observations extending over ten years to reach 89.93 inches per annum. The physical conditions of the two districts are not very dissimilar, and we may allow that the estimate of Mr. Bateman as regards the quantity of supply is within the mark.

The water of these brooks Mr. Bateman proposes to impound in six artificial reservoirs, four of which are of very large dimensions; from these it will be conducted by two aqueducts, each of about 20 miles in length, to Marten Mere, where a junction is to be effected. From this point the joint volume will be guided by a single aqueduct, crossing the river Severn at Bridgenorth, by means of inverted syphon pipes, and passing near to the towns of Stourbridge, Bromsgrove, Warwick, Banbury, and Watford, to the high land near Stanmore, where extensive service reservoirs must be constructed at an elevation of at least 250 feet above Trinity high-water mark. From these reservoirs the water will be delivered to the City at "high pressure," and under the "constant supply" system. The length of the aqueducts will be 171 miles, to which must be added piping from the service-reservoirs to London, about 10 miles, making a total distance of 183 miles. The cost of the whole of these works is estimated at 8,600,0007., supposing the whole of the proposed supply to be actually obtained, but as 120,000,000 gallons would be sufficient for the present supply, the sum of 7,500,0007. may be considered as the actual amount to be raised.

Mr. Bateman proposes to purchase the works, reservoirs, and mains of the existing companies (exclusive of any of the New River supplies, which may still be retained for trade purposes) by capitalizing the present dividends and interests at twenty-five years' purchase, and to invest the whole property in some public body, similar to that of the Metropolitan Board of Works, with power to levy the rates necessary for the payment of interest on outlay and for the working expenses. It is natural to suppose that the existing companies would be willing to dispose of their works to such a body on condition of receiving the usual dividends secured on rates levied upon the whole property of the Metropolis.

The scheme of Messrs. Hemans and Hassard appears at first sight even more stupendous than that we have just been considering, as the distance of the source of supply is 240 miles as against 183, but it possesses advantages which appear fully to counterbalance the drawback consequent on the additional length of conveyance, The authors propose to make use of the waters which fall on part of the northern flanks of the Cumberland mountains, and which feed the lakes of Thirlmere, Ullswater, and Haweswater, together with some adjoining brooks. The plan consists of conducting by means of aqueducts the waters of both Thirlmere and Haweswater into the lower end of the central Lake of Ullswater, and from the head of the lake to construct an aqueduct, passing under Kirkstone

Pass by tunnelling, and from thence through the districts of North and East Lancashire, North Staffordshire, and Warwickshire (avoiding all coal-fields), to a large service reservoir to be constructed to the north of Harrow, from which the water is to be supplied at an elevation of 220 feet above high-water mark to the houses of the Metropolis, utilizing, as Mr. Bateman proposes, the present companies' means of distribution. The entire area of drainage is over 177 square miles, at altitudes varying from 500 to 3,200 feet above the sea, the mean being 1,400 feet; with an additional area remaining for increased supply when it becomes necessary.

The disadvantage of this scheme as compared with that of Mr. Bateman is the greater distance of conveyance, besides the driving of a tunnel of seven miles in the very hard rocks of which the mountains between Windermere and Ullswater are composed, which of itself is estimated to cost 350,000l. The total expenses is placed at 9,650,000l. as against 7,500,000 of the competing scheme; but the former is subject to a deduction on account of a proposed distribution of 50,000,000 gallons per day to the populous towns of Lancashire lying along the line of the aqueduct. we consider a valuable feature in the scheme.

This

It is well known to those resident in Lancashire, that many of the large populous towns are ill-supplied with water for household and manufacturing purposes. Some of these towns, such as Liverpool, Blackburn, Bolton, and Wigan, owing to the rapid increase of population, are likely in a few years to be reduced to great straits; and even now during very dry seasons, such as the early part of last summer, some of these towns are put on short supply. The introduction therefore of 50 millions of the pure and soft waters of the Cumberland lakes to supplement the present sources would be a very great boon to these districts, and the rental to be derived therefrom would, we have little doubt, more than compensate for the additional outlay which the plan of Messrs. Hemans and Hassard would involve. On this ground, therefore, we prefer the larger scheme.

But there is another advantage. There is no doubt that the great drawback to Mr. Bateman's plan is the construction of a number of large artificial reservoirs, subject to the accidents of all such constructions, however skilfully planned and executed. On the other hand, in the Lake district, nature herself has constructed rock-basins and reservoirs, altogether free from any such objections. It is true that in the proposed plan of Messrs. Hemans and Hassard the Thirlmere and Haweswater are to be raised by artificial embankments 64 and 42 feet above the present levels respectively; but these will be of less elevation than the embankments proposed by Mr. Bateman, which are not to exceed 80 feet, and are not of equal moment in reference to the general scheme, as it

is not proposed to embank Ullswater-the largest by far of the three lakes.

As regards the comparative quality of the waters to be supplied from the two sources, the advantage would probably be found to lie with that drawn from the lakes: both, however, are sufficiently good for all necessary purposes. Of the waters from the Welsh rivers in Mr. Bateman's scheme, the analyses show the total impurity to vary from 2.6 grains per gallon to 7.24, and the hardness from 1.8 to 2.2. In the case of the lakes, the amount is 3 61 to 7·00, this latter being the amount of matter in the water of the river Lowther, which is to be utilized, and the degrees of hardness vary from 15° to 5 2°. There is, therefore, not much to choose between them, and both are vastly superior to the waters now supplied to London.

