infant itself! Very often, too, she continues the factory labour after marriage which she pursued before. The with their superiors, in all the arts of domestic life. women of the agricultural class are much better informed, by mixing woman replies, 'Oatmeal, Sir!' 'Oatmeal for a child of three months?' 'Yes; is it not considered strengthening?' I need not say that the infant died starved to death. Life insured. 2nd. Neglect from Poverty.-A number of children huddled together by the fire in a wretched cottage, the baby lying on a heap of rags which do not appear ever to have been washed, and upon which another child has recently died of diarrhea! Mother out all day at work to earn a pittance for these truly destitute infants. 3rd. Neglect from Ignorance and Vanity.-It is not uncommon to see the children, even of well-to-do artizans, left at home to take care of each other, the mother and even the eldest daughter, perhaps, being out at work at a factory or shop in order to increase the family income. Some of these earnings go to procure gaudy dresses for the wife and daughters, whilst the infants' arms and legs are bare! 4th. Neglect of Medical Aid.-Certain diseases require immediate medical aid. Amongst such are summer diarrhoea and disorders of the lungs. It is notorious that instead of seeking speedy help in this respect, the case is too often allowed to run on to an approaching fatal termination before medical aid is called in. This is the more inexcusable, as, by means of the Provident Dispensaries, good medical aid can always be had, and there are the Union Officers for the very poor. I must also allude to the questionable habit of insuring the lives, as it is called, of young infants, so as to provide a sum, often much larger than is required, to pay the costs of their burial. This insurance of the lives of infants has been called insurance of their deaths; but I have not data sufficient to pursue this part of the subject. Such, in my opinion, being the causes of our excessive infantile mortality. what remedy or remedies can be suggested for this lamentable social condition? An elaborate system of visiting and inspecting the abodes of the poorer classes has been adopted of late years, and infectious disorders are fairly well hunted up, and, in some cases, have been cut short by prompt isolation. Nevertheless, the fact remains that the infantile mortality of the city is always excessive, and that after making all allowances for bad dwellings and crowded streets, and for a certain amount of poverty, there remains a large proportion of deaths which cannot be accounted for by any shortcomings in those respects. If I am right in stating that Ignorance--ignorance of the right method of feeding infants and young children; their neglect by some of the mothers through poverty, or vice; the foolish notions as to children's dress arising from female vanity; the reckless exposure to cold attendant upon the gratification of that vanity; and, on the other hand, the confinement of infants on a heap of dirty rags in close rooms whilst the mothers or elder children are at work-are really accountable for the greater part of this mortality, which is so much to be deplored, what remains to be done? of the educated classes to instruct the uneducated in the first principles of the laws of health, and in the management of infants and their food. We want, especially, the ladies in each parish to take a more active interest in the condition of their poorer neighbours. The District Visitors in each parish could render much aid. The friendly visits of matrons will not be resented by the poor when they find that advice and not dictation is tendered. Postscript.-With regard to Worcester, I am happy to be able to add to my paper, which otherwise would have ended here, that, in accordance with the advice I gave, an 'Auxiliary Health Society' has been formed, principally by the aid of the parochial clergy and their district visitors. I am pleased to record that the ladies came forward most readily, and, after receiving some instruction in the broad principles of household sanitation for themselves, they have disseminated this information amongst their poorer neighbours, both orally and by means of tracts published by the National Health Society of London. The Mayor has kindly patronised the young society, and the General Health Committee of the Town Council lend it their assistance. The society began operations in July last; some eight or nine lectures were given by myself to the poorer inhabitants in each of the parish school-rooms, which were well attended and listended to. As a result, at least in part, of our operations, I am to-day able to announce that the deaths of children under five years of age which, in 1878 amounted to 350, and in 1879 to 235, were reduced in the year ending this day, that is, the latter half of 1879 and the first half of 1880, to 210, or no less than 144 under the deaths in the fatal year of 1878 !