Notes of the Week.

DR. LITTLEJOHN reports that the health of Edinburgh is remarkably good, and that the city at present is free from small-pox.

THE Local Government Board have decided to annex the hamlet of Oakenshaw to the Cleckheaton Urban Sanitary District.

THE deaths from small-pox in London declined last week to 54, the lowest number recorded since the beginning of December.

WITHIN the past month land in the Poultry has been let on building lease at 17. per square foot per annum ; and since then some vacant land in Moorgate Street, almost on the borders of the City, fetched 8s. per square foot.

MR. BERNARD DYER, F.C.S., member of the Society of Public Analysts, has been appointed analytical and consulting chemist to the Devon County Agricultural Association.

DR. RUSSELL'S last report to the Glasgow Health Committee shows that during the fortnight ending April 21 there were 559 deaths registered, as compared with 632 in the fortnight, which indicates a decrease of 73, and represents a death-rate of 26 in place of 30 per 1,000 per annum. In the first week the death-rate was 25, and in the second week, 27; the deaths from fever were three in place of 14, being the lowest number of fatal cases of fever in any fortnightly period of which there is any record.

THE HACKNEY EXPRESS INDEMNITY FUND.

OUR readers know that an action for libel has recently been decided against Mr. Joseph Cox, proprietor of the Borough of Hackney Express. The question at issue was one of an essentially public character, having reference to the construction of certain houses which had been criticised in the columns of the journal, whereby it was maintained that the public health and safety were endangered. Although the builder failed to obtain more than 40s. damages against the paper, the proprietor has to pay all the costs, which cannot amount to less than between 200/. and 300. We are glad to learn that a committee has been formed, and a subscription commenced, with a view to raising such a sum as will meet the expenses incurred in this action. Mr. Thomas Turner, 56 New Gloucester Street, Hoxton, amongst others, will gladly receive contributions.

THE GRANVILLE HOTEL, ST. LAURENCE-ONSEA, RAMSGATE.

THIS admirable hotel is in every respect worthy of the attention of those who select a seaside residence for reasons of health and comfort, as well as for the purposes of repose and fresh air. In construction it is all that the most luxurious can desire, and it is provided with billiard rooms, bowling alleys, a theatre, library, and reading room, a concert room and supper hall, smoking rooms, and dining room of palatial dimensions and excellent arrangements. The sanitary arrangements are carried out on most thorough principles, and have recently been thoroughly perfected under the advice of Mr. Wimperis and Mr. Eassie, C. E. The ventilation of the large room is excellent, and the out-door arrangements include a private garden, with large lawn, and a skating rink. slope which has been specially constructed at great cost by the present proprietors leads down to the unrivalled sands of Ramsgate; and the hotel is placed within easy reach of London by an express train which reaches the hotel in little more than an hour and a half from London. The

An easy

special feature of the Granville is its baths. There is a splendid salt-water plunge bath, which is kept at a temperature of 64° to 74°; a Turkish bath which has no rival in this country; and every variety of medicated baths. We know of no seaside hotel which in situation, construc

tion, completeness of detail, and general arrangements, can compare with the Granville for comfort and health, and we have no doubt that when its varied and very great merits are universally known, it will be appreciated by all who seek perfection in a marine residence.'

SMALL-POX AMONGST THE CANAL
BOATMEN.

UNDER this heading Mr. George Smith, who is so well known by his efforts to raise the social and sanitary condition of the canal boatmen and their families, has addressed a letter to the editor of the Daily News, pointing out the extreme risk which the inhabitants near the wharves run from want of proper supervision of these boats. He says that there were about seventy boats lying off Paddington in a cesspool of disease and death, and that he saw six children and three women being removed from some of the boats to the Small-pox Hospital. The cabins are often so small that a person cannot stand upright in them, and rarely contain more than 200 cubic feet of air, so that the children are often put to sleep in a small cupboard in the cabin. Others besides Mr. Smith have mentioned these boats as floating hospitals for fever and scarlet fever, so that the sooner the legislative measures lately introduced into Parliament become law, the better it will be for the canal population and the public. For those who require more information on this subject we may refer them to page 288, vol. iv. of this journal.

