REVIEWS.

Nineteen Centuries of Drink in England. By RICHARD VALPY FRENCH, D.C. L., LL.D., F.S.A. London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1884.

THE author of this interesting book has evidently written it with the design to elucidate the part which intoxicating drink has played in the individual and national life of the English people. With this object he has conducted an elaborate inquiry into the various kinds of intoxicants in common use at different periods, into our drinking customs and usages, and into our drinking vessels, as well as into the many legislative and ecclesiastical attempts in our history to limit alcoholic indulgence. The ancient Britons led a generally abstinent life, but upon extraordinary occasions they drank to excess, and almost invariably quarrelled when in their cups. Before the Roman conquest wine was unknown in Britain, metheglin or mead having been the only intoxicant of which we have any record. After the introduction of agriculture, ale and cider became common drinks. The Romans introduced

wine; and repeated, though practically unsuccessful, attempts were made for centuries to cultivate the grape for the manufacture of wine in England. To the Romans we also owe signboards. For ages the first sign of an inn was a bush; hence the proverb, 'Good wine needs no bush.' To the Roman influence, too, we are indebted for our national custom of toast-drinking, several classical authors abounding in descriptions of Roman toasting formalities. From these invaders our progenitors adopted habits of excess, all ranks and conditions of men becoming

rapidly intemperate and luxurious in their mode of life. Though not a new plant of Saxon setting, intoxication increased so greatly during the Saxon period that even the clergy fell into the too fashionable vice, so much so that bishops themselves drank to excess and amused themselves by compelling others to drink till they were intoxicated. During this period the chief beverages were wine, mead, ale, cider, and piment. In the eighth century taverns or ale-houses had been established. In the Danish period drinking became still more widespread, a special feature of this period having been voluntary associations, sodalitates, designed as much for conviviality as for spiritual benefit. The battle of Hastings was lost through the debauchery of Harold's troops. The author describes the Plantagenet reign as the Light Wine period, a variety of light wines having at that time been introduced into common use, though he tells us that no improvement in public morals followed. He traces English drinking habits to the present day, and contends that, till recently, our national shortcoming had shown little appearance of diminution. He admits that there are now symptoms of a change for the better, quoting Isaac Disraeli's prediction of a return to sobriety. Dr. French refers to the various drastic endeavours both by Church and State to lessen the evil, but is unable to point to any marked amelioration from either ecclesiastical or legislative action. Contrary to what might have been expected from so noted an advocate of total abstinence, he seems to foreshadow a time when man shall forbear from abusing the gifts which a gracious Father has given his children to enjoy.' By this, we presume, he means that men shall learn to use without abusing strong drink, to drink moderately without going on to intoxication. We fear that this dream has little chance of realisation. So long as intoxicating drinks continue to be made as strongly alcoholic as most of them at present are, and so long as human nature remains fallible, we fear that intemperance will not cease in the land. As the public health has so severely suffered from the excessive use of intoxicants in the past, so it will in the future, unless either abstinence becomes more diffused through the population, or, as might easily be done, beverages with a lower alcoholic strength come into fashion. The book, which is tastefully got up, contains much valuable information.

Our Duty in Regard to Health. By G. V. POORE, M.D., F.R.C.P. International Health Exhibition Handbooks. Clowes & Sons, London.

WE have read through this little book with feelings of great interest. It is cleverly written and contains much that is good, though sometimes open to the venial charge of being in some respects unpractical. A main feature of it is an attack on the water-carriage of excreta, a sweeping condemnation of sewers and sewerage under all circumstances. Dr. Poore hardly seems adequately to distinguish between aggregation of population and overcrowding. Aggregation is a necessary concomitant of the growth of modern industries, commerce, and civilisation, and is not in itself incompatible with a high state of health. By overcrowding we understand such a herding together of the masses amid sanitary surroundings of a low order as is incompatible with health and morality.