* A discussion on Dr. Strange's paper then ensued. Dr. Fenton concurred with Dr. Strange that improper feeding was a fruitful cause of death, and, with reference to mothers leaving their children at home and going to work, instanced the fact that at Coventry, still, and mothers who had been accustomed to work in during one year when the ribbon trade was at a standfactories stayed at home, the death-rate from infantile diarrhoea fell from 10 per cent. to 1 per cent. (See SANITARY RECORD, March 15, 1880.) The voluntary efforts of Dr. Strange were very creditable to him, and of education. He hoped it would result in the estabhad borne good fruit, which no doubt was the result lishment of Health Societies in other places. Dr. Wilson said that Dr. Strange had conclusively proved that the excessive infantile mortality did not depend upon insanitary conditions connected with the town, as regarded either drainage, soil, or water supply; and that the excessive infantile mortality depended, in a far greater measure, upon the gross negligence and ignorance of parents than upon any other single cause. Dr. Strange had adopted the best means of combating this by instituting the Auxiliary Health Society, and he congratulated him upon the apparent good results. No doubt, frequent and searching visits by the Dr. Swete strongly condemned the erection of sanitary officers should be made to see that the houses-usually of the class tenanted by artizansinterior of the dwellings are kept in a wholesome upon rubbish heaps, and suggested that infants were state. For this purpose, I am continually endeavour-seriously affected by the poisonous gases rising ing to enforce whitewashing, and other cleansing, by the inhabitants themselves, instead of leaving it to the disposition of the landlord, or his agents. Overcrowding, also, must be strictly forbidden, whether in private houses or in common lodging-houses. But more than this is required. We want the aid *Last half of 1879 First half of 1880 95 deaths. 115 deaths. 210 No. of births in 1879, 1216. The rate of deaths under 1 year to 1000 births in first half of 1880 = 128. through the floors, which infants, being in a cradle or cot, close to the floor, would necessarily inhale. He observed that there was such a site on the Arboretum, which was being filled up with every possible abomination, and would, he expected, be shortly used for housebuilding. He also condemned the horribly dirty wall-papers which he saw in some houses, which being of a common sort were highly absorbent, and might be another factor in causing the deaths of infants in houses where the mothers worked at home with the windows closed and there was very little ventilation. Colouring or whitewash was preferable. He quite agreed with Dr. Strange as to improper feeding, but urged that he ought not to overlook the position of the houses as to soil, and he contended that all plans amongst children of the poor. But he had met with a great deal amongst children of the well-to-do. In conclusion, Dr. Strange observed that, to advance sanitation, they must induce the people to learn how to manage their homes and their children as they ought to do. A vote of thanks was accorded to Dr. Strange for his paper, and for his hospitality, he having previously entertained the members, on the occasion of this their first migration from Birmingham, where the meetings have hitherto been held. THE of houses should be submitted to the Medical Officer SANITARY RECORD. of Health in order that he might control the sanitary arrangements. Dr. Bond had a strong impression that no small amount of the large mortality of infants from diarrhoea was due to the baneful influence of feeding-bottles, fermentation going on in them so much more rapidly as the temperature rose, and the food in that condition affecting injuriously the digestive organs. Infants should be fed more on milk, and if care was taken to prevent fermentation, and to give it fresh and at proper times, the infantile mortality might be reduced to a large extent. Mr. May said he could not fail to come to the conclusion that this was a social rather than a sanitary question. Dr. Strange had been the connecting link between the outside philanthropic individuals and the Sanitary Authority, and in doing so he had honoured and dignified his position as Medical Officer of Health. He reminded Dr. Bond it was found that at Leicester diarrhoea was as prevalent among the breast-fed children as among those who were fed from the bottle. Dr. Haynes suggested whether the infantile mortality was not to some extent connected with the amount of wages earned. In times of prosperity, when high wages were earned, many parents indulged in drink and neglected their children, whereas when wages were low the parents were at home more and neglected their children less. Dr. Haynes also hinted that contagious diseases in certain classes of the people might affect the death-rate. Dr. Strange, in the course of his reply, said he thought there should be a public crèche in Worcester. He pointed out that in the country the infantile death rate was much lower than in the city, and this was partly accounted for by the fact that while in the country girls and young women were accustomed to the bringing up of children, in Worcester, many young women employed in factories, when married, knew as much about the management of a baby as a baby itself. The