tals. And where the hospital accommodation of a town threatened to become inadequate, means for meeting any increased demand which might arise were suggested."

The Report argues for a cautious interpretation of the fact made public by the Registrar-General that the death-rate of the cotton districts has been lower, and suggests that the true interpretation will be found in the lessening of the infant mortality, due to the withdrawal of mothers from the factories.

IV. The Report on cattle disease is founded on the evidence of Professor Gamgee. Mr. Gamgee believes that as a diseased animal is immediately condemned to slaughter, one-fifth of the meat of the country, beef, veal, mutton, lamb, and pork, comes from animals in a state of disease. The Report simply calls attention to the statements of Mr. Gamgee as requiring particular notice.

"The Report of the Commissioners appointed to Inquire into the Sanitary Condition of the Army in India," has been issued.

The Report, with appendix, fills two folio volumes of nearly one thousand pages each, and contains reports from every station in India, where British or native troops are quartered. The great fact of the Report is thus stated:-"Besides deaths from natural causes, which would be represented by 9 in 1,000, 60 head per 1,000 of our troops perish in India annually. It is at that expense that we have held dominion there for a century; a company out of every regiment has been sacrificed there every twenty months."

The causes of this unnatural death-rate are duly exposed. Un sanitary condition of towns and stations; bad drainage, or indeed none; impure water; ill-ventilated unwholesome barracks; intemperance in food and drink; climate acting in aggravation of these evils, but not appearing as a direct cause to any large extent. This is shown by the results at sanitary stations, and by the rates of mortality in the three following classes :

1. Native army, 20 per 1,000.

Healthy stations, 10 per 1,000.

2. Civil service for nearly a hundred years, between the ages of 20 and 45-14 to 18 per 1,000.

General average, 30 per 1,000.

3. Average annual rate in the British army, 69 per 1,000.

PUBLIC HEALTH.

President.

PROFESSOR CHRISTISON, M.D.
Fice-Presidents.

DR. CRAIGIE, PRESIDENT OF the College OF PHYSICIANS.
DR. NEWBIGGing, President of the College of Surgeons.
W. LINDSAY, Esq., PROVOST OF Leith.

Secretaries.

W. O. MARKHAM, Esq., M.D. | R. RAWLINSON, Esq., C.E.
Local Secretaries.

DR. LITTLEJOHN. T DR. SCORESBY-JACKSON.
DR. STEVENSON MACADAM.

This Department considers the various questions relating to the Public Health: it collects statistical evidence of the relative healthiness of different localities, of different industrial occupations, and generally of the influence of external circumstances in the production of health or disease; it discusses improvements in house-construction (more especially as to the dwellings of the labouring classes), in drainage, warming, ventilation; public baths and washhouses; adulteration of food and its effects; the functions of Government in relation to public health; the legislative and administrative machinery expedient for its preservation; sanitary police, quarantine, &c., poverty in relation to disease; and the effect of unhealthiness on the prosperity of places and nations.

SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS.

In addition to the papers printed in the foregoing pages, the following were read in the Department :

"The Influence of Alcoholic Liquors upon Health, as illustrated by the Experience of the British Army in India." By the Rev. Dawson Burns.

"On Disease in Cattle." By Professor Gamgee.

"On the Contamination of Water by Paper Works." By Stevenson Macadam.

"On the Contamination of Water by Manufactories, and especially Distilleries." By Dr. Murray Thomson, M.D.

"On Certain Causes affecting the Origin of Disease in Large Towns." By Williamson, M.D. "A few Observations on the Chief Causes which render Merchant Seamen more liable to Sickness and to a greater Rate of Mortality than in the Royal Navy or in Civil Life; and the best Means to be employed to Remedy these Evils." By Dr. John Stewart, R.N.

"On a New Mode of Intercepting and Retaining the Solid Soil from Water-Closets for Utilisation, and for the Sanitary Improvement of Large Towns." By Edwin Cheshire, F.R.C.S.

Longevity in Scotland." By Cornelius Walford. "Medical Reform." By W. Ögle, M.D.

"On the Advantages attending the Production of German Yeast in this Country." By John Mackay.

"House-top Airing-grounds." By J. Lewis André.

THE CONDITION OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

On the reading of the paper on "The Sanitary Statistics of Native Colonial Schools and Hospitals," by Miss Nightingale, printed at p. 475, a short discussion took place, and the following resolution was unanimously adopted on the motion of Mr. James Heywood:

"The Department of Public Health, in congress at Edinburgh, request the Council of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science to represent to the Colonial Office the importance of considering the valuable reports of Miss Nightingale on native colonial schools, native colonial hospitals, and the causes of the disappearance of native races in British colonies, and that they also represent the desirableness of endeavouring to obtain additional information respecting native races."