SMALL-POX IN CARLISLE: WANT OF CO

OPERATION.

DR. ELLIOTT, the medical officer of health, lately reported to the Carlisle urban sanitary authority that on March 28 a case of small-pox was admitted into the Fusehill Hospital, and died on April 11. That although he sent on March 29 and April 5, his messenger was informed that there was no case of fever, but on the 12th he was told of the death of this patient, so that he had not been able to have the house and clothing disinfected until more than a fortnight after the man's admission to the hospital. Dr. Elliott pointed out that information of· this case was the more necessary as the man was brought from a common lodging-house, so that the bed and most probably the bed-clothes have been used by healthy people without being disinfected, and its occupants may spread the disease through Carlisle, or in any other place to which they may go. He also considered it right again to call

attention to the fact that the Fusehill authorities continue to decline to supply this board with the essential information as to where such cases of infectious diseases come from.' In explanation, it was stated that the man walked to the hospital, and was admitted for a diseased leg, and that the small-pox eruption did not appear for some days. The Fusehill Hospital is under the control of the guardians, and the clerk replied in answer to a letter suggesting an alteration in their forms of sickness, that the return is made out from the form supplied by the Local Government Board.

We think it a matter for much regret that in many places where the board of guardians is not the sanitary authority, much difficulty is experienced by the medical officer of health in obtaining information as to the occurrence of infectious diseases. In some places the guardians allow some one on behalf of the sanitary authority to inspect the medical officer's books once a week, but that is not sufficient; as a week may thus elapse before the information reaches the medical officer of health and a great injury to the public health may accrue. It is to be hoped that before long some arrangement will be made for

early communication by boards of guardians to officers of health of cases of infectious diseases under the treatment of their medical officers.

DROITWICH SEWAGE WORKS AND WATER

SUPPLY.

THE Town Council of Droitwich, which constitutes the urban sanitary authority also, having presented a petition to the Local Government Board to issue a provisional order to empower them to put in force, with reference to certain lands required by them for works of sewerage and disposal of the sewage, powers of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Acts with respect to the purchase and taking of all lands otherwise than by agreement, and having applied to the Local Government Board for sanction to borrow 13,000l. for sewerage works and water-supply, Major Hector Tulloch, R. E., a Local Government Board inspector, lately held a local inquiry at the Townhall, Droitwich, into the subject matter of the above petition and application.

Con

During the inquiry the engineer, Mr. Pritchard, was examined, and entered into a minute description of the scheme for the drainage of the town and the disposal of the sewage. He said the system of sewerage which he had designed was that known as the duplicate-the straight line-system, with man-holes at each change of lateral and vertical deviation. Among other things stated, he said the flushing chambers would be connected with the water supply; the ventilation of the sewers would be by open gratings. Having mentioned that about forty acres of land was to be acquired for the disposal of the sewage, Mr. Pritchard said that the pumping would be by water power. nected with this would be two six-inch centrifugal pumps to work together or separately, each capable of raising 500,000 gallons of water in twenty-four hours. The population of the town was between three and four thousand, and the water-supply would be 60,000 gallons daily for the present-15 gallons per head of the population. He estimated the ordinary working power (in dry weather flow) at about 100,000 gallons in twenty-four hours. He proposed to lift the sewage to tanks situated upon some rising land. The sewage would not filter, but strain upwards, pass away along the 'carrier,' back past the pumping station, and on to the land where it would be disposed of by passing over the soil in the form of irrigation. This system had been tried at Knowle in Warwickshire, and answered very well. The upward filtration was to prevent anything being seen offensive to the eye.

It could hardly be expected that the above scheme should escape criticism and even a little opposition, and some, in fact, did appear. But it was smiled down in face of the increasing rateable value of the town and its practical freedom from debt. Major Tulloch also complimented the town upon obtaining the engineer's services, as his work was well and favourably known at the Local Government Board.

SYSTEMATIC HYDROGRAPHY.

THE necessity of systematic hydrography has been several times urged in our columns, and an engineer drew a most instructive parallel in the Times between Italy and England in the matter of giving due attention to this practically valuable branch of science.