Town Council, he explained, had recently passed a by-law to prevent houses being built on such a foundation as Dr. Swete had described. He contended that all sanitary arrangements connected with new houses should be submitted to the Medical Officer of Health, and he (Dr. Strange) had made it a rule that no house should have an opening from the sewer within the house itself, but that the kitchen sink should discharge outside the building. With regard to Worcester, there was not the slightest difficulty in the authorities adopting such arrangements as were brought under their notice. He quite agreed with a previous speaker in condemning feeding-bottles. With regard to congenital syphilis-which had been referred tohis experience was that there were very few cases IT has been remarked of late that the custom of leaving England for a summer holiday is not as general as it used to be. Unfortunate instances have occurred when one's friends have found the Continental hotels and watering-places are not in any way more healthy than our own; money matters may also have had a tendency in the same direction, and people have taken more to remaining in England; they have enjoyed their holiday, and have become better acquainted with their own country than they were before. Driving tours have become far more popular than they used to be. The prohibitory prices paid at hotels (prices usually grounded more upon what the travellers are willing to pay than on the cost of the article provided), and the deterioration of roads since the abolition of turnpikes, act rather against one's enjoyment; still, when these can be put up with, this way of seeing the country, and of enjoying a probably. well-earned holiday, is most useful and enjoyable. Cornwall is a county which is little known in this respect: it lies far away. Most people have heard that it is a 'mining county', and assimilated it in their minds with our 'black country'. There can be no greater mistake; and if any hard-worked individual can afford the time and the money, there can be no more delightful a trip than to leave Plymouth, driving, and to visit Falmouth, the Lizard, the Land's End, and up the West Coast, through St.. Columb, Tintagel, Boscastle, and Bude, to North Devon, and there ending with Lynton and Lynmouth.. The air of Cornwall is particularly fine and in-vigorating, the valleys in some places are beautifully wooded, and often spanned by those extraordinary fairy-like wooden railway viaducts, which seem peculiar to that county and to South Devon; but as a rule the country is high and open, and the fine fresh air can blow freely from the Atlantic across to the English F Channel. Some of the views from the high grounds, on account of the extent looked over, are particularly striking. The coast scenery is now tolerably well known. The roads are good, perhaps the best in England. The hotels are, if anything, rather less expensive than in other favourite resorts. We need not particularise places, but it would be difficult to forget or to describe the feeling when gazing over the bay from one's window at the Falmouth Hotel, or when lying on the grass at the top of King Arthur's Castle, and looking for miles over the Atlantic. For those who do not drive, we may mention that the railway and coaches will take the traveller to almost every place worthy of a visit. WATER-SUPPLY TO LARGE COM- THE Registrar-General's weekly return of the deaths The reason why these two towns should have so high a death-rate is becoming a subject of such vast importance that every scrap of reliable information which will tend to throw light upon it is well deserv ing of attention. Liverpool possesses natural advantages, as regards health, over most large towns; and the reason why it stands in such an unenviable position offers a fair field for sanitary investigation; more especially as the percentage of deaths amongst infants show but too unmistakably the defective nature of its sanitary arrangements. Few towns in England are so well situated for the carrying out economically all that is necessary for the health of the inhabitants and the encouragement of trade. An ample supply of unobjectionable and perfectly wholesome water can be obtained, without limit, from properly constructed deep wells, for all domestic uses; surface water in abundance is at command for manufacturing purposes; and salt water from the river Mersey can be had for the mere cost of plant and pumping. Yet, Water Committee are not satisfied, but are now prewith all these advantages, we see that the Liverpool Before concluding, we must, however, point out to the various Local Authorities that, as a rule, Cornwall is behindhand in sanitary matters. We regret to say that, generally, the streets in towns are dirty; after market days their condition is particularly bad. Some water turned on, and a few men paid as scavengers, would greatly improve matters. In one of the small fishing villages near Penzance, through which our fate took us on a Sunday afternoon, the smells were simply abominable. Even in newly-built hotels there seems to be a total ignorance as to the use of traps, ventilating pipes, and of soil pipes brought up