However desirable it might be that every rood of land should maintain its man, as Goldsmith sang, or that every house should have a quarter of an acre of gardenground wherein to dispose of the excreta, we cannot hope or ask for the return of such a state of society, and it is of no use 'crying for the moon.' We entirely agree with Dr. Poore in deprecating the introduction of sewers into country towns where earth-closets for the careful and pails for the careless would suffice for the reception and facilitate the utilisation of the excreta; but could such a scheme be carried out in London, or could Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow be now broken up and their houses be distributed over entire counties? If not, what other than sewerage and water-carriage can be pointed to as the best, the quickest, cheapest, and most cleanly way of conveying excreta away from the precincts of the houses? That the discharge of the sewage as such into rivers can no longer be tolerated we feel strongly, but since sewerage is a necessity we must on the one hand insist on the complete disconnection of every house from the sewer, and on the other on the treatment of the sewage by irrigation or chemical process, so as to render it sufficiently pure to be passed into large streams, where it may be subjected to the oxidising action of running water.

Again, is it practical to tell the Londoner, even if he enjoy his quarter of an acre of tennis lawn and flower garden, to deposit or bury his excrement therein. Surely, then, to tax water-closets would be cruel to the poor man and unjust to the rich. Dr. Poore wisely and emphatically points out the dangers of surface wells, or even of deep ones under certain circumstances; but it is another thing to insist on the exclusive use of rain and river water, since the latter is not always within reach, and the former, besides being uncertain in amount, requires precautions for its storage, which cannot be counted on in the cottages of the labouring poor to prevent its becoming fouler than the worst well or ditch.

The author's strictures on the practice of crowding one's guests in dining-rooms or saloons with less cubic space than is allowed to convicts, and on the abuse of dustbins, are worthy of the highest commendation. Indeed, the writer of this has himself dispensed with the dustbin altogether, finding the fowls, the kitchen fire, and the garden soil together capable of disposing of every kind of refuse, and realising the author's epigram that the dustman's call for the contents of a single pail, containing only broken glass and dry bones, need not take more time than the postman's visit.

As regards the disposal of the dead, Dr. Poore is in favour of interment versus cremation.

In conclusion, we can only repeat that the advice contained in this little book is applicable enough to the occupier of a country house or cottage, but that as regards the denizen of our existing large towns it can hardly be said to face the hard facts of the case, or realise the difficulties with which the practical sanitarian has to deal. None the less it is an intelligent, original, very readable,

and outspoken treatise, full of sound doctrine vividly enforced.

Where to take a Holiday: Reports on some Home and Foreign Health-Resorts, being the Holiday Number of the LONDON MEDICAL RECORD. London: Smith, Elder, & Co. 1884.