From his letter we gather that the area of Italy is not very much less than that of the United Kingdom; the ordinary allowance being 114,000 square miles for the former, and 121,000 square miles for the latter. The statistical information collected by the Department of Public Works as to the hydrography of the 69 Italian provinces is so minute as to allow of the calculation that there are about 460 yards of watercourse for every square 1,100 yards of country, and that 2.6 per cent. of the area of the kingdom consists of lakes, marshes, or bogs. More than 7,000 miles of water-way, it appears also, are now regulated by the care of that Department. This great total

comprises maintenance of river banks, maintenance of navigable rivers and canals, and maintenance of canals of irrigation and drainage. The area protected from the floods by the works of the first class of river banks (which form a total length of more than 2,500 miles) is about 7,000,000 acres. In addition to this amount of public work, 825 private companies formed for purposes of protection or drainage of lands exist in Italy, and their operations extend over an area of about two millions of acres. A further area of 2,300,000 acres is under works of reclamation and drainage. Thus an area of 11,300,000 acres of low-lying country is protected and in course reclamation from floods and marshes, either directly by the care of the ministry or by private enterprise, aided by the full technical details which the ministry takes the utmost care to collect and publish in the most useful form.

As we have rarely perused such a grave but welldeserved castigation of our own nation, we continue to quote the article, without alteration:

In

In the maps and other information collected by the officers of the Ordnance Survey we have the data for a systematic hydrography of the United Kingdom ready to hand; the further details required could be cheaply and readily added. A hydrographic survey of the whole kingdom, watershed by watershed, must be the basis of any measure of either river conservancy, water-supply, sanitary drainage, or irrigation and land drainage that can deserve any other epithet than imbecile. We may multiply Commissions, as in the case of the River Pollution inquiry; we may multiply local authorities, as we have done by the Public Health Act of 1872; we may increase our local outlay, as we are doing by so many millions a year. all this we are only acting in the dark and throwing away our labour, in the absence of the basis of all sound theory on the subject, the possession of a complete hydrographic survey. If we contrast the helpless way in which we now appeal to a Parliamentary Commission to inquire whether anything can be done to protect us from floods, with the clearly-defined system of works which are now designed, and which year by year will be carried out in proportion to their urgency, in the valleys of the Tiber and the Po, without neglecting the care of 100 great water outfalls of Italy, we shall, perhaps, understand the difference between beginning a technical inquiry at the beginning and carrying it on, once for all, to its legitimate conclusion, and making an endless number of costly and uncombined inquiries and experiments, with no one responsible for combining their conclusions or indicating their result. With full information before him, any engineer of moderate attainments will have not a mere opinion, but a definite knowledge, of what is required for a watershed system. In the absence of such information, we are thrown back on costly and mischievous guesswork.'

Special Reports.

A GARDEN IN DRURY LANE.

THE disused burial-ground in Drury Lane belonging to the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields has been laid out as a garden for the use of the poor people of the neighbourhood and their children. It will be open on week-days from 10 till sunset, and on Sundays between the hours of 3 and 5 in the found possible to extend these hours. The question afternoon, and it is hoped that it may hereafter be is mainly one of expense, depending upon providing a sufficient force for keeping order in the garden among a population not yet trained to very civilised habits. The cost of laying out the garden (250/. in all) and providing a keeper has been borne by the vestry of St. Martin's, on the suggestion of Miss

