annually received, 2,690 expired yearly. It was at length discovered that this alarming mortality was the effect of overcrowding, impure air, and want of proper food; and an Act of Parliament was obtained compelling the officers to send the infants to nurse in the country, and this frightful mortality was reduced to 450, instead of upwards of 2,600. Can stronger evidence be required to prove that health and longevity depend expressly on laws the operation of which we can comprehend?

In London, Manchester, Liverpool, and other large towns, a considerable portion of the population live in dark, damp, cold, and confined cellars, which " are generally ten or twelve feet square, and flagged; but frequently have only the bare earth for a floor, and sometimes less than six feet in height," want the means of removing filth, and the benefits of God's freest bounties-the blessings of pure air, light, and wholesome water, which the inferior creatures freely enjoy. No wonder then that the inhabitants of such districts are depraved beings, the subjects of disease, and short-lived -the matter of surprise would be were they otherwise. These evils may be remedied, and the health of the labouring classes promoted and secured, by having their dwellings properly ventilated, drained, and liberally supplied with pure water, the walls of every apartment coloured or frequently whitewashed, the floors periodically cleaned, the windows well mended, and not patched with pieces of paper and rags, the beds clean and comfortable, instead of miserable mallets, and every thing else which can make the residences comfortable ought to be attended to; and the working classes should be allowed sufficient time for exercise, repose, and recreation.

If we inspect the bills of mortality, we shall find numerous diseases existing in all classes of society, producing annual premature deaths amongst the finest and fairest part of the creation, and resulting in toto from causes susceptible of removal. How many noble youths, just as their minds are beginning to expand, bow beneath the pale messenger of death? How many of the softer sex, whose attractive charms and exquisite graces entwine the feelings and affections, are brought to an early grave by lingering pulmonary consumption, scrofula, and all kinds of diseases? And how many that are more advanced in life sink into the common receptacle of mortality by sudden apoplexy, and a thousand other maladies? Ought not these startling facts to be sufficient to induce us to avoid the causes of disease, and preserve our frames by every possible means in health? We have indubitable evidence that these evils admit of an indefinite diminution, and are not designed by a bountiful Providence as the unavoidable fate of man, for they do not occur in the lower animals; and owing to the gradual diffusion of knowledge, and a stricter observance of the laws relating to health, we have been delivered from various epidemic and contagious diseases, which in the middle ages cut off thousands. In later times we have been protected from ague, by removing the sources of impurity; sinall-pox, which annually destroyed no small portion of the human family, has been very much mitigated by the immortal discovery of the illustrious Jenner; and the proportion of deaths in early life has been reduced. It is irreconcilable to suppose that the beneficent Creator of the universe is careless of the happiness of his creatures, and wantonly sends them into existence only to suffer misery, mourn, and live out half their days; and it must also be evident that, if the human frame be constructed to endure for three score years and upwards, and if a great number of premature deaths happen besides those which result from unforeseen casualties,

instead of being, as supposed by the ignorant, the inevitable lot of human nature, are simply the neglect of the laws which have been appointed for our welfare; and it is therefore necessary for us to ascertain what are the conditions essential to cultivate and preserve health, in order that by their observance we may reap the full harvest of our years.

A constant supply of pure fresh air is of the first importance to sustain animal life in full health and imperfection. The atmosphere in which we live is a compound body, consisting of about one part of a gas termed oxygen, and four parts of another gas designated nitrogen, with a very minute portion of carbonic acid gas. Such is, or ought to be, the constitution of the air when taken into the lungs in the act of breathing; but its composition is materially altered when it is expelled from them, for a considerable portion of the oxygen is abstracted, and replaced by nearly an equal amount of a foreign and deleterious gas-carbonic acid, which is formed in the venous or impure blood during its passage through the body, and the oxygen which disappears unites in the lungs with this venous blood, which is of a purple colour and unfit for the support of life, and changes it to a bright hue called arterial or pure blood, and again renders it capable of supporting existence. Air, therefore, to uphold animal life by maintaining respiration, must always contain a certain proportion of oxygen, and carbonic acid gas in a larger amount than that in which it is found in the atmosphere-1 part in 1000,-is a positive poison, producing insensibility and death, as opium, hydroganic acid, and other powerful poisons do. If this gas, which I have shown you is discharged from the lungs, is allowed to freely mingle with the air at large, it will do no harm; but if, on the contrary, it be breathed out into rooms where the windows and doors are made to close, large fires kept, gas-lights, which give off carburetted hydrogen and hydro-sulphuric acid, are used, or where a number of persons are confined in a small apartment, it will render the air unfit for being again breathed. If you enclose a living animal in an air-tight vessel, at each expiration it will emit a portion of carbonic acid gas into the atmospheric air, filling the vessel; and consequently the air, after a given time, will become corrupted and deprived of its oxygen, and incapable of supporting the life of the animal, which will experience great difficulty of breathing, and in a short time die. The same results follow the deprivation and vitiation of air in human beings; and in hanging, suffocation, and drowning death is caused by the exclusion of oxygen gas from the lungs, preventing the requisite changes in the globules of the blood taking place.

