its margin. In Paris, the sudden deaths among the men who cleaned these horrible receptacles were years ago by no means infrequent. It must be our aim as much as possible, to separate the solid from the fluid portions of drainage. The former should never be permitted to be placed in a drain, but should be restored to the land, as the most proper of all nutriment for the crops, from the decomposition of which it is produced. The greatest chemist of the day remarked, when in England, that the English were a clean people, that they imported vast quantities of guano each year, and washed away in their rivers what was of far more value. The time undoubtedly will come, when science and mechanical chemistry shall have adapted some means successfully for making available the debris of large towns, rendering it easy of transport, without odour, and also quite harmless to the health of inhabitants. In China every particle of debris is made available for the purposes of cultivation, and why should it not be the same in Hindostan? Utopian as it may appear, we hope to see the day when every village and town in India will be rendered clean and wholesome, by taking some care to give to the land that which usually remains, almost at their very doors, and is a most intolerable nuisance, besides rendering every village liable to a pestilence.* District officers ought to have no difficulty in persuading the cultivators how absolutely it would be for their pecuniary advantage to use for their crops what is now only hurtful to their own and their children's health. For the crops of corn no manure could be more proper, and on light soils it would most probably enable the ryot to grow cotton; which requires a soil in many respects similar to the crops with which it is usually alternated.

In building new villages, bazaars, cantonments, jails, &c., and Oude might furnish a place for trying this advantageously. Great attention should be paid to the following

1st. That the site selected should admit of easy drainage. 2nd. That good water should be easily procurable.

3rd. That the village should be constructed in such a way that the wind which usually blows, should pass along the directions of the main streets.

4th. That the floors of the houses should be considerably raised above the level of the ground.

5th. And that the houses should either be built adjoining each other, or a space of eight or ten feet at least left between them.

The necessity of the first four of these points, no one can for a moment question-as to the fifth we hold that it also is of very great importance, for if between village houses small spaces are

We are quite aware that a suburb of London is now proposing to pay nearly a million of money to get rid of what might enrichi its neighbourhood.

left, they become filled with every species of dirt, they prevent the free circulation of air, and thus produce foci for engendering disease. It will be difficult, perhaps, to persuade mofussilites how much it is for their advantage, that their houses should not only adjoin, but be under the same roof as that of their neighbours, as by this means only two sets of drains are required, houses are much drier in the rains, and more cheaply built. Were villages built on some such plan as this, ventilation and drainage would both be comparatively easy. Bad drainage is doubtless a cause both of dysentery and fever, and has also been proved in England to assist in propagating cholera.

As to the two last points alluded to, viz. personal cleanliness and the burial of the dead. The first must be accomplished by increase of general intelligence and moral causes-personal filth is by no means a characteristic of the natives of Hindostan―generally the lowest and those who are sunk in extreme poverty are the only people among natives who are essentially dirty.

For the removal of the dead we much prefer incremation under proper care to any other mode of disposal for India. Where burial must be practised, it should be at a distance from cities, and it should be made indispensable that charcoal should be placed in considerable quantities around the corpse, as experience has fully proved its efficacy in absorbing deleterious gases, to an extent almost inconceivable, and graves should also be required to be deep at least five or six feet. We shall conclude our slight notice of these lectures with a quotation, and one or two remarks upon it.

"I would only say a few words, in conclusion, to encourage you to believe that the adoption of a sanitary system throughout India must originate with the people themselves, and is neither beyond their means nor entirely apart from their inclinations: a great mercantile people like the Hindoos, cannot require a demonstration of the fixed principle in political economy-that whenever an individual or a people is desirous to acquire certain personal or national advantages, those advantages must be fully paid for out of that individual's or that nation's purse. Nothing in this world that requires the study or the manual labour of others can be obtained without a price. The question for our consideration therefore is, will the people of this country become convinced that it is as necessary to the salubrity and decency of a city, that its streets and its drains and its aqueducts should be carefully and cleanly preserved, as it is to the health of a man that his body should undergo daily purification? This being admitted will not many be willing to pay for the water and brushes? It has been alleged, I think rashly and unkindly, that the rich natives of India give only out of ostentation and for a name. Among mankind few virtues can be found untainted with selfishness; let us welcome and honor the good, where we find it, without searching too deeply for

the venial weaknesses which leaven. it; while the love of power is allowed to the honest statesman; while the thirst of glory is not denied to the humane general; while fame is given to the devotee of science; while the honors of temporal dignity are accorded to the holiest and most learned in the ranks of the servants of the church; let not due respect be denied to those citizens whose generosity shall first bestow the blessing of health upon this land."