Octavia Hill. A committee was appointed, Mr. Sinclair, the chief gardener on the Embankment, was engaged, and a quarter of an acre of ground on the south side of Drury Lane, just opposite the miserable region of St. Giles's, which the Metropolitan Board are about to remodel, is now a garden. A dwarf wall with iron railings separates it from Drury Lane. On the two sides of the entrance are a mortuary and a keeper's lodge. A few steps lead up into the ancient graveyard. Some of the old tombstones are preserved at the sides, but the main area is broken up into brightly gravelled paths and flower-beds. American planes have been planted round, and a weeping elm in the centre. Hollies and other evergreens, laburnums, lilacs, with others of the shrubs which can best resist London smoke and London children, are set in the borders. Michaelmas daisies, heartsease, and wall-flowers are in the beds, and the people who visit the garden will be put upon their honour to leave them there. Seats have been placed about for their use. Mr. Shaw Lefevre, M.P., chairman of the Commons and Open Spaces Preservation Society, at the formal opening on the 1st inst., proposed a vote of thanks to Miss Hill and the Vestry, and alluded to what had been done in other London parishes-by the Rev. W. Rogers in Bishopsgate, by the Rev. Harry Jones in St. George's-in-the-East, and in the churchyard of St. John's, Waterloo Road, to make the burial-places, which once spread disease around, sightly and wholesome. Mr. Thomas Hughes seconded the vote. He said that in that immediate neighbourhood there was the finest garden in London, the garden of Lincoln's Inn Fields; it was used by scarcely any one, and that should be thrown open too. crowd, who had at first stood suspiciously outside, as if they thought this place a little too good for them, now began to come in, and cheered Mr. Hughes's concluding remarks. Among the more widely known of those present were Miss Octavia Hill, Sir Charles Trevelyan, Mr. Ernest Hart, Mr. Eames and Mr. Meyer, churchwardens of St. Martin's; the Rev. R. J. Simpson, the Rev. W. H. Hechler, Rev. Mr. Townsend, Rev. Mr. Tennant, and many other clergymen and laymen who labour amongst the London poor.

The

On

We are sorry to hear that on the evening of the next day the vicar (Rev. W. G. Humphries) and the churchwardens went to the garden to see how their efforts had been appreciated, when they found that the poor children of Drury Lane, wholly unused to restraint, had overrun the place, trampling on the flower-beds and pulling up the flowers; the result being that the grounds were closed pro tem. Tuesday morning the committee of the vestry to whom was intrusted the duty of laying out the garden held a meeting at the Vestry Hall, when, after a long deliberation, they agreed to reopen the ground to the aged and infirm of the parish, children only to be admitted when in charge of adults who will have to be responsible for their behaviour. Tickets only will procure admission.

PREVENTION OF CORROSION OF IRON.

PROFESSOR BARFF read a paper at the United Service Institution, on the 1st inst., explaining the method which he has discovered of preventing the corrosion of iron and steel as applied to naval and military purposes. His early experiments, he said, were made in an iron tube, 10 in. long, 2 in. diameter, the two ends being closed with iron taps, and into it

two iron pipes were fastened, one for the passage in of steam, and the other for the outlet of hydrogen. Into the small chamber pieces of iron were put, and the chamber itself was placed in an ordinary furnace, and heated to a red heat, generated steam being passed into it. The iron was coated with thick oxide. Hydrogen gas escaped from the exit tube. The black oxide could sometimes be dusted off; at other times it seemed coherent, but on exposure to the air it was thrown off in powder or flakes. On one occasion, on taking a piece of iron out of the chamber, he noticed a brownish red tint on it, and at once concluded that some of the red oxide of iron was produced on the surface and mixed with the black oxide. The idea struck him that the presence of moisture in steam formed the red oxide which was afterwards reduced to metallic iron by the hydrogen, and that the reduced iron was converted by steam into black oxide. Experiments confirmed this surmise. He had a coil of iron pipe made and attached to the iron chamber between it and the ingress tube, and so constructed that it could be put into the chamber with the furnace. The steam, therefore, passed slowly through the heated coil of iron pipe before coming into contact with the iron acted upon, and nearly the first experiment showed that a hard coherent coating adhering to the iron could be produced. The two conditions necessary to success are the exclusion of atmospheric air and the perfect dryness of the steam. Under these conditions the lateral spreading of rust already present is prevented by this system of oxidation, and under the coating of black oxide rust cannot be found.

HOME HOSPITALS FOR THE WELL-TO-DO.

