thing like sacrificing one or two of the inhabitants by preventible disease daily. It is sincerely to be hoped that Sir James Simpson's statistics are wrong, and that Edinburgh is better than it is painted. From one of the reports read at the meeting, the following data regarding the mortality and density of the population are taken :Deaths per 1000. Districts. Lower New Town Broughton Grange 15.47 17. 13.78 32.52 34.55 and in some tenements in the last-mentioned districts, the mortality amounts to 60 per 1,000 of the population. and it is confidently affirmed that in some of the districts of Edinburgh the density of the population is so great as to be unequalled in any town in Britain. Is it any wonder that Mr. Chambers should have determined to mark his magisterial reign by an Improvement Act, to root-out the fever-haunted dens and other plaguespots that form such a hideously foul blot on the boasted piety and refinement of Edinburgh? The Act secured powers in the last session of Parliament for borrowing 350,000l., and for laying on as the maximum annual assessment fourpence per pound for twenty years, the same to be paid in equal proportions by the owner and the occupier. The Act is now being put in force by the Improvement Commissioners, and a sum of 50,0007. is to be placed at their disposal this year. When the report referred to is published, it will doubtless excite much surprise beyond the limits of the city with which it deals. The thriving and important town of Dundee acquired an unenviable notoriety during the cholera epidemic of 1866, owing to the ravages made amongst the people in the district of Lochee. Hitherto this district has been proverbial for its periodical visitations of epidemic disease, and it has practically been a separate district from Dundee in respect of drainage and drainage rates. Indeed it has hitherto had neither the one thing nor the other. While Dundee proper has been most completely and effectually drained, the effects of which were seen in its almost total exemption from cholera at the last visitation, and have for some years been seen in the less virulent character of other epidemic diseases, its Lochee suburb has been growing more and more densely populated, and its want of drainage, its overcrowding, its nuisances, and its general insanitary state have at last led to a revolt, and action is now being taken by the Police Commission under the provisions of the Public Health Act (1867). In the face of that Act the nuisance-mongers sink into utter nothingness. It is probable that the same cholera epidemic produced a greater proportionate amount of misery in the town of Leven, Fifeshire, than in any other town in the kingdom. It was terribly fatal, so fatal, indeed, that the people fled in great numbers from the plaguestricken spot, and left it comparatively deserted. The town was all but without sewerage, and the well-water, on which the people almost entirely depended, was found to be strongly impregnated with putrefying animal matter, which had percolated through the soil from the numerous cesspools. Such direful results as attended the non-observance of the ordinary rules of health roused the people to a sense of their danger, and in March, 1867, they resolved on adopting Provost Lindsay's Police and Improvement Act (1862). Commissioners were appointed, and the requisite measures taken to carry out the provisions of the Act. Already a bountiful supply of excellent water is introduced into the town, and now the commissioners are proceeding with the necessary drainage improvements. Leven is one of the most pleasantly-situated watering places in the ancient kingdom of Fife, and it promises soon to be one of the tidiest towns in Scotland, to be no more, it is to be hoped, a hotbed of epidemic disease. It is a hopeful sign to notice the general anxiety prevailing throughout Scotland with regard to the adoption of measures to improve the Public Health. Where other statutory authority does not exist, the Acts of 1862 and 1867 are being called into requisition, and in various places a supply of water is brought in where it is wanted; drainage works are being constructed; nuisances removed, and sanitary inspectors and medical Officers of Health appointed. Stumbling-blocks, however, of various kinds are here and there showing themselves; but the right will ultimately come to the surface. Upwards of eighty towns and populous places have already adopted, in whole or in part, the General Police and Improvement Act (1862). Amongst the other places in Scotland in which there are signs of sanitary commotion, we may, in conclusion, mention the following:-Aberdeen, Montrose, Nairn, Hawick, Aberdour, Thornhill, Elgin, Pennicuik, Galashiels, Perth, Paisley, Greenock, Kirkcaldy, Dysart, and Vale of Leven. Quarterly List of Publications received for Review. 