Now while fully agreeing with the principle, that whatever we have must be paid for, and " fully paid for," we are certain that in a pecuniary point of view health will be found much more for the advantage of the pocket, than we should from this quotation be led to expect. In one large town in Scotland the street sweepings sell for more than the whole expense of collecting them. But though it should be somewhat costly at first, are life and health to be outweighed by the petty sum that it would be necessary to collect, to make Calcutta or Bombay or any other large town, healthy? It is simply selling the general health for a small addition to each person's purse. We most decidedly disagree with our author when he implies that it is to private generosity we must look for the accomplishment of sanitary reform in this land. In England we find Parliament making laws for sanitary matters. In every civilized country, where sanitary reform is in progress, we find that it is the Government of the country, or the municipal authorities who bear the charge and carry out, as far as it is carried out, sanitary reform. How then, can we expect that in this country, where nothing has hitherto been done except by Government, private generosity should carry out great measures of reform? Government has provided law officers and Courts of Justice to see that violence is not done, and if murder is committed on a single individual, every effort is made to find out the perpetrator, and he is punished as a warning. Is it too much to expect or insist, that our rulers should be as much interested in saving the lives of those who are yearly sacrificed by the demons of filth and pestilence as in tracing out one who has poisoned a fellow creature? It is from the power which rules throughout the length and breadth of the land, that we ought to expect some attempts at sanitary reform, which shall as much embrace the dirtiest and most foul-smelling villages of the country generally, as the seat of Government in each Presidency. We hold that, circumstanced as is the British Government in India, with full access to the experience of Europe and America, and having, where it chooses to exert its influence, more than the powers of Mogul or Russian despotism, it is our sacred duty to originate sanitary measures; to point out what is most urgently required, and to carry into effect measures which are quite as much for the well-being of the State, as of

individuals. The cost compared to the benefits will be as nothing. Whatever they may be they must be borne, as a general rule, by localities where these sanitary measures are put in force. Economy will thus be secured, or at least lavish expenditure checked.

The statistics for determining the average duration of life among the native population are very limited; so that we are quite unable to determine accurately, the comparative state of town and country, and to see what forms of disease are specially fatal in each. Opinions of medical men differ as to the native, compared with the European constitution. We think that natives generally bear up better under severe operations and injuries than do our own countrymen. The professor of Surgery in the Grant College, Bombay, has stated it as his opinion, that natives do not bear up so well under operations as Europeans; this is stated with the reservation, that it is founded on the experience of the Jamsetjee Hospital, Bombay. The reservation is very important, as the majority of cases at that Hospital are generally taken from the most indigent classes in Bombay, and Bombay itself is more unhealthy than any other station of the army in the Western Presidency. This is proved by a reference to the abstract by the Bombay Medical Board the title of which is placed in the list, for we find that, with the exception of Kurrachee, Bombay is the most unhealthy station for the army. Kurrachee presents a high rate of mortality chiefly on two accounts; one the epidemic of cholera of 1846, and the other that it has invariably been found that newly settled stations are more unhealthy, for the first few years than afterwards. The mortality in Kurrachee for the 12 years in the tables is 26.81 per 1,000 men per annum inclusive of 1846. If that year is excluded, the mortality is not more than about 18 per 1,000. The average mortality of the last 5 years up to the end of 1851 at Kurrachee among the native troops did not exceed 14.2 per 1,000. If we subject Bombay to the same test we find a similar result, but one that still stamps Bombay as more unhealthy than any other military station in that Presidency. But let us subject Dr. Peet's assertion to the test of well known statistics, and they will prove that his opinion, if correct, only shows that the Hindoo or Mussulman living in towns is more unhealthy than the European. Applying statistics to compare the healthiness of Europeans and natives, we find that in one of the well known operations in Surgery, the mortality averages, for all ages, one in 6.93 in England, one in 5-7 in France, and one in 5-14 in Europe generally.* In India the mortality is some

*Article Lithotomy, Erichsen's Surgery.

*

what less than one in twenty. This alone speaks volumes in favor of the powers of natives in bearing well the depressing effects of operations—and this operation in all countries is generally performed on persons scattered widely through the country. Thus it will be evident from the opinion above quoted that the inhabitants of Bombay are much less healthy than natives of Hindostan generally.

The duration of life in Bombay averages about 23 years as deduced from Dr. Leith's Mortuary reports for six years. For the years 1848-49, and '50 it was 23.5 and for the years 1851-52, and 53 it was 23.3. This age does not however correctly express the value of life in Bombay, for the immigration is much greater than the emigration from it. And by far the largest portion of immigrants have escaped the dangers of infancy, hence this number 23.5 represents the average as too favorable for those born in Bombay. Even taking 23.5 years as the average duration of life it is much less than might be expected. Referring to the causes of death, we find that cholera, small-pox, measles, fevers and some diseases of the alimentary canal cause upwards of 9000 out of the 13,000 annual deaths in Bombay. From the returns for 12 years of the native army of Bombay, it appears that the average deaths per 1000 throughout the Presidency are 11.9, whereas in Bombay they reach 24-66 or rather more than double. This is most melancholy. That Bombay should be the most unhealthy place in Western India,-being as it is the oldest settlement, and the seat of Government-and having a large, wealthy, and intelligent body of European inhabitants-must be matter for deep regret, and the feeling must arise that all has not been done that could be done, for its sanitary state. During this period, there does not appear to have been much improvement, as the last three years record of deaths reaches nearly 20 per 1000 per annum. It may be urged that the extra duties that have to be performed by the sepoys in Bombay may account for some extra mortality. Certainly, but not for the whole. What is the cause? Innate badness of site, or epidemics produced by miasma and general impurity of air. These miasmas and general impurity exist in spite of police, Board of Conservancy, and all other municipal arrangements. Does not the unhealthy state of Bombay come under the term preventible? Most assuredly but the difficulty is how to apply the remedy.

:

*We have carefully examined all of the fully reported cases of operators at our disposal, and in upwards of 400 cases reported they give the small mortality quoted above.

† We have taken the statistics of Bombay for quotation as they extend over a greater period of years than any of Calcutta or Madras to which we have access. Doubtless the statistics of other large towns, more especially the Presidency towns, will furnish data of very similar import.