THE Lord Mayor was waited upon by a deputation on the 4th inst., whose object was to urge the advisability and necessity of establishing hospitals in the metropolis for the reception of patients who can afford to pay for their treatment. Mr. H. Burdett read a memorial, setting forth a scheme for meeting the want. This scheme proposed to establish a Home Hospital Association,' on the model of the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company (Limited), which had proved so great a success. The objects for which the association would be established were

the providing of hospital treatment, skilled nursing, a convalescent institution, and other accommodation for the benefit of all classes when attacked by illness, and for the assistance of the medical profession generally; the acquiring of land and the building of hospitals; the providing, furnishing, maintaining, and regulating of such buildings with fittings and conveniences for the benefit and comfort of the patients and others; the co-operation with the managers of the present hospitals supported by private charity with the object of preventing the abuse of hospitals by people who could afford to pay for their treatment; the providing, for the assistance of the medical profession, and for the benefit of the public, a well-regulated hospital to which the former could send, with confidence, private patients who could afford to pay adequately for the accommodation which they required, and in which the patients would have the advantage of being treated, if they preferred it, by their own doctor; and the doing of all such other things as were in the opinion of the association incidental or conducive to the attainment of these objects. Mr. Burdett said that the movement had received the support of Sir Sydney Waterlow, Bart.,

M.P., Mr. Joseph Moore, Mr. A. G. Sandeman, Mr. F. Cleeve, Mr. Ernest Hart, Sir W. Gull, Bart., Sir James Paget, Professor Busk, Dr. Quain, and other medical gentlemen. Mr. Burdett then asked if the Lord Mayor would give his sanction to the holding of a public meeting in the Mansion House in support of the scheme. Mr. Ernest Hart expressed his belief that the movement, if carried out in such a manner as to obtain the confidence of the public and the medical profession, would be one which would command a very large measure of success, and would have a very large sphere of usefulness. He had spoken to many eminent medical men, and also to others of less eminence, but who were largely engaged in practice, and were very fair judges of the requirements of their patients and of the public at large, and they had expressed themselves to the effect that the proposed institution would be not only of great advantage to the doctors treating their patients, but a great element of public safety. It was now almost impossible in many cases to make proper provision for the care of persons struck down with very severe diseases, especially with infectious diseases. There was, too, a large class of cases in which serious operations had to be performed, and for this the accommodation in private houses was very inferior. It seemed, therefore, very desirable to provide in London the accommodation which was to be obtained on the Continent. In Paris there was the Maison Municipale de Santé,' and in Brussels and almost every continental city there were insti- | tutions whose objects were similar to that now proposed. Mr. Albert G. Sandeman having supported the memorial, the Lord Mayor said that it was enough for him to give his sanction to the holding of a public meeting, and thus so far support the movement. He therefore consented to the holding of a meeting in the Mansion House on June 27.

THE SHAFTESBURY PARK ESTATE. ON Saturday evening a crowded meeting of tenants on the above estate was held in the School Room, Holden Street, Shaftesbury Park, to protest against a contemplated rise in the rents of all the houses on the estate. It appeared that the tenants had received notice that the rents of the fourth-class houses would be raised from the original 5s. 6d. per week to 6s.; third class, from 6s. 6d. to 7s. ; second class, from 7s. 6d. to 8s. 6d. The corner houses to be charged uniformly 6d. a week extra. A remonstrance from the tenants had been addressed to the directors, and the latter in their answer stated, first, that the first tenants had

suffered considerable inconvenience from the then unfinished state of the property, and therefore paid a low rent; second, that the new tenants all paid advanced rents; third, that the present course had been forced on the directors by the course adopted by some of the working-men purchasers, who had let their houses at 75., 75. 6d., and 8s., where the company was charging 5s. 6d.; fourth, that the directors, having secured to the citizen-class houses specially adapted

to their wants at rentals below those of the corresponding houses in the neighbourhood, had felt the present advance to be a measure of justice to the shareholders who had demanded this advance; fifth, that the directors had received only three notices to leave from the tenants. The chairman called on Mr. Godwin, the secretary, to read the letters which had been received.. Several noblemen and gentlemen who usually take an interest in the welfare of