6

IN the SANITARY RECORD of August 15, 1883, we reviewed at length the first number of 'Where to take a Holiday,' which had then been just issued. The publication thus early in the present summer of this second number will be welcomed by many readers, as in many particulars it is a considerable improvement upon its predecessor. There seems in the present instance to be scarcely the same necessity to review the whole work in like detail as in August last; but, briefly, it may be described as a collection of papers on holiday topics by medical men, each of whom has evidently made himself practically acquainted with the subject on which he writes. They approach the question of 'Where to take a Holiday' from the physician's point of view, and show in what maladies and conditions of ill-health the various healthresorts in and within easy distance of the British Isles may be expected to be of service to invalids. There are many points noticed in the various papers that will be of service to holiday seekers in general, but by those who travel for health's sake, and by their medical attendants who, in all likelihood, are called to assist at the family council when the momentous question of where to go is decided, these pages will be found particularly useful. The following is a short summary of the papers herein published. The first is entitled The Spas of Great Britain,' and is from the pen of Inspector-General Macpherson. In it he classifies the spas under eight heads, and notices in detail the chief localities and towns at which the various kinds of waters are found, including Cheltenham, Leamington, Scarborough, Droitwich. Tunbridge Wells, Harrogate, Buxton, Matlock, and Bath in England, Llandrindod in Wales, Strathpeffer, Moffat, Bridge of Allan and other places in Scotland, and Lindusvarna and other localities in Ireland. Dr. Hermann Weber is the author of the second paper, which describes Continental Climatic Resorts in Summer' in a brief space, which all will do well to read who are seeking for information on this wide question. The accomplished author describes these resorts in the two natural divisions of seaside places and inland climates of the Continent. The choice of English health-resorts is described in the third paper, by Dr. Symes Thompson, under four heads: conditions which determine choice of change, health-resorts in general, seaside health-resorts, and inland health-resorts. Dr. C. Parsons contributes judicious remarks on sea-bathing in the next article. Dr. Burney Yeo describes a not too well-known holiday locality in an article on Pyrenean and adjacent Summer Health-Resorts, from which those who are seeking for fresh lands for their holiday-feet to conquer may gain much instruction. Dr. Thin shows how summer holidays at sea may be enjoyed in cruises in the many lines of steamers which take their departure from British shores. Lastly, Dr. Vintras, in continuation of his paper of last year on some seaside resorts on the French coast, notices the principal sea-bathing places lying between the mouths of the Seine and Orne, including Honfleur, Villerville, Trouville, Deauville, Villers-sur-Mer, Caen, and other places. The next paper is a lengthy one on some half hundred of the chief English and foreign health-resorts, in which detailed authoritative particulars respecting their climate, water-supply, health statistics, lodging accommodation, and general resources are given. Hints to travellers as to climate, exercise, and recreation, drinking, and food, and clothing; reviews of recent works cognate to the subject-matter of this serial; and a notice of some useful preparations for travellers, conclude the work. Altogether, it will be found that this publication, the

price of which is only one shilling, combines in a handy form a very large amount of information useful to the multitudinous seekers after health, who may be desirous of deciding with discretion where to take a holiday.

SANITARY JOTTINGS.

SANITARY.

NEW HOSPITAL FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT SUNDERLAND.-The Sunderland Town Council have agreed to purchase a site of land of about 12 acres in extent, at an estimated cost of 5,000l. for the purpose of erecting a hospital for infectious diseases. The site was chosen with strong approval from Dr. Mordley Douglas and the majority of the Health Committee, although an alternative site was offered at a much cheaper rate.

DR. A. J. MARTIN, in his pamphlet on the relation of Medical Science to Public Health (le rôle du médecin en hygiene publique) shows the necessity of a sanitary administration, and describes the sanitary organisation of every country in Europe except France.

THE inlet ventilation and warming of the new Church of St. Peter's, Limehouse, built by Mr. Ewan Christian, SA Whitehall, for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, has been undertaken by the Æolus Waterspray Company. The ventilating arrangements, so far as regards the extraction of the vitiated air, are simple enough, namely, three openings in the wood ceiling, protected with wood flaps, which can be raised or lowered at pleasure.

These openings communicate with louvred openings in the gables. For the inlets and warming two Eolus Waterspray Ventilators of the Horseshoe pattern, furnished with heating stoves, are fixed in the vestibule. The stoves are coated with silicate cotton composition, and the whole apparatus is enclosed in ornamental wooden casing. The heating is effected by gas, which burns around a number of tubes in each stove, heating them to an intense degree, and through these the air, after being washed and purified, is passed into the Church. The gas fumes are carried off by a distinct flue. All that is seen inside the building are two circular openings, 16 inches in diameter, and 8 feet above the level of the floor; each instrument delivers 130,000 cubic feet per hour of purified fresh air, heated to a temperature of 140°; or 80,000 cubic feet of cold fresh air, at a temperature of 17° below the external temperature in the shade in summer time. The consumption of water in each instrument is 80 gallons per hour, and of gas 45 feet per hour. It is calculated that by means of these instruments the temperature of the Church in winter can be raised to 60° in less than two hours. The whole apparatus is perfectly under control, and can be stopped or set going at a moment's notice. The cost of applying this system is much below the ordinary charges for heating apparatus, and the working expenses nominal. The vestibule is to be used as a Sunday schooloom, and to be partitioned off into class-rooms by curtains. The radiated heat from the stoves will suffice to warm this portion of the Church. At the eastern end of the south side aisle, in the organ chamber, the Eolus Company have fixed one of their very elegant ventilating gas stoves. These are in principle the same as those attached to the Waterspray ventilators, but are minus the waterspray. The stove is connected at the base with the outer air by an opening through the wall. This can be used as ordinary air inlet, cold in summer and warm in winter. Another of these stoves warms and supplies fresh air to the Vestry. The Folus Waterspray Company are, we are informed, applying their system of ventilation to the composing room of the Daily Telegraph, the largest in London, and to the foundry, composing, printing rooms, and general offices of the new premises of the Daily News, in Bouverie Street.

