(3) Besides the ordinary climate of a place and the abrupt disturbances thereof, it may ultimately be possible to understand the cause of long continued peculiarities of weather, whether on land or at sea, such, for instance, as the very wet autumn we have just experienced, and perhaps even to predict the approach of such peculiarities.

In the third place, in order that the country may derive the fullest possible benefit from a systematic prosecution of Meteorology, it would seem to be necessary that there should be two bodies of Officers in communication with each other; but otherwise acting independently of one another.

There ought to be a body of men whose duty it is to investigate meteorological laws, and to publish them when discovered; and also a body of men whose duty it is to make a practical application of these laws, when once they have been discovered.

Thus, for example, a knowledge of the climate of various places is desirable in those who take charge of the Public Health, and in those who take part in Agriculture; while again a knowledge of oceanic climate, especially of the prevailing winds and currents of the various oceanic regions, is of great importance to mariners. But the scientific officer who investigates the climate of a place ought to be distinct from the officer whose duty it is to make a practical use of this knowledge of climate; and also from the officer whose duty it is to see that a knowledge of the prevailing winds and currents is properly made use of by seafaring men.

To take another example, a knowledge of the laws which regulate the progress of storms is of great importance to a maritime nation like ourselves, and by means of the telegraph may be made of immense service, as the results achieved by the late Admiral Fitzroy have clearly shown; but the scientific officer who investigates the laws of storms ought surely to be distinct from him who telegraphs to ports an intimation of an approaching storm; in fine there ought to be what may be termed a legislative and an executive department, distinct from one another.

Having thus endeavoured to point out the necessity for this separation of offices, we will in the remainder of this short article confine ourselves to the legislative department, and say nothing about the executive; because foreign considerations are mixed up with the executive in this as well as in other departments, and the most just and admirably conceived set of rules might be thought to infringe too much upon the liberty of the subject.

Let us now therefore lay before our readers a few general considerations regarding the best machinery for discovering scientific laws.

It would be desirable to introduce into some half-a-dozen stations in the British Islands self-recording instruments all on one plan;

such instruments would give results which cannot be furnished by the very best body of eye-observers: and we understand a system of this kind is under the consideration of Government.

Besides these self-recording observatories, numerous stations in the British Isles and numerous vessels at sea ought to be supplied with instruments all verified at some central Observatory. Care ought also to be taken by inspection and otherwise, that the observations are properly made.

The whole body of observations both by land and sea ought to be discussed under the direction of one general Superintendent, overlooked if need be by a scientific board. This general superintendent might also with propriety have under him two responsible officers; one to take charge of the land, and the other of the sea observations. The general superintendent should likewise be well acquainted with those branches of science, which are or may prove to be akin to Meteorology.

We have only to add, that the executive meteorological officers ought immediately to be informed of the observational laws when they are discovered; and these ought also to be communicated to such of the scientific and general public as are interested in the subject.

In conclusion, we venture to think that a Government which treats the matter in such a way, would be sure to gain the confidence and favour of the scientific world.

VIII. THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

THE EAST END OF LONDON. BY EDWIN LANKESTER, M.D., F.R.S. LONDON is not more favourably situated for health than other towns of England. The chief part of the great Metropolis is built directly upon the bed of clay which is deposited in the great chalk basin, whose edges rise round London on every side. This basin is divided into two sides by the river Thames: the larger population is on the north side. On this side stand the two great commercial and social centres of London-Westminster, with the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham and St. James's Palace; and the City, with St. Paul's Cathedral, the Mansion House, and Guildhall. The population of London is now nearly 3,000,000. It is not governed by one Municipality, as other cities of the empire. The Corporation of London, with its Lord Mayor, have control over the affairs of only a very limited number of citizens. The Metropolitan Management Act recognized upwards of forty Local Boards of Works, or Vestries. Hence London, in its general management is at a disadvantage as

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compared with almost every other city of the empire. With this divided authority it is much to the credit of London that she can claim to be the healthiest city in the United Kingdom. During the last ten years the death-rate has been as low as 23 in the 1,000, whilst during the first four months of this year, 1866, the death-rate was lower than any of the thirteen cities whose death-rate was published weekly by the Registrar-General. The average death-rate of these four months was 25 in the 1,000. Since that time the death-rate of London has been up as high as 35 in the 1,000, but that was during the month of August when the Cholera was raging in the East. Even during that sad month the mortality of Newcastleupon-Tyne was as high, and that of Liverpool much higher, without any outbreak of Cholera in the former.

But London is not one city; it is a congeries of cities. The whole death-rate may be low, but there are spots where it is excessive. Taking as an instance the parish of St. James's, Westminster, we find the death-rate here during the past ten years to have been 20 in the 1,000; but on examination it will be found that in one district the death-rate has been as low as 12 in the 1,000, whilst in another it has been as high as 25 in the 1,000. So in many of the parishes of London, when the bills of mortality are low, there are plague-spots which present for a few hundreds or thousands of people a mortality as great as that to be found in any other town throughout the country.