Taking a general view of the two plans, we may say that Mr. Bateman's has the advantage of shorter distance and smaller cost. On the other hand, the rival one has the advantage of natural storage-reservoirs, and of conferring a benefit on the inhabitants of South Lancashire; and we shall be well pleased if one or other of the schemes be carried out with as little loss of time as possible.

As regards the cost of carrying out either of these schemes, the authors endeavour to show that the taxation, as applied to the Metropolis, would not be greater in proportion to the rateable value of the property than that of several larger towns in the north, and would be even less than in the case of others; and, considering the interests at stake, Mr. Bateman ventures to hint at the propriety of Imperial assistance, should any difficulty be found in raising the required capital.

VI. RICHARDSON'S ETHER-SPRAY AND PAINLESS

OPERATIONS.

LITTLE do men of science think by what apparent accident it may please Providence to crown their long, unwearying, and often derided efforts to gain some great end, be it the alleviation of human suffering or the elevation of human intelligence. Little did Dr. Richardson dream, as he once entered a London ball-room, that the practical joke of an acquaintance would suggest to him the readiest means of rendering the human body insensible to pain, without at the same time endangering life or robbing the patient of consciousness.

Every one who is conversant with what is going on in the scientific world knows that the gentleman referred to has been for many years engaged in endeavouring to produce local anesthesia,

and about a year since it began to be rumoured in medical circles in London that he had succeeded in rendering diseased parts so completely insensible to pain by external appliances as to admit of surgical operations being performed in which the use of chloroform had previously been indispensable, and where it had often been followed by fatal results. He had for many years been applying substances to the surface of the body with a view to freeze the affected part, for he had arrived at the conclusion that the sense current in the nervous system is thermal and not electrical, and that therefore the proper means of producing insensibility in any part would be to rapidly abstract the heat from that part, but his success had been partial only, and the length of time occupied in preparing for the operation was such as to render the general introduction of his method impracticable. We purposely pass over his unsuccessful work (which was not, therefore, the less meritorious), in order that our limited space may be devoted to the account of what he has accomplished for the benefit of mankind; and, as already hinted, an apparent accident it was that crowned his efforts with success.

Whilst he was at a ball in London, in the year 1862, a lady approached him with one of Rimmel's vaporisers, and drawing his attention to the new discovery for ministering to man's-or we should, perhaps, rather say woman's enjoyment, she blew a little of the vapour or spray of Eau-de-Cologne against his forehead. He was taken by surprise, and was still more astonished when, on feeling his forehead, he found it cold, and that part on which the spray had played wanting in sensibility. He told the lady she had discovered a means of producing local anesthesia, but it was he who had discovered it. Nor yet was it by accident; for if the young lady had puffed her scent into the faces of some dozens of young dandies, the effect would simply have been to amuse or to annoy them, whilst a meaningless joke practised upon the person of a man whose mind was penetrated with one great object, and in whose thoughts that object was ever present, led to a discovery for which the human race will bless the discoverer in all time.

From the period referred to until the close of 1865, Dr. Richardson constantly but secretly studied the subject, and was engaged in experimenting with various volatile liquids and gases, and in the construction of a suitable apparatus for administering the spray, but although the process came into general use in the hospitals, as well as amongst the medical profession in London some months since, and a few country practitioners also apply it, its great advantages are not yet generally known, and it was not until the discoverer produced local anesthesia on the arm of the President of the British Association, at Nottingham, and transfixed him with needles, that its wonderful efficacy began to attract public attention.

The first time the process was applied at all was in the case of tooth extraction on the 11th of December, 1865. The instrument used was one in which the ether was exposed to freezing mixture before being distributed in the atomized form, and Dr. Richardson has thus described the case :

"The patient was a lady, who required to have five front teeth extracted. I had previously administered chloroform to this lady for a tooth extraction, but the inhalation had produced so much irregularity in the action of the heart and other disagreeable symptoms, that I considered it inadvisable to repeat chloroform, and she herself was only too ready to give the local measure a trial. The extraction was performed by my friend, Mr. Peter Matthews. On directing the ether spray first at a distance, and then closely upon the gum over the first central incisor on the left side, we observed, at the end of fifty seconds, that the gum had become as white as the tooth itself, and quite insensible. I then directed the vapour upon the tooth for twenty or thirty seconds more, and on the patient intimating that she did not feel, I suggested to Mr. Matthews to proceed. He extracted a very firm tooth without the slightest expression of pain. The process being continued in the same manner, he extracted three other teeth with the forceps. The fourth gave way, and had to be removed by the lever; but in all cases the result was equally good. Not a drop of blood was lost; there was no painful reaction; and the healing process proceeded perfectly."

The writer of this article has also had an opportunity of witnessing the wonderful effects of the spray in an operation performed on a near relative, and a brief account of it may not be uninteresting. She had long been suffering from a small tumour which had grown under the nail of the great toe, and the nail had been removed and various chemical substances applied, but after nearly two years' treatment it remained as painful as ever, and nothing was left but the excision of the affected part. At the house of a friend Dr. Richardson applied the spray, whilst one of our ablest metropolitan surgeons removed the tumour. The spray was administered with an instrument to be described presently, and in a few seconds the whole of the end of the toe assumed a white appearance, as though it had been poulticed for many days, but it was perfectly hard, and the circulation was effectively arrested. In a few seconds more the skilful hand of the surgeon had, with the scalpel and other suitable instruments, painlessly removed the tumour and with it a little of the bone, for it proved to have arisen from an abnormal growth of the bone, known as exostosis. After it was removed, the surgeon discovered that a little more bone would have to be clipped off: the ether-spray was again applied, without pain, to the open wound, and the operation successfully accomplished. A little