an

THE HOUSING OF THE POOR.

'How best to help the slender store, How mend the dwellings of the poor?"

The

THE REV. S. A. BARNETT ON THE DWELLINGS QUESTION. In his Annual Pastoral Address and Report for the year 1883-84, the Rev. S. A. Barnett, the vicar of St. Jude's, Whitechapel, thus speaks on this question :Again, there is nothing but complaints to record as to the state of the dwellings. During the whole year acres of ground, cleared by the Metropolitan Board of Works so as to provide houses for the people, have remained barren as a desert. Some portion was put up to auction last summer and sold, but as yet there is no sign of building. Legal difficulties can hardly be the reason for delay, inasmuch as two large public-houses have been erected on the same site. Want of purchasers cannot either be urged, inasmuch as the East London Dwellings Company, of the formation of which I spoke last year, has been at all times ready to purchase. Because the Metropolitan Board of Works have other cares than the interests of the people, the hopes of the last ten years still remain only hopes, but some day there will be houses in which labourers may live under healthy conditions and friendly management, and there will be a common lodging-house where, as in a hotel, men may find a place in which to live and sleep free from the most The East London Dwellings degrading associations. Company, failing to get the site in Goulston Street, have bought a site at the back of the Royal Mint, on which houses for labourers will be erected, and where I hope the management will be entrusted to lady collectors. houses include now St. George's House, a fine block which has been completed during the year, and which proabout the housing of the poor has given us neither facts vides accommodation for thirty-eight families. The talk nor light. That some of the poor live huddled in rooms which through neglect have become dirty, draughty, and rotten, has long been a recognised fact. That many poor families must live in single rooms is a necessity when society demands cheap luxuries, and the average wage is 1. a week, irregularly paid. All that has been told has been long known, and no royal road to the remedy of evil has been discovered. Houses provided at reduced rents would reduce wages, and closer inspection would lead to more clever evasions. There is no remedy till the habits of the people are changed. The rich-be they landlords or employers-must regulate their occupations, and concern themselves in the well-being of their tenants and workpeople. The rich must change their habits, they must give up their self-indulgence, before the poor give up their ways of riot and drunkenness. They must cease to worship sport before the plague of gambling can be stayed in the homes of the people. They must regard marriage differently if working women are to be mothers of pure men. The rich must change their habits, they must make friends among the poor-sharing and not only giving their good things-then the poor, too, will change their habits, and feel dirt to be intolerable, brutality to be degrading. Some such change goes on in the houses of this parish where the landladies are friends of the tenants, and where friendship has become the ladder up and down which the angels of kind thoughts and acts are ever passing.

NEW INDUSTRIAL DWELLINGS IN WATERLOO ROAD.— An extensive pile of new dwellings for the working classes, occupying an area of upwards of three-quarters of an acre, is now in course of erection in Waterloo Road, the owners and builders being Messrs. Quinn & Son, who have already erected similar buildings in Bethnal Green. The buildings, which consist of eight blocks, are quadrangular in form, seven of the blocks forming the quadrangle, with another block in the centre. Each block contains six floors, the dwellings on the different floors containing one, two, and three rooms, thus affording accommodation for single men as well as for families. The buildings are calculated to house a population of

