be laid, and consequent incapacity for labor, and tendency to disease superinduced. Dr. Edwards gives it as his opinion that 'the want of sufficient light must constitute one of the external causes which produce these deviations of form in children affected with scrofula; which conclusion is supported by the observation, that this disease is most prevalent in poor children, living in confined and dark streets.'

"The opinions of Dr. Edwards are fully borne out by Mr. Ward, in his evidence before the Sanitary Commission. He says that his experience 'most strongly' bears out these statements; and that, 'from noticing hundreds of times the beneficial consequences of the alteration from darkness to light, and the evils resulting from the want of light, I am satisfied that it is a matter of the highest importance.'

"My advice to young people who are about to marry, and can afford only one or two rooms, is, to choose the largest room they can find, and in which they can obtain the greatest quantity of solar light; the amount of disease in light rooms, as compared with that in dark rooms, being infinitely less.'

"Other medical observers have arrived at similar conclusions. Sir James Wylie relates a remarkable instance in point, in regard to an extensive barrack in St. Petersburg, one side of which was exposed to the light, and the other was comparatively dark. The result to the soldiers living in the building was, that uniformly, for many years, there were three times as many taken ill on the dark side as were attacked on the light side of the barrack. We need hardly insist on the importance of these facts, as showing that the want of light predisposes to disease."

2. Air. We have already spoken (pp. 143-148) of this important element, and shall hereafter refer to works where the subject is fully discussed. Streets should be of sufficient width to permit a free circulation of air. Restrictions should be so imposed as to permit few lanes, alleys, and courts, and none that would so obstruct the circulation as to endanger the public health. Every place from which light is excluded, or into which pure air, in any desirable quantities, cannot at pleasure be introduced, should be pronounced unfit for habitation.

3. Water.

"The following are the chief conditions in respect of water supply, which peremptorily require to be fulfilled :

"1. That every house should be separately supplied with water, and that where the house is a lodging-house, or where the several floors are let as separate tenements, the supply of water should extend to each inhabited floor.

"2. That every privy should have a supply of water applicable as often as it may be required, and sufficient in volume to effect, at each application, a thorough flushing and purification of the discharge pipe of the privy.

"3. That in every court, at the point remotest from the sewer grating, there should be a stand-cock for the cleansing of the court; and

"4. That at all these points there should always and uninterruptedly be a sufficiency of water to fulfil all reasonable requirements of the population.

"We must have soft water. All hard waters are expensive, both for domestic consumption and manufacturing purposes. This hardness arises from the presence of earthy and saline substances, which decompose and destroy a certain quantity of soap in washing, and occasion a larger consumption of that article than necessary. It has been proved that the water which supplies Aberdeen contains only one grain per gallon of hardness, while that of Manchester contains fourteen grains. The water at present supplied to Liverpool contains rather more; but we may assume the hardness at fourteen grains per gallon. Now Dr. Playfair has shown that water with fourteen grains per gallon destroys and renders useless a quantity of the soap used for washing purposes, equal in value to 16s. 8d. a year, to a family of five individuals. If we assume the present population of Liverpool at 330,000, and suppose there were a supply of water, of the same quality now used, adequate to the wants of that population, there would be an extra expense of no less than £55,000 a year to the town, in addition to the wear and tear of clothes. Water, however, could not be obtained quite pure, but if it could be had with a hardness of two degrees a

1 Dr. Simon's Report, p. 19.

gallon, which we believe to be quite possible, a saving would be effected to the town of nearly £50,000 a year; and this without taking into account the saving accruing in manufactories, steam boilers, breweries, &c. It is a low estimate, therefore, to state the hard water tax of Liverpool at £50,000 a year, every farthing of which is actually thrown away, without any return whatever. Now this sum represents a capital of one million and a quarter sterling, at four per cent." 1

Several cities and villages in Massachusetts have constructed other works besides wells to supply them with water. Boston, by a structure that for artistic skill and thorough workmanship is probably unsurpassed any where, has introduced, at an expense to the city of about $5,000,000, the water of Lake Cochituate, nineteen miles and a half distant; and it affords to every inhabitant an abundant supply of water of the best quality.