to above the roof; bath-rooms and water-paring to carry out a scheme for drawing water from closets are placed in suspicious proximity, and in one instance there was a decided smell in those places, which most plainly said 'drains'. All this is bad enough, but our cup was full to overflowing when we found, in one of the largest and most important towns, in two of the principal hotels in the place, the water-closets were lighted from and ventilated into the passage! As to where the soil-pipes went, we did not stay to enquire. We know that it will be said that there are old-established and oldfashioned houses, and that 'no bad effects, etc., etc.'; with all this we have nothing to do; we have only to repeat that this is a disgraceful state of things to be allowed to exist in 1880, and that the Sanitary Authorities should lose no time in having it remedied. Local Boards have lately moved in the matter of having the sanitary arrangements of hotels and lodging-houses placed under medical and professional inspection, but some members of these Boards look upon this course as an infringement of the liberty of the subject. It is almost useless to urge the Local Government Board to move in the matter; but we cannot help thinking that our medical men in London and in towns might do good in this matter. Before recommending their patients and friends to any of our numerous winter or summer places of resort, let them write and enquire from the medical authority of the place whether the sanitary arrangements of the place are good, and more especially whether in the hotels and lodging-houses these matters are under professional supervision. If this was only more done than it is at present, we have little doubt that matters might be safely left to right themselves. a Welsh river (the Vyrnwy) some sixty miles distant, at a cost far in excess of what would be required to make Liverpool a model city as regards water-supplies sanitary purposes, the reconstruction of its defective and their distribution for all domestic, trade, and sewers, and the sweeping away of much of the cottage property which now stands upon ground sodden by leakages from defective sewers. We have yet much to learn on the subject of watersupply, and its free use without wanton waste. A 76, is worth attention. letter which we publish, with illustrations, at page If the class of inhabitants to which it refers, who were supposed to use or waste from twenty to thirty gallons a head per day, cannot, when brought to an accurate test, be induced to use of water is not to be laid to their charge. more than two-and-a-half gallons, it proves that waste We shall be glad to publish letters on this subject from those who, from long experience and from practical knowledge, can give reliable information. NOTES OF THE MONTH. VENTILATION OF THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY. The state of the Metropolitan underground railway, as regards its unventilated condition, has been several times deplored in our columns, and we have also mentioned an instance where some amelioration of the evil was attempted by the engineer of the company. But the true remedy has not even yet been discovered, and we are not surprised that the attention of the President of the Board of Trade has been called to the matter by Sir Trevor Lawrence in the House of Commons. The reply which he received was, however, far from satisfactory, as it was to the effect that the attention of the Department had not been specially directed to the matter; had no authority to deal with it; had no responsibility in regard to it, and moreover no funds to carry out any examination. This is, no doubt, the fact, but it is a sad fact nevertheless, and carries disgrace with it. Apparently, not until some person is taken out dead from a carriage, which the foul air has filled long enough to bring about that result, and until the authorities belonging to the railway are arraigned on a charge of manslaughter, will the question of responsibility be settled, or effective steps taken to remedy the evil. Mr. Greenwood, of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, writes to a contemporary, that it would be comparatively an easy matter to properly ventilate even the worst portion of the present railway, namely, between Baker Street and Gower Street, and that some pressure should be brought to bear on the railway company in order to enforce improvements. We would suggest that a penny subscription be raised, payable at the shop of some sympathetic tradesman in the vicinity of each station, with a view of defending the first action at law. Mr. Greenwood can certify, he says, from professional experience that the atmosphere in the tunnel is poisonous; and this being the case, very well corroborated by others for years past, surely it would be a simple matter to commence litigation, and so test the law. Something remedial must be done at once, for it is a positive disgrace to allow things to remain as they are. We are not blind to the fact, that it is the frequent passing and re-passing of trains in the tunnels which churns the air over and over again, and prevents a constant inlet of fresh and outlet of foul air, but