850 persons. They are substantially erected in stock and red brick, with Portland cement windows, cornices, and dressings, cement also being used in the setting of the brickwork in place of ordinary mortar. A flat roof at the top of each block serves as a drying area as well as for recreation space for children. All the dwellings are fitted with cupboards, and each has separate sinks and coppers, with dust-shoots and water-closets on each floor. The dwellings are ventilated throughout from front to back, and each floor has separate ventilators at the different landings. There are likewise special ventilators in all the bedrooms, and all the soil-pipes are ventilated. The buildings are surrounded by four streets, with access from each, the principal approaches being from Waterloo Road on the east side and Duke Street on the west. Messrs. Borer & Dobbs, of London Wall, are the architects. The situation of the buildings renders them very convenient as residences for artisans employed in the locality. There are already numerous applications for tenancies. The erection of working men's dwellings by private enterprise is a practical outcome of the exposure of the want of proper accommodation for the working classes, and, in our opinion, the best solution of the insanitary dwellings question.

THE fortieth annual general meeting of the shareholders of the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes has been held, under the presidency of the Hon. Dudley Fortescue. The report of the directors stated that the receipts on their various properties had been during the past year about 20,829., while the expenses were 8,590l. The population of the entire property of the association averaged 6,030. The profits of the year amounted to the sum of 9,220l. Ss. 7d., and after meeting all expenses and repairs and usual charges, and providing for a dividend of 5 per cent. per annum, there remained a balance of 7417. 12s. 4d., irrespective of 4991. 5s. 6d. already added to the guarantee fund, being the year's interest on the same; the sum of 1,190. 175. 10d., therefore, represented the balance of the total profits of the year, of which 7417. Is. 4d. remained.

MR. WYNTER BLYTH, who for some time past has been studying the sanitary aspect of the tenement streets in St. Marylebone, records in a recent report the result of an inspection of Carlisle Street. This thoroughfare, which is parallel with Edgware Road, contains 135 houses; and in no fewer than 113 there were found nuisances of a more or less severe nature, while in 41 the drains were so faulty in construction that they had to be relaid. The street contains a population of 1,406 inhabitants, nearly all of whom belong to the working class, and to a great extent each room accommodates a family. Notwithstanding this, the average amount of cubic space was very large (1,204 feet), larger than any of the tenements hitherto considered. During Mr. Blyth's period of office there has been a good deal of sickness in this street, a few cases of typhoid and much diarrhoea; but Mr. Blyth confidently anticipates that now the drainage has been so much improved there will be a corresponding improvement in the health of the inhabitants. annual death-rate, as deduced from the records of seven years, represented nearly 220 per 1,000; but in this calculation no account could be taken of the deaths of the inhabitants that may have happened in various extraparochial hospitals, so that the rate of mortality is somewhat understated. The largest number of deaths (66) was caused by pulmonary disease, other than phthisis; zymotic ffections being fatal to 36 persons, and tubercular complaints to 33.

The

THE exhaustive report of Dr. F. W. Barry to the Local Government Board, on the general sanitary condition of Gateshead, with special reference to the prevalence of infectious diseases in the district, has been laid before the Commission inquiring into the state of the housing of the labouring classes. Dr. Barry says that there are probably

few, if any towns in the kingdom, in which so large a proportion of the population are housed in tenements, as in Gateshead. Only one-fifth of the entire population occupy self-contained houses; as to the remainder, two-fifths find accommodation in flats, and the remaining two-fifths in tenements or houses inhabited by more than one family. The report deals with all matters affecting the health of the inhabitants, in a comprehensive and elaborate manner accompanied by interesting statistics. Referring to the fever-beds, he reports that in carrying out this inquiry I inspected nearly the whole of the houses in which cases of typhus fever had been known to have occurred, and in this way I became acquainted with many such examples of wretched housing as happily I have seldom met with elsewhere. In order to remedy the unsanitary condition in which I found a large proportion of the tenemented property in Gateshead, it would appear desirable that the sanitary authority be invested with powers under section 90 of the Public Health Act, 1875, to make by-laws for all houses not being common lodging-houses, which are let in lodgings or occupied by members of more than one family.' After giving credit to the authorities for all they have done, Dr. Barry says, amongst the questions most needing attention are the improvement of the dwellings of the labouring poor, including the sup pression of overcrowding and the abolition of the present noxious system of excrement disposal and the carrying out of comprehensive schemes of house deodorisation.