The health of London has undoubtedly been benefited by the general Act passed in 1855 under the name of the Metropolitan Management Act. This Act gave to the various Local Boards of Works or Vestries the power of electing a central body, the Metropolitan Board of Works, in whom the management, making, and repairing the sewers of London was vested. One of the great acts of this body has been the construction of sewers, by which the whole of the sewage of London is carried several miles beyond its boundaries, and emptied into the river Thames. It is worthy of note that this great work is now nearly completed, and that the only locality not connected with the new Main Drainage Works, is that district in the East End of London which has lately been the seat of the ravages of Cholera.

Another great good effected by the Metropolitan Management Act was, that it made it compulsory on the Vestries to elect Medical Officers of Health. To these officers was committed the duty of superintending the health of the district to which they were appointed. Under this Act forty-six Medical Officers of Health were elected in the various parishes of London. In some instances these gentlemen have been supported by the Vestries who appointed them, and material sanitary improvements have taken place as the consequence. But in a large number of instances

the Medical Officers of Health have been obstructed and opposed in all their efforts to improve the sanitary state of their districts. Their salaries have been reduced, their suggestions neglected, and in too many instances they have found it wise to say and do as little as possible for the sanitary improvement of their parishioners. The new Act gives powers to the Vestries to appoint Sanitary Inspectors, and where these officers have been appointed they have been of great and permanent utility. But in many parishes of London no Sanitary Inspectors have been appointed at all, and there are whole districts, including thousands of people, who have never been benefited in the slightest possible manner by the passing of the Metropolitan Management Act. At a meeting of the Association of Medical Officers of Health on the 16th of August, at the time when Cholera was at its height in the East End of London, Dr. Sarvis, the Medical Officer of Health for the Bethnal Green district, stated that the Orders in Council had found his Vestry "entirely unprepared," and "so far from their being inclined to carry out his suggestions as Health Officer, they, in fact, opposed him." "There was scarcely any house-to-house inspection; in fact, there were only three Sanitary Inspectors appointed for a district numbering upwards of 115,000 inhabitants." He added, "the adjoining parishes were quite as bad." Here, then, we have the most competent testimony to the fact that the East End of London had not only neglected taking advantage of the Metropolitan Management Act, but at the very time that the population was being carried off by hundreds in a day, they were opposing their Health Officers and refusing to supply the only means by which the disease could be stayed.

The advantage of an organization with a Medical Officer of Health at its head has been clearly demonstrated in London during the recent outbreak of Cholera. There was no reason to suppose, from the general character of the disease in its progress from Asia through Europe, that the present epidemic would be less fatal than it had been in 1849 or in 1854, but the numbers who have perished in London have been much less than in either of those two epidemics. Before the epidemic had fairly broken out in the East End of London, the Privy Council issued instructions to every Vestry, which compelled those bodies to take immediate action, and although these instructions were issued too late to be acted upon in the Eastern districts before the terrible explosion at the latter end of July, they were nevertheless very generally carried out in the Northern, Southern, and Western districts of the Metropolis. The principal measures adopted under their instructions were as follows:

:

1. A Sanitary Committee, appointed by the Vestry, was constituted in every parish, to whom full power was given to take such measures as were found necessary for the prevention or arrest of the disease. The meetings of the Committee were regulated according

to the urgency of the outbreak; and the Medical Officers of Health attended these meetings, reported on the progress of the disease, and recommended what steps should be taken.

2. In most of the Metropolitan parishes where it was ascertained that Cholera had actually broken out, medical visitors were appointed to whom every case of Cholera and Diarrhoea was reported, and who went to every house where persons had taken the disease, and not only prescribed for and treated the sick, but inspected the house and reported its condition to the Medical Officer of Health, who met the medical visitors every day. The medical visitors also had power to order food, wine, and other stimulants that were necessary for persons suffering under Cholera or Diarrhoea.

3. Arrangements were made with dispensaries, hospitals, or chemists and druggists, for the supply of medicines ordered by the medical visitors at all hours of the night and day. Nurses were also engaged to be in readiness to attend on any persons who might immediately require assistance at their own houses.

4. The staff of sanitary inspectors was increased, and a houseto-house visitation made by them in those districts, where, from unhealthy arrangements, or over-crowding, Cholera was likely to break out. The inspectors were supplied with disinfectants, which they applied in all cases where persons had been attacked with Diarrhoea or Cholera; and in many districts water-carts containing a solution of carbolic acid were sent round to gulley-holes, and stable-yards, and other places where disinfectants were likely to be of service.

5. The clothes of all persons who had died of Cholera, ar the bed and bed-linen in which they had slept, were immediately destroyed. The things thus destroyed were immediately replaced at the expense of the Vestry or parish in which the case occurred.

6. The surface well-pumps were directed to be closed, and the waters from cisterns and butts, where Cholera and Diarrhoea prevailed, were examined by the Medical Officer of Health; and all cisterns and butts were directed to be well cleansed at least once afortnight during the epidemic.

This will give a general idea of the measures taken in those districts of London where the fewest number of cases of Cholera have occurred. That these measures were not fully carried out in the Eastern districts of the Metropolis is well known. Whether that outbreak, and its subsequent development, could have been prevented altogether, may be questioned; but that its severity might have been mitigated and the mortality lessened to a large extent, had more active measures been adopted, there can be no doubt. The only excuse that Vestries and Local Boards make for their supineness in sanitary matters, is the expense, and yet who can doubt that by the saving of life and disease, the community would have