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by accumulating sick men in low and ill-ventilated apartments, than by leaving them exposed, in severe and inclement weather, at the side of a hedge or common dike.

In the summer of 1831, a low typhoid fever broke out in the 4th battalion of the Royals, then quartered in Stirling Castle. In many instances, violent inflammation of the lungs supervened, and the result of the two diseases was generally fatal. On investigating the circumstances of this fever, it was found, that rooms of 21 feet by 18 were occupied by sixty-eight men, and that others of 31 feet by 21 were occupied by seventy-two men, To prevent suffocation, the windows were kept open all night; so that the men were exposed at once to strong currents of air, and to the heated and concentrated animal effluvia necessarily existing in such crowded apartments; thus subjecting them to the combined efforts of typhus fever and of pneumonic inflammation. In the less-crowded apartments of the same barrack no instances of fever occurred.

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A Memoir by the late Dr. Joseph Clarke of Dublin, read before one of the Meetings of the British Association at Edinburgh in September 1834, consisted of an abstract of a Registry kept in the Lying-in Hospital in Dublin from 1758 to the end of 1833; from which it appeared, “ that, in 1781, every sixth child died within nine days after birth, of convulsive disease; and that after means of thorough ventilation had been adopted, the mortality of infants, in five succeeding years, was reduced to nearly one in twenty."

ADDITION TO PAGE 16.

At Pyrmont, in the territories of the Prince of Lippi Detmold, there is a grotto which, like the Grotto del Cane, is remarkable for the accumulation of carbonic acid which takes place in it. It is on a much larger scale than the Grotto del Cane, and presents some interesting phænomena. A semicircular excavation, somewhat resembling a Greek theatre, has been cut in the side of a hill. The curved side of this excavation presents a gradual slope, forming a sort of half funnel: the straight side is vertical; and at the bottom of

this side a second excavation forms a chamber of considerable size. The carbonic acid rises both in this apartment and at the bottom of the excavation before it; but it rises to a variable height, dependent on the state of the weather and other causes. Its height may be ascertained by lowering a wisp of lighted straw, which is extinguished immediately on entering the gas; but it will sometimes burst into a flame again, if quickly withdrawn from it. The bottom of the semicircular excavation, when I visited the grotto, was strewed with the dead birds, which, from the invisibility of the gas, had most likely flown into it, unconscious of their danger; just as workmen have lost their lives by descending into wells and pits in which this gas had been collected.

NOTE (2) PAGE 20.

I HAVE no doubt that it is to the existence of such quarters that the larger proportion of fever-cases reported from city districts, as compared with those of the country, is to be attributed. If the comparison were made between dwellings in those parts of London in which the drainage is good and cleanliness carefully attended to in the streets and houses, and an equal number of farm-houses, I believe the result would exhibit the proportions completely reversed. In the former, we rarely find typhus fever affecting several members of one family, whilst this is often the case in the latter. It is to the faulty drainage which often manifestly exists in the neighbourhood of farm-houses, that this fact, so inconsistent with their otherwise healthy situation, must, I conceive, be mainly attributed.

In the poor districts in and about London, which produce the great majority of fever-cases, many streets are wholly deficient in underground draining. It is satisfactory to know that this subject has obtained the serious attention of the Select Committee on the Health of Towns, which has received the important depositions of many able and experienced persons. My friend M. F. Wagstaffe has, in particular, furnished much valuable information regarding the Lambeth District. In connection with this subject, I cannot

withhold the expression of my deep regret at the rapid increase of houses of an inferior or moderate description in low and perfectly level situations, in which adequate drainage cannot possibly be obtained. Many families will doubtless be transferred to these quarters, with the hope of finding purer air, who, in this respect, might be better off in the City itself.

NOTE (3.) PAGE 26.

WITH respect to the application of water to the cleansing of streets, canals, sewers, drains, and in short all those purposes which belong to public rather than private cleanliness, it may not be amiss for me here to introduce an extract from my "Hints relating to the Cholera in London," published since the delivery of these Lectures.