ON the 28th ult. a large and in fluential meeting was held in Bishop Cosin's Library in the city of Durham under the presidency of the Bishop of the Diocese, to consider the question of the moral and sanitary condition of the dwellings of the poor, in the county of Durham. The Bishop said that in his opinion the interest that had been excited on this question throughout the country should not be allowed to pass away without leading up to some prac tical result. It appeared to him that the subject divided itself into two divisions-making a better provision of dwellings for the lower classes by the erection of a better class of houses, with improved sanitary arrangements, and the provision of better dwellings by a strict enforcement of the laws already passed. The Rev. W. Moore Ede, Rector of Gateshead, advocated the formation of vigilant or Sanitary Aid Committees, which had done so much good work in London and elsewhere. Mr. Austin, of Sunderland, gave a graphic account of the sanitary defects of that town, the result of his personal inspection. The Dean of Durham suggested the formation of philanthropic companies for the erection and improvement of dwellings for the poor, which, whilst being based on philanthropic motives, should be conducted on sound business principles. Dr. Barron, Medical Officer of Health for the city of Durham, expressed his opinion that the present laws made ample provision for the evils complained of, but he thought that the formation of voluntary Sanitary Aid Committees would further strengthen the hands of the authorities. After an interesting discussion, it was ultimately resolved to form a general Sanitary Aid Committee, on which several of the leading gentlemen of the district, belonging to all parties, were elected. with power to add to their number.

AT the Brownhills Local Board meeting on Wednesday, the 25th ult., two cases of overcrowding were reported : in one a father and mother and six children slept in one room, in the other a father and mother and seven children and one lodger slept in two small rooms.

MR. A. BURR, of Queen's Square, Bloomsbury, has succeeded in obtaining the first premium in the open compe tition for artisans' dwellings, Battersea,. Forty sets of designs were submitted.

MUCH attention is being attracted in Scotland to the improved three-roomed workmen's houses now being erected in Leith. Accommodation is provided for fifty families instead of the thirty displaced, but the buildings cover less ground than those they have superseded. In

the north range a portion of the basement has been appropriated as a coal-store, where, by arrangement with some contractor, fuel will be kept on sale, at the lowest market price, for the convenience of such tenants as may choose, at stated times, to buy. The tenements, varying in size, are provided each with a separate staircase; care having been taken in the case of the two largest blocks to have large open balconies on every landing, with a view to insure thorough ventilation. It is in contemplation to erect a store, where means will be taken for supplying, on fair terms, the miscellaneous wants of a community rather inconveniently situated for access to shops and markets. Another common benefit will be provided in the laying out of the strip of land between the buildings and the river. There will also be a common club-room for the tenants. The rents will be from 10l. to 15. a year.

PARKS AND OPEN SPACES.

The law condemns both man and woman Who steals the goose from off the common; But lets the greater felon loose,

Who steals the common from the goose.

Princess

'OUT-DOOR SITTING-ROOMS.'-On July 1 Louise (Marchioness of Lorne) performed the ceremony of opening the St. George's Burial-ground as a recreation ground. It is situated in Wakefield Street, and lies between Regent and Brunswick Squares, in the parish of St. Pancras. For a number of years it has been the receptacle for all kinds of refuse from an adjacent Irish colony, and has been in a deplorable condition, in some places the tombs falling in. The Kyrle Society, of which Princess Louise is the president, took the matter up, and have now laid the ground out with shrubs and walks as a garden and place of recreation for the poor inhabitants of the district. At the opening ceremony Mr. Edward Clifford, on behalf of the Kyrle Society, in an address, stated that after four years' exertions they had succeeded in getting a faculty in laying out that garden, paying all expenses. In doing this they had received the hearty co-operation of the Rev. F. F. Goe and Mr. Gibb, the restry clerk of St. Pancras. Miss Aubrey had also, at an expense of 200l., presented them with the fountain. They had tried very hard to get the neighbouring burialground, but had not yet succeeded.-On the representation of the Metropolitan Public Garden, Boulevard, and Playground Association, the Rev. R. Arbuthnot has thrown open the churchyard of St. James, Ratcliff, to the public for their free use and enjoyment as a recreation ground, the necessary seats having been presented by the association. It was owing to the action of this association that the disused burial-ground of St. Dunstan's, Stepney, was opened to the public a short time since; and they are about to throw open Spa Fields, Clerkenwell, and Ebury Square, Pimlico, to the public for their free use and enjoyment.