The horrible and most melancholy fate of the one hundred and forty-six Englishmen who were confined for a night in the celebrated Black Hole of Calcutta is strikingly illustrative of the fatal effects of breathing a highly vitiated atmosphere. One hundred and forty-six men were immured in this dungeon, eighteen feet square, and with only two small windows on the same side to admit air. The prisoners found themselves in a state of unheard-of suffering, and in six hours ninety-six of them had expired from suffocation; and in the morning, when the doors were opened, only twentythree out of the number were alive, some of whom subsequently sunk under putrid fever, brought on by the effluvia and corruption of the air.

From the same cause we can understand how injurious it must be continually to breathe the air of ill-ventilated parlours, sleeping apartments, concert and school-rooms, shops, churches, theatres, and other places where living human beings are congregated. A rout is a good example of close,

crowded, and preternaturally warm rooms. Those who give the social entertainment ignorantly imagine themselves honoured in proportion to the number of guests, who are furnished with every luxury, except cool, pure air; and fainting and hysterics frequently occur, and the effects of unwholesome air is perceived on the face of most present, either a sallow paleness or the hectic blush of fever, and, as a necessary accompaniment, langour, drowsiness, and dislike to motion.

Another instance of deficient ventilation is a crowded church. The windows and doors are usually kept shut; and consequently the congregation must inhale exceedingly vitiated air, and at the termination of the service there is a complaint of headache, sickness, and oppression.

The same remarks apply with equal force to the apartments in which we sleep. These are generally smaller than other rooms, and persons sleeping in them must breathe again and again the same air, which is very unfit to be inspired after it has once visited the lungs; and the already too-limited space is still farther reduced by surrounding the bed with curtains, and by lying with the head under the bed-clothes. The fire-places, if not used, are closed, the doors shut, and the windows seldom opened, as the most casual observer who passes through the streets of our towns can amply attest. This practice is not consonant with ventilation, and is accordingly opposed to reason and health. Thorough ventilation should never be neglected; and on leaving the bed in the morning, the clothes should always be turned down, in order that the nocturnal exhalations may be evaporated. The long-continued and constant residence in places extremely ill-ventilated so affects the whole mass of blood as to gradually impair the functions of the body, injure the mental faculties, destroy the beauty of the complexion, produces cutaneous eruptions, and other diseases which embitter and shorten life. Mr. Toynbee, in his evidence on this subject, says, "The defective ventilation appears to me to be the principal cause of the scrofulous affections which abound to an enormous extent armongst our patients." It is also further stated that this disease does not attack those who live in the open air, but that "the development of scrofula is constantly preceded by the sojourn, more or less prolonged, in air which is not sufficiently freshened. It is impossible to deny that hereditary predisposition, the lymphatic temperament, uncleanliness, want of clothing, bad food, cold and humid air, are of themselves circumstances non-effective for the production of scrofula."

We will now pass on to consider the various circumstances which tend to surround us at all times with vitiated air, and require to be guarded against. We may first mention the noxious vapours imparted to the atmosphere in various localities near the banks of rivers, on the shores of lakes, near colletions of water of every kind which are not in a constant state of change, near marshy grounds, or in confined valleys where a rich and moist soil abounds with animal and vegetable matters in a state of decay. The air in these districts is humid and loaded with poisonous effluvia, which acts on the constitution through the medium of the lungs, producing the most malignant fevers and other epidemics; a small number of the children born are reared; and the mean duration of life is shorter than in adjacent neighbourhoods which are removed from the sources of contamination. Here then we have an example of the influence of locality upon human health and existence.

Another fruitful source of noxious effluvia is putrid substances. The

streets in the metropolis and other large cities and towns are insufficiently cleansed, filth is allowed to collect near dwellings, and dunghills are placed near houses; and these impurities are acted upon by heat and moisture, and emit poisonous vapours and gaseous emanations, which are dissolved in the atmosphere, inducing typhus fever, and other serious diseases, and death.

