with an allowance of 102 square yards to each person, have a mortality of 1 in 41; 10 unhealthiest, with an allowance of 32 square yards to each person, have a mortality of 1 in 36. Liverpool-gentry, 1 in 35; working classes, 1 in 15. The Rev. Mr. Clay, of Preston, makes four classes of streets :-Well conditioned, mortality among children under one year, 15 in 100; moderately conditioned, 21 in 100; ill conditioned, 38 in 100; worst conditioned, 44 in 100, or three times as much as the first. I will only refer back to the very last half-year's report, where it appears, from tables prepared by Mr. Chadwick, that, in St. George's Hanover square, the average age at which the gentry die is 45; laborers, 27: St. Giles's and St. George's Bloomsbury-gentry, 40; working classes, 17. "There are items of expense which may be reckoned to be incurred under the present system, or rather want of system:Direct attendance on the sick; loss of what they would have earned; premature death of productive contributors to the national wealth; and expenses of premature funerals. Dr. Playfair estimates this loss for Manchester at nearly £1,000,000; Mr. Hawkesley calculates the loss for Nottingham at £300,000; Mr. Clay estimates the loss for Preston at £990,000; Mr. Coulthait takes the loss for Ashton-under-Lyne at £235,000; and Dr. Playfair considers the loss of London to be above £2,500,000; and that of England and Wales little short of £11,000,000; and of the United Kingdom, £20,000,000,” or nearly $100,000,000! And this an annual loss! On the 31st of August, 1848, the great measure which had been brought into Parliament by Lord Morpeth, (now Earl of Carlisle,) became a law, under the title of "An Act for promoting the Public Health." Under this act a General Board of Health has been organized, consisting of the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Ashley, Edwin Chadwick, Esq., and Thomas Southwood Smith, M. D. Henry Austin, Esq., is their secretary. While these various governmental measures were in progress, the people were not inactive. Public opinion kept ahead of public measures. In November, 1844, an important meeting was held at Exeter Hall, composed of some of the ablest men in the kingdom, which formed the "Metropolitan Health of Towns Association." April 23, 1845, the Liverpool Health of Towns Association was organized; and soon after, similar associations were formed in the principal towns in England. A monthly periodical work, entitled "The Liverpool Health of Towns Advocate," was commenced Sept. 1, 1845, and continued until July 1, 1847. In November, 1847, the "Journal of Public Health, and Monthly Record of Sanitary Improvement," was commenced in London, and was continued until December, 1849, under the management of the Metropolitan Association. The books, pamphlets, and documents, official and private, which have more recently appeared on the subject, and the different sanitary movements that have been made for the public benefit, are too numerous to be specified. The whole country seems to be interested; and the people, with some few exceptions, view the sanitary question as The Great Idea of the 1 Associations for scientific and benevolent purposes, in England, are generally managed by "committees." The following gentlemen composed the committee of the London Health of Towns Association. Others, equally eminent, in that city and in other parts of the kingdom, are earnestly engaged in the cause :— mere. Treasurer. "THE MOST NOBLE THE MARQUESS OF NORMANBY, K. P., The Rt. Hon. Earl of Radnor. vid's. The Rt Hon. R. L. Sheil, M.P. ford. Wm. D. Chowne, M. D. Chairman. Wm. Janson, Jr., Esq. T. Southwood Smith, Esq., J. F. South, Esq. Wm. Tite, Esq., F. R. S. The Liverpool Health of Towns Association had the Mayor, the Senior Rector, and the Senior Churchwarden, for Presidents; Adam Hodgson, Esq., Chairman; Thomas Blackburn, Esq., Vice-President; Mr. James H. Macree, Treasurer, and Mr. John A. Tinne, and W. H. Duncan, M. D., Secretaries; besides the auditors and other officers, and committees. Age. Able articles have, from time to time, appeared in the leading periodical reviews, miscellaneous as well as medical; and among other newspapers, The Times, and The Morning Chronicle, the leading journals of the world, have been its powerful advocates. The Times, during nearly the whole of last year, teemed with able articles. The Chronicle commenced, on the 18th of October, 1849, three series of most valuable papers on "Labor and the Poor;" one relating to the metropolitan districts, one to the manufacturing districts, and one to the rural districts. Even the Queen, in her recent speech at the opening of Parliament, recommended the subject to public consideration: "In the summer and autumn of the past year, the United Kingdom was again visited by the ravages of the cholera; but Almighty God, in his mercy, was pleased to arrest the progress of mortality, and to stay this fearful pestilence. Her Majesty is persuaded that we shall best evince our gratitude by vigilant precautions against the more obvious causes of sickness, and an enlightened consideration for those who are most exposed to its attacks." It would be impossible here to give even an analysis of these documents and works. The following are among the many conclusions to which we are led from the information they contain : 1. It is proved that there die annually, in each 100 of the population, of the whole of England, 2.27; of the most healthy district, 1.53; and of the most unhealthy district, 3.58. And that the living to one death are, in these districts, respectively, 44, 65, and 27. 