ANOTHER PUBLIC GARDEN FOR NEWCASTLE.-On the 1st inst. the Mayor of Newcastle-on-Tyne opened the old Ballast Hills Burial Ground, situate at Byker, Newcastle, as an ornamental garden for the use and benefit of the crowded industrial population of that district, which is connected with many interesting historical associations. The Mayor (Dr. H. V. Newton), ever since he entered the City Council, has been most energetic in his efforts to provide the inhabitants of Newcastle with public parks in various districts, and, after encountering much opposition at first, his labours lately have been crowned with great success. In the present case he was greatly aided by Councillor Henzell, who at the opening of the place gave an interesting retrospective glance of the history of the locality. His Worship the Mayor, also in a felicitous

speech, enjoined the inhabitants to strive individually to keep the ground in order and prevent the destruction of the beautiful shrubs and flowers with which it is adorned. He alluded to the expected opening of the Armstrong Park, one of the finest in this country, by the Prince of Wales, during his visit to Newcastle next month, and to the undeniable benefits of such open spaces in promoting the public health and happiness.

CREMATION NOTES.

THE Sanitary Engineer of New York states that the cremation of the body of the late Professor S. D. Gross, of Philadelphia, in accordance with his own directions to that effect, has had a tendency to increase the popularity of this mode of disposing of the dead. It has become so far the fashion in that part of the world that the proprietor of the crematory at Harrisburg announces that the demand for the services of his furnace is such that he can only undertake to supply it for the immediate vicinity.

CORRESPONdence.

[All communications must bear the signature of the writer, not necessarily for publication.]

THE SOUTH METROPOLITAN DAIRY. Our attention has just been called by a subscriber to your journal to a notice you gave us in your May number, of our new undertaking, the South Metropolitan Dairy, Brixton, and we very much regret to find in it a paragraph that appears to cast a doubt upon a portion of our work, and that otherwise spoils a very favourable notice. After giving us credit for having based our 'operations upon the strictest sanitary principles,' you say'We are not aware what is the system of sanitary inspection at the farms, nor the system of milk testing to prevent frauds by the employés at the farm and in London, nor how the health of farm servants and London carriers is secured-all essential points in the security of a milk supply.'

We are sure it was the intention of your reporter to do us justice at least, and had he put such questions to us as bear upon the above portion of the paragraph, we could have satisfied him, or the most fastidious mind on the points you have raised.

We beg to say that before we receive milk from any dairy farm, we always send down our inspector of farms who, after making a careful survey, reports to us; and unless the report is quite favourable we do not draw any milk from that farm. As to the milk testing, &c., samples of milk are taken before the carriers start, also on their return, and frequently at the point of delivery to the consumer as well as occasionally at the farms and on the railway stations. All and every churn is locked. As to the health of our servants, our medical officer visits them at their homes, and we are now about to house them under one roof. In a word we have endeavoured to keep faith with the public in the professions we have made, and to secure a really pure milk supply to the inhabitants of South London. NASH STEPHENS & Co.

13 Grand Promenade, Brixton.

[It was not in the slightest degree our intention to cast any doubt upon the system of sanitary supervision acted on at the South Metropolitan Dairy. We simply declined to vouch for what we did not know, in so important a matter for the public health as milk supply. We are very glad to insert Messrs. Nash Stephens & Co.'s account of