The air is also rendered foul by open ditches, cesspools, and ill-managed drains; for the effluvia exhaled from them consists of a very deadly poison, hydrosulphuric acid, (vulgarly known as sulphuretted hydrogen,) which produces typhus fever, bowel complaints, and other disorders which are very often fatal. In the Sanatory Report it is stated that "a rabbit died in ten minutes after being enclosed in a bag containing sulphuretted hydrogen, although its head was left free so as to allow it to breathe the pure atmosphere. Nine quarts injected into the intestines of a horse killed it in a minute; a dog was killed by being made to breathe a mixture of one part of this gas with 800 parts of common air; and air containing only 1-1500th part of sulphuretted hydrogen proves speedily fatal to small birds." Exertions ought to be instantly made to remedy this evil which occasions such deleterious consequences. Every house and street should be properly supplied with close and sloping drains or sewers to carry off all fluid refuse matters, and an abundant supply of water to cleanse them.

The atmosphere is still farther polluted by the smoke from factories and other like places, causing diseases by corrupting the blood; and science has pointed out that this nuisance may be prevented by the various establishments consuming their own smoke. The reason why fogs are more dense in London than in the country is that the vast quantity of smoke and other impurities mingle with the vapour raised by the sun.

These sources of impurity which I have alluded to were the chief causes of the dreadful visitations of plague and pestilence which often almost depopulated the capital and territories of ancient Rome, and produced similar results in other European cities in the middle ages. You have all read or heard of the great Plague of London, which swept off thousands in the reign of Charles II., and was only arrested by the great fire which came in the place of knowledge, and destroyed the narrow, crowded, and dirty lanes, and taught the inhabitants that the Creator does not wantonly visit his creatures with such desolating inflictions.

The cholera which appeared in this country in 1832, originated from want of sewarage, deficient supplies of water, imperfect ventilation, and the neglected state of our towns; and the epidemic and contagious diseases which appear in certain districts of large towns, such as Spitalfields, St. Giles's &c., and constantly produce a great number of deaths, arise from the same causes, which, if not removed, may cause the contagion to spread from the courts, alleys, and back streets of our towns, and occasion fatal effects.

Another source whence the atmosphere is contaminated, and health injured, is burying the dead in the vaults of churches and chapels, and in grave-yards situated in the centre of densely-populated towns. When life is extinct, the body rapidly decomposes, and partly passes away in the form of pestilential gases, which mixes with the atmosphere, and is taken into the lungs during inspiration, and conveyed to all parts of the system, causing fever and other diseases, and shortening life. Dr. Copeland, in his evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons on the practice of inter

ments in towns, says, "I was lately called to see a gentleman advanced in life, who went one Sunday into a chapel where the principal part of the hearers were buried, as they died, in the vaults underneath. I saw him on Tuesday, and found him labouring under malignant fever, so very malignant, that its fatal issue was self-evident. On questioning him, he said that on the steps of the chapel he felt a rush of foul, putrid air from the grated openings, which affected him instantly, producing a feeling of sinking and sickness, and such weakness that he could with difficulty walk. He remained a short time in the chapel; but the feeling increasing, he returned home and to bed, where he had been confined ever since. He died in eight days; and his wife, who had slept with him, caught the fever, and died also." Those who suffer most from the poisonous effluvia from the dead are the poor, whose means will not allow them to reside elsewhere. In London there are upwards of one hundred and fifty churches with burial-grounds which are constantly used, and the graves are frequently only a few feet below the surface of the earth, and the soil is being often turned up to make room for the accumulated dead, and the air is tainted by the putrid emanations from the decomposing bodies. Nearly fifty thousand persons die annually in London; and the major part of them are deposited in the common burial-grounds; and a portion of them even within the precincts of our churches and chapels, which become unfit for the living to assemble in, because they must be filled with corrupted gases. These then are crying evils, and all ought to lay aside every prejudice and interest, and urge upon the legislature the necessity for enforcing the living to inter the dead in cemetries removed no small distance from all inhabited places.

So injurious being the effects of contaminated air, it should be the duty of all persons to require that their dwellings and every place of public resort are well ventilated; their towns and lands properly drained; their streets well paved, constantly cleansed, and kept in good repair; and that all noxious substances which may impregnate the atmosphere be removed.

(To be continued.)

THE LITERARY FORGERIES OF CHATTERTON.

In the year 1768 there appeared, in Farley's Weekly Journal, a Bristol newspaper, an account of the opening of the old bridge in that place, said to have been taken from a very ancient MS. Attention was drawn to itinquiries were made respecting the source whence it was derived. After a little search it was traced to a lad of the name of Chatterton.

This was the first step towards that great imposition with which this singularly endowed but unfortunate youth attempted to deceive the public. It was quickly followed by others-verses ascribed to Rowley, Canynge, &c. appeared in swift succession-the puzzle of scholars versed in "antique lore" -affording ample materials for a controversy as famous as that between Boyle and Bentley, enrolling on one side or another the acutest critics of