the working-men had been written to, but he (Mr. Godwin) was sorry to say that none had promised their co-operation in the present movement. Lord Shaftesbury, Mr. W. Peake, and Lord Elcho had all declined; Lord Elcho alleging, as his reason, dissatisfaction with the management of the estate; Sir J. Lawrence, M.P., declined as being uninformed as to the whole of the circumstances of the case. The directors of the company had written, declining to give the tenants the use of the hall. Earl Fortescue wrote expressing his dissatisfaction at the management of the estate, and stating that he had written to the Lord Chief Baron, Mr. Cowper-Temple, Mr. E. Ashley, M.P., Lord F. Cavendish, M.P., Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., and Sir N. Rothschild, requesting them to unite in a requisition for a general meeting of the shareholders. Resolutions were moved by Mr. Davey, Mr. Godwin and others, expressing surprise and regret at the issue of the directors' notice (to raise the rent), and complaining of the act as a departure from the original prospectus, which declared that the object of the company was 'to provide healthy houses for the working classes at moderate rentals.' In the second resolution the tenants regret the retirement of the honorary arbitrators, the Earls of Shaftesbury and Lichfield and Lord Elcho, and ask that the office of arbitrator should be restored. The third resolution required that copies of the resolutions should be forwarded to the directors of the Artisans' Labourers', and General Dwellings Company, and to the shareholders who had called a general meeting of the company. There was a considerable display of excitement in the crowded meeting during the evening, and the resolutions were carried by acclamation. Several of the speakers expressed very strongly their regret at the secession of Lord Shaftesbury, alleging that it was his lordship's name that had induced so many working men to become tenants of the estate.

or

THE METROPOLITAN ASYLUMS BOARD.

Brewer, who had been re-elected to be chairAT the first meeting of the new board, Dr. letters from the vestries and medical officers of man, presiding, the clerk, Mr. Jebb, read various health of the metropolis upon the subject of a board being formed with power to treat all cases of fever and small-pox, whether of the pauper. issued to these local authorities asking for opinions non-pauper classes. A circular had been on these subjects, and also asking if it was advisable ferred upon such proposed board. Some of the that the powers of the Sanitary Acts should be convestries considered that the proposed board for the treatment of the non-pauper class should not be under a department of the poor-law, but under the St. Pancras was against the powers Sanitary Acts. of the Sanitary Acts being conferred upon the proposed board, considering that the local authorities should be left in the exercise of these powers. The majority of the vestries were in favour of such central authority being formed, but some-the Limehouse and Poplar boards-objected.

Punch writes, 'Here is about the worst recommendation from a man's last place we ever heard of:-Ventilation, drainage, and warming thoroughly effected at the least expense. Sixteen years experience in the War Office. Address, etc.'

Medical Officers' Reports.

PADDINGTON.-The_newly-appointed medical officer of health, Dr. Stevenson, commences by stating that, although only elected at Midsummer, he presented the statistics for the whole year, and had adopted the form drawn up by the Society of Medical Officers of Health. He calculates the population at 105,221, so that, as the deaths were 1,992—or, after deducting deaths in hospitals, 1,855— the death-rate would be 176. This, however, is too low, as no allowance is made for deaths of residents in hospitals, which would raise it to nearly 19'0. He says in regard to zymotic diseases that all the 184 deaths might and should have been prevented.' We cannot agree with him that all the deaths from small-pox, scarlet fever, whooping-cough, and measles could have been prevented. The death-rate of

children under one year to total births was 141 per cent., and of children under one year to total deaths 22.3 per cent. Dr. Stevenson also reported that the water-supply to a fountain belonging to Government was bad, and that in consequence of his representations the supply was discontinued. He refers to some milk from cows suffering from foot and mouth disease, which he had had analysed, but without any difference having been discovered, except that it would not keep so well as other milk, and was therefore considered unfit for use. He has reported on the water in the canal and basin, which was most impure, and caused diarrhoea and sickness amongst the boatmen, and on the want of proper means of ventilating the sewers. He quotes Dr. Adam Smith's remark that 'the demand for men necessarily regulates the production of men, quickens it when it goes on too slowly, and stops it when it advances too fast.' This doctrine we thought was exploded. Dr. Stevenson is enthusiastic in his expectations of the benefits to be derived from preventive measures, which is better than an opposite belief, as it will probably lead him to be more energetic than he otherwise would be. The sanitary work recorded is satisfactory.