“In many of the superior parts of the town, conspicuous, and I may say liberal attention, has already been paid to the promotion of cleanliness: nevertheless, the well-intended measures which have been adopted, require, in some instances, considerable amendment. In illustration of this remark, I may point out the misapplication of the very important and abundant supply of water, which has been so laudably afforded. I have regretted to see it wasted in torrents, from the fire-plugs to the kennels; while the purity with which it flowed, shewed the little part which it performed in removing the impurities against which it was ostensibly directed. Almost the only beneficial influence of the flow of water is directed to the large under-ground drains; which perhaps require the least attention of this kind, since they almost exclusively receive the whole amount of rain which falls over the city, and, after all, from their size, can be very little affected by any temporary artificial supply of water. The water afforded ought to be so generally and extensively applied, as effectually to cleanse the streets: instead of which, it merely produces partial injury to the pavement. I lay the more stress on this, because the quantity of rain which has lately fallen has not been sufficient to effect the general washing of the streets; and experience has shewn, that, in sickly times, disease is promoted by the rains which follow a

comparatively dry period. The care which I am anxious to obtain would tend to obviate this. It is quite as important that the supply of water should be devoted to the cleansing of small streets and courts, with their drains and sewers: and special attention should be paid to house-drains, which not only receive the largest quantity of absolute filth with the smallest proportion of fluid to carry it off, but are necessarily so situated, as to apply their noxious effluvia permanently and closely to the persons of the inhabitants."

NOTE (4.) P. 27.

The portable warm-baths which have been introduced, in imitation of our neighbours the French, are not only a valuable addition to our comforts, but, in cases of illness, the benefits to be derived from them are very important. They are not, however, within reach of the labouring classes, by whom the use of the warm-bath is most required.

NOTE (5.) P. 28.

I am desirous of more strongly impressing the great advantage to be derived from the daily general washing of the body with cold or cool water. No difficulty of expense or loss of time can be urged against it; since the operation can be performed in a very few minutes, and requires nothing more than a bason of water and a coarse towel. Many persons also use a sponge; but a wet towel is more convenient, more effectual, and less unpleasant to the feelings. It may be employed by the most delicate and susceptible persons, in the very coldest season of the year, if they will only take care, at the commencement, to avoid long exposure, and the use of a large quantity of water. I believe this kind of ablution to be the most powerful means of guarding against the injurious influence of our variable climate; and I know that it affords the most valuable aid to convalescence from various lingering diseases. It restores and preserves the healthful functions of the skin, the importance of which are becoming increasingly known and appreciated. We owe much to the labours of Dr. Edwards, who has followed up the

researches of Sanctorius on this subject.

More recently,

Dr. Fourcault has received the gold medal of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, for the additional light which he has thrown upon it. He has clearly shewn the intimate relation which exists between the disturbed functions of the skin and several serious diseases. That fatal affection of the kidneys which has been made known by the researches of Dr. Bright may, in many cases, be traced to the interruption of sensible or insensible perspiration: hence there are no means more important for its prevention than those which secure the healthy action of the skin, of which the general ablution here recommended, and the due regulation of clothing, are the chief. I would here take occasion to offer another remark connected with this subject. Although the interruption of perspiration is a serious cause of disease, undue evaporation from the surface is no less to be dreaded. The proverbially ungenial influence of a dry east wind is perhaps chiefly to be attributed to its producing this effect; and I cannot doubt that the convenient and easy mode of travelling by railroad may be liable to some objection on this principle, unless the clothing of the traveller, or the inclosure of the carriage, afford protection against the influence of rapid motion through the air.

NOTE (6.) PAGE 30.

"In ten females, about eight-years-and-a-half of age, belonging to a flax-mill, and who were labouring under no disease, Mr. Thackrah found the average to be only three-pints-anda-half of air exhaled from the lungs at one effort; while in young men of the same age it amounted to six pints. Some allowance is to be made for the naturally smaller capacity of the lungs in females than in males; but Mr. Thackrah is satisfied that the above remarkable difference is attributable chiefly to the lacing of the chest."

The folly of the mode of dressing the chest now almost universally adopted by females is not confined to the dangerous exposure of the upper and serious compression of the lower part. That part of the garment which belongs to the

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