2. It is proved "that the various forms of epidemic, contagious, and other diseases, caused, or aggravated, or propagated, by atmospheric impurities, produced by decomposing animal or vegetable substances, by damp and filth, and close and over crowded dwellings, prevail amongst the population in every part of the kingdom, whether dwelling in separate houses, in rural villages, in small towns, or in the large towns, as they have been found to prevail in the lowest district of the metropolis." 3. It is proved that disease and mortality fall more heavily upon those who live in large towns and populous places, than in the country districts, and particularly upon those who live in narrow streets, confined courts, damp dwellings, close chambers, cellars, undrained, unventilated, and uncleansed; and affect most severely the infantile portion of the population, and the heads of families between twenty and thirty years of age. 4. It is proved that, in such situations, the average duration of life is five to twenty-five years less than it might otherwise be; and that, during this curtailed period of existence, the working power of those who live, and their capacity for enjoyment, are greatly diminished by a constant depression of health and spirits, and by the active attacks of fever, cholera, scrofula, and consumption. 5. It is proved "that such diseases, wherever their attacks are frequent, are always found in connection with the physical circumstances above specified; and that where these circumstances are removed by drainage, proper cleansing, better ventilation, and other means of diminishing atmospheric impurity, the frequency and intensity of such diseases are abated; and where the removal of the noxious agencies, and other causes of disease, appears to be complete, such diseases almost entirely disappear." 6. It is proved that the annual mortality might be reduced, in the whole kingdom, from 2.27 per cent., or 1 in 44, to less than two per cent., or 1 in 50; and in all large towns, as low as that general average. 7. It is proved that this unnecessary excess of mortality above 2 per cent., occasions an annual loss of more than 50,000 lives in the United Kingdom,-"greater than the loss from death or wounds in any wars in which the country has been engaged in modern times ;" and that the causes of these unnecessary deaths occasion at least twenty cases of unnecessary sickness, on the average, to each death, or one million cases annually, which might have been prevented. 8. It is proved that of the 43,000 cases of widowhood, and 112,000 cases of destitute orphanage, relieved from the poor rates of England and Wales alone, the greater proportion of deaths of the heads of families occurred from specified removable causes; and that the average of their ages was under fortyfive years, or thirteen years below the natural probability of life, as shown by experience. 9. It is proved that the preventable causes of disease, and the unnecessary mortality, impose upon the people immense pecuniary burdens which might be avoided. 10. It is proved that the younger population, bred up under noxious physical agencies, is inferior in physical organization and general health to a population preserved from such agencies; and that these adverse circumstances tend to produce an adult population, short-lived, improvident, reckless, intemperate, immoral, and with excessive desires for sensual gratifications. II. THE SANITARY MOVEMENT AT HOME. Sanitary Police. Some historical notice of the sanitary legislation of Massachusetts, seems proper, preliminary to any statements of its present condition. We have accordingly presented, in the appendix, the titles of all the acts relating to matters connected with the public health, from the commencement of the provincial charter, in the year 1692, to the present time, arranged in chronological order; and referred, in connection, to the printed works where they may be found. The subject seems to have received little attention from the General Court, during the old colonial charter. Two acts, which have some relation to it, we shall presently notice. Laws were passed by Towns, however, under the general authority which they possessed, sometimes made regulations regarding sickness. The selectmen of Salem, in 1673," ordered that William Stacy, who is sick of the small-pox, doth not presume to come abroad till three weeks after this date; and that he be very careful that when the time be expired he shift his clothes, and do not frequent company till he be wholly clear of the infection." And again" The se lectmen being informed that William Lord, Jr., is visited with the small-pox, at his father's house, do order that William Lord, sen., his wife and children that live with him, do keep within their house, and that they do not offer to sell any of their wares, viz. : bread, cakes, gingerbread, and the like; and that they suffer none to come to their house, but what neces sity requires, upon the penalty of 20s. in money for each offence. It is ordered that Thomas Stacey doth forbear grinding at the mill, and that he be careful he doth not infect others, on the penalty of 20s. A house is ordered to be impressed for our sick, having the small-pox.”— Fell's Annals of Salem, Vol. II, p. 423. The following act was passed by the Massachusetts Colony, in 1660 "This court, considering how far Satan doth prevail upon several persons within this jurisdiction to make away themselves, judgeth that God calls them to bear testimony against such wicked and unnatural practices, that others may be deterred therefrom: Do therefore order, that from henceforth, if any person, inhabitant or stranger, shall at any time be found by any jury to lay violent hands on themselves, or be wilfully guilty of |