ST. MARYLEBONE.-The births for five weeks are returned at 482 and the deaths 387, being equal to an annual death-rate of 25.27 per 1,000, which is above the average. The excess was caused by inflammatory diseases of the lungs. There were four deaths from small-pox, all of young children, one of whom was certified as having been vaccinated a week previously to the attack. There were also nine deaths from this disease in the asylum hospitals, and an increase in the number of cases as compared with the previous month. During the quarter ending March 31 there were registered 1,240 births and 920 deaths, which afford an annual death-rate of 23'10 per 1,000. The meteorological observations taken in the Regent's Park Gardens gave a mean temperature of 42.50 for the quarter and 42.5° in January. The highest temperature in the sun was 105.2°, and the lowest temperature 22.0°, both of which occurred in March.

KENSINGTON: for four weeks ending March 31.— Dr. Dudfield reports 399 births and 264 deaths in the month, the death-rate being equal to 23.2 per 1,000 population per annum. There were sixty-three deaths of children under one year, which are less than 16 per 100 births. There were twenty-four cases of small-pox, but no death was registered from

it, although one occurred in the month. This is a singularly low average of deaths in proportion to cases. In connection with this disease Dr. Dudfield

reprints the circular letter of the Metropolitan Asylums Board respecting the isolation and treatwhich has been noticed several times in this journal ment of persons affected with infectious diseases, and also a copy of a letter sent by him to the clerk to that Board. He points out in his letter that the Asylums Board has already provided for nearly all therefore considers they should receive all, subject those who are willing to be treated in a hospital, and fund, and that 'relief in hospitals should be placed to payment for non-pauper cases out of a common on the same footing as public vaccination,' i.e. not that the expense of these hospitals should be looked to be considered as pauper relief. He also thinks upon as an insurance against risk to life. In this and other points connected with the subject of similar opinions to those entertained by most metroadmission into these hospitals he seems to hold politan medical officers of health. At the same time the letter is a useful summary of most of the arguments in favour of some central authority being vested with the power of acting for the whole metropolis.

LEEDS.-Dr. Goldie reports an outbreak of typhus fever in one of the wards, and its cessation in another. He expresses a strong opinion that, despite the activity of its infection, it may readily be stamped out in an infected district, if early information be given of the first case or two. Dr. Goldie also reports a successful prosecution under section 116 of the Public Health Act, of a person who had supplied milk to Armley gaol that contained epithelial scales and pus corpuscles. He truly says that nothing can be more disgusting than such a supply, which must also be more or less dangerous to those partaking of it. The penalty inflicted is not mentioned, but it is to be hoped that it was sufficient to deter others from milking cows with ulcerated udders. He also called attention to large pools of water which had collected for years in vacant plots of land near some of the streets, and had caused injury to the health of children playing in their vicinity.

LIVERPOOL.-The annual report of the deputy medical officer of health of the borough of Liverpool has just been issued. It appears that during the year 1876 the number of births in the town was 20,426, and the number of deaths 14,347, showing an increase in the population, by reason of the excess of births over deaths, of 6,179. The total birth-rate of the borough was equal to 39.2 per 1,000, and the total death-rate to 27.5 per 1,000, the average deathrate of the previous ten years being 30.7 per 1,000. Taking the population at 500,000, it would seem that last year 1,600 fewer people died in Liverpool than the average of the last ten years. This removes Liverpool from the unenviable position of having the highest death-rate of any town in the country. Liverpool's death-rate is only 275, while that of Manchester is 29′1, that of Oldham 29.3, and that of Salford 31.8.

BIRKENHEAD. During the four weeks ending March 31 the number of deaths registered in the district of Birkenhead and Claughton-cum-Grange was 89, being at the rate of 2017 per 1,000 per annum. The number of deaths during the corresponding period last year was 91, being at the rate of 2075 per 1,000 per annum. Zymotic diseases caused 22 deaths,