1. The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S. 2 vols. 8vo. With Engravings. Murray. 2. Faraday as a Discoverer. By John Tyndall. With Portrait. 175 pp. Post 8vo. Longmans & Co. 3. A System of Medicine. Edited by J. Russell Reynolds, M.D., F.R.C.P. Lond., Professor of the Principles and Practice of Medicine in University College. Vol. II., containing Local Diseases. 1,000 pp. 8vo. Macmillan & Co. 4. Life of Sir John Richardson, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., Inspector of Naval Hospitals and Fleets. By the Rev. John McIlraith, Minister of the English Reformed Church, Amsterdam. 290 pp. Fcap. 8vo. Longmans. 5. British Social Wasps: an Introduction to their Anatomy and Physiology, Architecture and General Natural History. By Edward Latham Ormerod, M.D., Caius College, Cambridge, Physician to the Sussex County Hospital. 280 pp. Post 8vo. 14 Plates. Longmans. 6. The Mineralogist's Directory: A Guide to the Principal Mineral 7. Chemical Notes for the Lecture Room on Heat, Laws of Chemical 8. The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia. By Sven Nilsson. Third Edition. Edited by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S. 16 Plates. 350 pp. 8vo. Longmans & Co. 9. The World as Dynamical and Immaterial; and, the Nature of Perception. By R. S. Wyld, F.R.S.E. 235 pp. Post 8vo. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. 10. A Manual of Inorganic Chemistry, arranged to facilitate the Experimental Demonstration of the Facts and Principles of the Science. By Charles W. Eliot and Frank H. Storer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Second Edition. 660 pp. Crown 8vo. With Engravings. 11. First Principles of Modern Chemistry. A Manual of Inorganic Chemistry, for Students and for Use in Schools and Science Classes. By W. J. Kay-Shuttleworth. 220 pp. 220 pp. Van Voorst. Crown 8vo. Churchill & Sons. 12. A Treatise on Frictional Electricity, in Theory and Practice. By Sir William Snow Harris, F.R.S. Edited, with a Memoir of the Author, by Charles Tomlinson, F.R.S. 119 Wood Engravings. 320 pp. 8vo. Virtue & Co. 13. On the Pathology and Treatment of Albuminuria. By Wm. H. Dickinson, M.D., Cantab. Assistant-Physician to St. George's Hospital and to the Hospital for Sick Children. 10 Plates. 290 pp. 8vo. Longmans & Co. 14. Jerrold, Tennyson, and Macaulay; with other Critical Essays. By James Hutchison Stirling, LL.D. 245 pp. Post 8vo. Edmonston & Douglas. 15. Principles of Geology. By Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., M.A., F.R.S. Tenth Edition. Vol. II. 660 pp. 8vo. Murray. 16. A Sketch of a Philosophy. Part II., Matter and Molecular Morphology. 75 Diagrams. 116 pp. 8vo. Williams & Norgate. PAMPHLETS, PERIODICALS, AND PROCEEDINGS Guinea Worm, or Dracunculus: its Symptoms and Progress, John Churchill & Sons. On certain Moral Aspects of Money-Getting. By W. T. Gairdner, M.D. 47 pp. 8vo. Experimental Investigations connected with the Supply of Water to Calcutta. 38 pp. 8vo. By D. Waldie, F.G.S. On the Spectrum of the Bessemer Flame. By W. M. Watts, D.Sc. Plate. 4 pp. 8vo. The Present Position of Opinion respecting the Geology of Devonshire. By W. Pengelly, F.R.S. 37 pp. 8vo. The Antiquity of Man in the South-west of England. By the same Author. On the Distribution of the Devonian Brachiopoda of Devonshire and Cornwall. Same Author. The Raised Beaches in Barnstaple Bay. Same Author. On the Deposits occupying the Valley between the Braddons and Haldon Hills, Torquay. Same Author. On the Floatation of Clouds, and the Fall of Rain. Same Author. Notes on the Meteoric Shower of November, 1866, with Speculations suggested by it. Same Author. On a Thermometer unaffected by Radiation. By Dr. J. P. Joule, F.R.S. Hints to Certifying Surgeons under the Factory Acts. By George Greaves, M.R.C.S. Knight & Co. Harvesting in Wet Weather. By W. A. Gibbs. On an Improved Method of dividing Alcohol and other Thermometers. By William Ackland. 4 pp. 8vo. The Annual Meeting of the Miners' Association of Cornwall and Devonshire. With Engravings. Proceedings of the Essex Institute. (Salem, Massachusetts.) Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow. The Medical Record. (New York.) The Mining Gazette. (Halifax, Nova Scotia.) Le Mouvement Médical. The American Naturalist. The Geological Magazine. The Westminster Review. Proceedings of the Royal Society. |