from all epidemics, are, first, that by appropriate
structural works all the impurities incidental to
towns and villages with large populations should
be thoroughly removed; and, secondly, that the
water supply shall be derived from such sources,
and conveyed in such channels, that its
contamination shall be impossible. For, if there
be one fact in Hygiene more certainly
established than another, it is this, that epidemic
cholera has always been found in connexion with
a polluted condition of water. The spore-cists
are so light and minute, and water is so delicate
and susceptible an element, that both readily
combine, and a gust of wind passing through
an infected district may bear with it the poison
germs to the purest fountains.

But turning over the many pages of the
medical officer's report upon preventable diseases,
I lit upon the words, "The drying of soil,
which has in most cases accompanied the laying
of main sewers in improved towns, has led to
the diminution, more or less considerable, of
phthisis." What an argument for the immediate
and thorough application of sanitary rules
lies in this brief sentence! Few there are who
have not seen with indescribable pain the young
cheek glowing with unearthly beauty, the eye
sparkling with unnatural brilliancy, the pure
white skin covered by azure veins, which told
too faithfully that Decay had marked the
charmer for his own! Life gleaming brightly,
like tropical flowers nourished by malaria, fading
away before the noon! Of all the dread legion
of diseases, the most fatal bane of our English
climate is consumption the—insidious
destroyer which clothes with ethereal loveliness
its victim for the last sacrifice. Against it we
mourn the inability of the healing art, and can
only with bitter sadness send our patient to
seek a brief respite and a grave on sunnier
shores. Here at last, in this Report, on the
authority of the medical officer of the Privy
Council, the fact is recorded that even consumption
may be banished from our island, and our
graveyards may no longer yawn to receive the
young and beautiful blighted by that plague.
The fact was incidentally discovered. The
ominous figures which record the mortality in
English towns were all placed in order before
the medical officer. Glancing down the columns
which give the death-rates for many years, he
saw that in cities where the authorities had
warred against disease with the aid of the
navvy, the mason, and the drainage-pipe, there
the deadly power of consumption had been
broken down. The reduction of the fatality of
phthisis, where these have been at work, is too
general and uniform to be accidental.

Dr. Buchanan gives a list of fifteen towns in
which sanitary works have been well executed,
and here are the results. In Salisbury, the
reduction in the mortality of phthisis is now
forty-nine per cent on the previous rate; in
Ely, forty-seven; in Rugbv, forty-three; in
Banbury, forty-one; in Worthing, thirty-six;
in Macclesfield, thirty-one; in Leicester, thirty-
two: in Newport, thirty-two; in Cheltenham,
twenty-six; in Bristol, twenty-two; in Dover,
twenty; in Warwick, nineteen; in Croydon,
seventeen; in Cardiff, seventeen; in Merthyr,
eleven. In all these towns the diminution in
this most pitiable of all diseases is connected
with, and subsequent to, the construction of
sanitary works; in towns where authorities
are apathetic or content with the old ways,
consumption has become intensified in
virulence. Dr. Buchanan, in surveying the
mortality tables, notices the striking fact "that, in
some of the towns, the diminished fatality of
phthisis is by far the largest amendment, if not
the only one, which has taken place in the local
health;" a result fairly explained by the fact
that "works of sewerage, by which the drying
of soil is effected, must always, of necessity,
precede, and do precede, by years, the
accomplishment of house-drainage, cesspools, &c.,
on which the cessation of other diseases is
dependent."

I now discover that my nephew had some
wisdom in his folly. He has gained me over;
and, though the process of conversion was
somewhat trying, it is complete. He will
accompany me, to-day, in a survey of my
parish, and it will go hard with me if I do
not persuade my people to clear away those
nursing-beds of fever, cholera, and consumption,
which make it one of the most unhealthy
districts in England.

     "RUSSIAN PAPERS, PLEASE COPY."

THERE is no country in which one feels so
helpless as in Russia, though every one is
inclined to help you. Unless you get a valet-de-
place who speaks French or English, or an
interpreter ot some kind, you are at a
complete loss, and distances being very great in the
towns, you may wander for hours without
finding the place you seek. But if you do get an
intelligent interpreter, and an intelligent isvostchik,
or driver, which you can manage by paying
well, there is the danger of your pay putting
something in their mouths which steals
away their brains.

One day I was driving through Moscow with
a friend, and our valet-de-place, who spoke
English, having learnt it as a prisoner in the
Crimea, got drunker and drunker at every
place we stopped at, in a manner visible to the
naked eye. "You beast," said my friend, who
was somewhat fiery, "you're drunk." "No,
sir," answered the Russian, with a good-
humoured stare, "not drunk yet; not very drunk.
Shall be later, when you pay me." In a weak
moment we got rid of this linguist, and trusted
ourselves to the mercy of our driver. We were
sufficiently masters of the language to desire
him to take us to an address phonetically written
for us. We trusted to be forwarded on from
stage to stage of our city pilgrimages by those
on whom we called, who generally spoke French.
So we went to call on Monsieur Douboff, a
gentleman to whom we carried letters.