surely some working scheme can be found to meet this condition. If not, trains should be run less frequently, and time given for the atmosphere to be renewed. It will be a serious matter for London, if the New Inner Circle Completion Railway be provided with equally defective means of ventilation, but doubtless the whole subject will now be duly considered. If the new underground line can be passed as satisfactory by the railway inspectors at the opening, we hope a certificate will be withheld until the sister tunnels are all satisfactorily decided. WATER FROM THE CHALK. The authorities of the Brookwood Lunatic Asylum, Surrey, with the object of obtaining a supply of pure water for the use of the asylum, have determined to sink a well and bore-hole on their premises. The well, which has already been commenced, will be of unusual size, the largest size of cylinder to be used being 9 ft. in diameter. The shaft will be sunk to the chalk, which is supposed to be at about 400 feet from the surface at this point, and will be continued in that strata by a bore-hole of suitable diameter. Several reliable authorities have given it as their opinion that a supply of water fully equal to the demands of the asylum will be found in the chalk. The contractors for the work are the Diamond Rock Boring Company. WOMEN AS SANITARIANS. President Gilman, in his address at the Smith College, (U.S.A.), remarked (as reported in the American Plumber and Sanitary Engineer): Education must be secured through good living, obedience to the laws of health and recreation. The housewife should be educated so as to be able to prevent the ailments of those who dwell under the same roof with her. As every young man must expect to qualify himself to support a household, so must every young woman strive to render herself fit to manage the affairs of the house. The relations to each other of All all the things which affect good living must be understood, food, air, water, exercise, etc., in order that all emergencies may be provided for. All those things which we call modern improvements, gas, water surface furnaces, books, newspapers, magazines, and other manifold accessories of the household must result in bad odours, noxious gases, headaches and a host of other ills, unless their right use is understood and insisted on by the ever watchful housewife. sanitary reforms must rest on the shoulders of the women of the country.' It will be noted that Mr. George Palmer, M.P. for Reading gave utterance to similar sentiments at the recent meeting for the Parkes' Museum of Hygiene. A practical application of women's work in the sanitary field may be observed in the useful though unobtrusive labours of the active ladies' committee of the National Health Society. THE TRANSMISSION OF SCARLATINA BY WEARING APPAREL. Dr. Mac Cabe related a striking instance of the transmissibility of scarlatina by this means at the inquiry into the Dublin sewerage and drainage. It appears that he was sent for to see a lady suffering from an attack of scarlatina, and when he told her husband the state of the case, he, to use Dr. Mac Cabe's expression, laughed him to scorn, and asked how she could have got it. On investigation, Dr. Mac Cabe found that a youth of the family had returned from Rugby, because the school he attended was shut up in consequence of an outbreak of scarlatina. He had not had the scarlatina himself but had brought it over. The doctor called at the same house a few days after and found a ball-dress lying on the lady's bed, which had just been sent in from a Dublin firm. The patient said she was looking at it to see if it was made in accordance with her directions, and that it was for a lady in Belfast. The dress was accordingly sent to Belfast, but with an unexpected. addition of zymotic poison, and the young lady who received and wore it died of scarlatina. DILUTE SULPHURIC ACID AS A REMEDY FOR SCARLATINA. Mr. B. Clarke, M.R.C.S., draws our attention to an error in the description of his plan of administering dilute sulphuric acid as a remedy for scarlatina (page 17, part 13). The formula he advises is Infus. Rosæ comp fviij; Acid Sulphuric dilut. f3ij; and perhaps f3ij of Syrupus Simplex; one or two tablespoonsful to be given every four hours according to age. THE HOMES OF THE POOR. Dr. Blaxall, of the Local Government Board, has recently issued a report on a very serious epidemic of scarlatina in the two towns of Swindon, which seems to have been allowed to pursue its course almost unchecked, the hospital provided for infectious cases lying idle, the Medical Officers of Health being quite careless about the epidemic, and the authorities taking no measures to prevent its spread. In the course of his inspection, Dr. Blaxall found several inhabited cottages to be very old and much in want of repair, a notable and shocking instance of which is to be found in one, of which he gives the following description: 'Westcott cottage is a solitary dwelling, situated about half a mile from the town, and occupied by an agricultural labourer, his wife and family. Here three of the children died of scarlatina during the recent epidemic. I visited the cottage, and found the |