4. Drains and Sewers should be made to carry off water introduced in any way into cities and villages. If the surplus be permitted to remain, it often becomes stagnant and putrid, and is then a fruitful source of disease. "Without a system of drains, a large supply of water is rather injurious than otherwise; yet without a plentiful supply there can be no drainage at all." Every city and village should be surveyed; and the elevations of the crossings of each street above a common level, and its descent to an outer termination, should be laid down and marked upon a public plan; so that all abutters, and others interested, may be guided to the proper construction of buildings with reference to drains and sewers. Some general, definitive plan should be fixed upon for each city and village, and when so fixed it should be uniformly carried out under one authority, as circumstances may require. Surface drains will answer for some localities, but underground sewers are generally to be preferred. Boston has about 35 miles of such sewers.

5. Paving is of great importance as a sanitary measure. The following are the conditions requisite for a good system :

"1. Pavements should be made as impervious to fluids as possible, otherwise the subsoil remains moist, and becomes im

1 1 Liverpool Health of Towns Advocate, p. 131.

pregnated with matters deleterious to the purity of the atmosphere. All stone pavements should therefore be closely joined; and consequently those made of round boulders are inadmissible for sanitary purposes. Wood pavements are decidedly injurious to health. The street pavements in some of the Italian cities are better than ours for drainage. They consist of polygonal blocks of limestone, the joints of which are acccurately fitted together with cement, so that the rain water flows off as easily as from the roof of a house, and there are neither ruts nor hollows. The old Roman pavements were similarly constructed.

"2. Great care should always be taken to prevent the formation of pits and hollows, which are always injurious to health, by permitting the retention of solid and fluid substances in a state of decomposition, and presenting great obstacles to cleansing.

"3. All courts and passages should be flagged; the common paving is inadequate for sanitary purposes in such localities.

"4. A complete reform should be effected in the manner of constructing street gutters. If any one will take the trouble to go through the town on a wet day, he will be astonished to find how many of these conduits have the property of retaining the water, instead of facilitating its passage into the sewer. It should never be forgotten that a badly made gutter is literally worse than none; for it only draws the foul water from the street nearer the doors of dwellings, while the spaces between the stones allow of its free passage into the subsoil, so as to render the houses more damp than they would otherwise be. Perfect smoothness, and proper adaptation of the stones, along with a proper continuous declivity, are indispensable requisites in a well made gutter." 1

6. Cleanliness in towns is of such immense importance to health, that it should constitute an indispensable part of sanitary police. The only safe rule is, to remove out of a town, and out of a house, all refuse as soon as it is produced. Refuse matters, either animal or vegetable, are constantly undergoing change, and giving out vapors and gases which, even in ex'Liverpool Health of Towns Advocate, p. 99.

tremely small quantities, are injurious to health, especially if they are constantly inhaled. Conclusive proofs of this fact exist. Wherever there is a dirty street, court, or dwelling-house, the elements of pestilence are at work in that neighborhood. The cause of many and many a case of typhus fever, cholera morbus, or other fatal diseases, in our cities, villages, and even in the rural and isolated dwellings of the country, may be traced to decayed vegetable matter, or other filth, in the cellar, in or around the house, or in the water used. The most perfect cleanliness is necessary in all places, but especially in confined localities, to preserve the public health; and nothing ought to be permitted to interfere with it. It must never be forgotten that we have to do with life. It is not a question of convenience, or personal annoyance, but one of health. No person, therefore, should be permitted, on any plea of interest, to tamper with this matter; and every nuisance that occasions filth in streets or courts, or that accumulates it on any other surfaces, should be abated; if not otherwise, by the arm of the law. It is sometimes necessary to constrain men to do what would be useful, and to avoid what would be injurious to them. No person should be permitted to contaminate the atmosphere of his own house, or that of his neighbors, by any filth or other substance dangerous to the public health. Such a person should be looked upon as worse than a highway robber. The latter robs us of property, the former of life.

XVIII. WE RECOMMEND that, in erecting schoolhouses, churches, and other public buildings, health should be regarded in their site, structure, heating apparatus, and ventilation.

To provide for all public buildings, where large numbers of people congregate, an abundant and constant supply of air, in its pure, natural state, and of a proper temperature, is a very important, though difficult matter. It is so, too, in regard to private dwellings. It has received much theoretical and practical attention, and very many schemes have been devised to attain the object. Which of them is to be preferred, or whether any one as yet known is unobjectionable in a sanitary view, we are unprepared to decide. If the measures here proposed should be adopted, the General Board of Health would become ac