View of Tenements in Stillman Street.

They are filled to overflowing with a most vicious and miserable population. Even the cellars, under the long low building, near which the two figures are seen, and into which it is very difficult to crawl, are inhabited, although the crazy timbers overhead threaten each moment to entomb, or the waters beneath to drown them.

We give but one illustration more it is the place in the rear of 136 Hanover street, which was inhabited chiefly by the unfortunate

Passage about 50f.

Old Shed

"Crowe" family. It will be recollected that some of the earliest cases occurred here, and the victims were seized and died in such rapid succession as to attract special attention to the spot. There were something like twelve deaths here, in a period of little more than two days, out of a population of less than fifty persons.

The plan shows the long narrow entrance; the want of any passage beyond; the entire absence of any yard in the rear; and the reason, therefore, why all the excrementitious matters, the refuse vegetables, &c. should be constantly accumulated in the centre of the place. Nothing arrested the fearful progress of the disease, here, but the immediate removal of all the inmates, and a thorough cleansing of the premises.

The large house, in the left foreground, was in tolerable good repair, but excessively crowded with inmates. The farther Plan of Place in rear of 136 building on the right, was formerly the rear Hanover Street. wing of a larger house. It is a very dilapidated and incommodious building with very low and narrow rooms. It was with the greatest difficulty that the people were persuaded to leave these wretched quarters. The horse-litter' was sent repeatedly for them, and, although some of them were found sick upon the floor,

An easy covered carriage (containing a bed,) for the conveyance of patients, which was constantly in readiness, day and night, in the Hospital yard.

all the energy of the authorities was required to overcome their listless indifference to their fate.

An examination of the habits of the victims of Cholera shows with how much discrimination they were selected for its attack; while the rate of mortality, among those who were intemperate, is still more remarkable.

Of the whole number of patients at the Hospital, (262,) one hundred and fifty-four were known to be intemperate, and one hundred and eight who were supposed to be temperate.

The whole number of deaths

Of those who were intem

Of the intemperate,

The whole number of re

coveries was

Of the temperate, .

The experience of this epidemic has certainly given most satisfactory evidence of the power and value of House in rear of 136 Hanover Street. sanitary measures: for, as we have stated in the early part of this report, while no person was attacked without some obviously exciting cause, so, in every case in which those much exposed were removed from these deleterious influences, and provided with cleanly, airy apartments, and suitable food, an attack of the disease was averted.

The laws of nature, although immutable, are beautifully adapted to the welfare and happiness of mankind. In nothing can this fact be more strikingly illustrated than in its relation to the public health, in a city whose natural advantages, for improvement in this respect, are not surpassed by any other.

Modern science has demonstrated that the most malignant epidemics may be greatly controlled by efficient sanitary reforms: It is not unreasonable, therefore, that for the future, the legal custodiens of the public health, (the necessary means being first placed at their disposal,) should be held to a strict accountability for its conservation.

18 50 to 55, 36 55 to 60, 68 60 to 65,

101 65 to 70,

87 70 to 75,

4 New England, 39 Other states, 12

707 Ireland,

460

18

Irish children, 49
England,
Other countries, 45

1 Massachusetts, 42 Total,

- 707

1

1

XXIV. SANITARY SURVEY OF LAWRENce.

BY THE COMMISSION.

[The following article relating to Lawrence, and the next relating to Attleborough, are inserted to illustrate a mode by which a sanitary survey of a town may be made, as recommended, pages 166 and 358.]

1. Natural and Atmospheric Condition of the Town. Lawrence was projected as a manufacturing town, in 1844, and incorporated April 17, 1847. It is 26 miles from Boston, 20 from Salem, 24 from Newburyport, and 29 from Manchester, N. H. Its latitude is 42° 42′ 57.67", and its longitude 71° 09′ 05.84", west of Greenwich. It contains 4,374 square acres, 344 of which is covered with water. 1,980 acres of the land on the south side of the Merrimack River was taken from Andover, and 2,050, on the north side, from Methuen.

The general character of the soil is a dry, sandy alluvial, resting on a rocky base, at a greater or less depth from the surface. Clay gravel prevails in the northerly parts of the town. On the south side of the river it is generally level, and also in the central parts on the north side. The top of the dam across the Merrimack is 45 feet above tide water. In the populous part of the town, the foot of Lawrence street is the lowest elevation, being 4 feet above the crest of the dam, and 37 feet below the highest elevation of the streets. Two hills, one on the easterly and the other on the westerly borders of the town, rise to the height of about 140 feet above the dam.

There are three streams of water—the Merrimack, near the centre; the Spicket, on the north; and the Shawsheen, forming, in its sluggish course, the easterly boundary of the town, on the south side of the Merrimack. The first two are rapid, but neither is subject to overflow its banks. The Merrimack, in its natural passage through the town, has a rapid here, known as Bodwell's Falls, which in some places falls 4 or more feet in a 300 feet passage. In a medium current, about 5,000 cubic feet of water passes per second, and it sometimes rises to 60,000 per second, thus affording a water-power here nearly or quite equal to that of Lowell. Lake Winnepisiogee, in New Hampshire, containing about 120 square miles, the principal source of the Merrimack River, has been purchased by the owners of the water power in this and the other manufacturing towns above, to make the flow of water at all seasons equal to the general average. The Spicket falls 40 feet over a succession of dams, and discharges about 100 cubic feet per second. The Shawsheen has very little perceptible fall in this town.

The town seems to be free from natural sources of malaria; though meteorological and other similar observations have not been made for a sufficient time, nor with sufficient accuracy, to determine, with much exactness, the true natural character of the locality, nor to ascertain whether any atmospheric peculiarity or sanitary impurity exists.

2. Artificial and Local Condition of the Town.

The lands now comprised within the township, previous to 1844 were used principally for agricultural purposes, and contained, in cluding the Methuen pauper establishment, less than 100 inhabitants In that year an association was formed, consisting of Messrs. Samuel Lawrence, John Nesmith, Thomas Hopkinson, Josiah G. Abbott, of