THE CAUSES WHICH MODIFY THE PUBLIC HEALTH-INTEMPERANCE.

The Rev. Dawson Burns contributed a paper on "The Effects of Alcoholic Liquors upon Health, as illustrated by the Experience of the British Army in India." The paper consisted of extracts from the "Report of the Commissioners on the Sanitary Condition of the Indian Army," proving, in the words of their recapitulation, that the use of spirituous liquors is highly detrimental to the soldier's health in India, and is one of the chief causes which injures him physically and morally; and that abstinence from spirits has always been attended by greatly improved health, even under circumstances otherwise unfavourable.

On the reading of this paper, after that of Miss Nightingale, printed p. 501, the following discussion took place.

DISCUSSION.

Mr. CHADWICK said that with reference to the statements made in the papers which had been read as to the influence of temperance in reducing the death-rate, in one instance it had been ascertained that whereas the death-rate among the common troops in the one station was forty-four in the thousand, the death-rate of the troops in the same place who had been put upon temperance conditions was reduced to fourteen in the thousand. There was no doubt that, by similar appliances, combined with habits of prudence and sanitary appliances, the reduction which Miss Nightingale had alluded to, of ten or fifteen in the thousand, might be expected to prevail throughout the whole of India. Tropical climates being of themselves unfavourable to health, there was more need for attention being paid to sanitary science; and he hoped that while these principles were attended to at home, instruction would be given in sanitary science to the engineers of the army. He had pleasure in saying that Lord de Grey was attending to that subject, and it was highly satisfactory to find that Mr. Robert Rawlinson, who had so much experience of sanitary engineering at home and abroad, had been appointed to lecture on sanitary science to the young engineer officers who are to go out to India, and who would have to direct the labours of the troops. In all that he saw great and important progress would arise to the strength of our army as well as to the population.

Dr. HANCOCK, while admitting the evils of intemperance, and the influence it had upon the death-rate in India, thought the fact ought not to be overlooked that one of the principal causes of intemperance was placing a man in an unfavourable position so far as his domestic life was concerned. The reason why a man wasted his time and health in a canteen in India was that he was compelled to live in unsuitable barracks. In proof of this, and of the unfavourable influence of barrack life on single men, the speaker quoted a number of statistics showing that the mortality amongst married men was very much less than amongst unmarried men.

Mr. RAWLINSON thought that, if similar measures were adopted in India to those which had been adopted elsewhere with regard to the army, there was no doubt that they might expect the results predicted by Miss Nightingale. They remembered the fearful mortality which occurred in the army which left our shores for the Crimea-a mortality which had no parallel in our history, which even exceeded that of the Wallcheren expedition. That mortality was attributed to the climate and to certain other things, to the want of roads, to excessive trench duty, to great exposure to the weather, &c.; nevertheless, by the exertions made in the camp, the mortality in the Crimean army during the last eighteen months of the campaign was reduced to a less rate than that army had ever enjoyed in its barracks at home. Since that time great improvements had been made in our barracks at home, in their sanitary condition, and the rate of mortality had in consequence been reduced from 17 to 8 per thousand. If the same thing were done in India, if better barracks were erected, better sites chosen, and the spirit ration abolished, he believed, humanly speaking, they might place the British army in India, now nearly 80,000 strong, in such a position that, in place of its mortality rising up to 60 and 70 per thousand, it should not exceed 20 per thousand.

Dr. STEVENSON MACADAM alluded to the great evil of the large dose of food referred to by Miss Nightingale. It was a larger ration than that given to soldiers in this country, although in India, as in all hot climates, you actually required, for the proper sustenance of the body, less food than you would do in this country, or in any temperate or cold region. Food was like fuel, and was consumed to keep up the animal heat. In winter, more food was required than in summer, and in the same way less food was needed in a hot climate than in a cold one.

The Rev. ANDREW INGLIS, Ecclefechan, called attention to the statistics produced by Colonel Sykes, at the recent meeting of the British Association at Newcastle, with reference to the comparative rates of mortality in the Indian army amongst total abstainers, men who drank the Government rations only, and drunkards.

DISEASED MEAT.

In addition to the paper by Mr. Holland, printed at p. 519.

Professor GAMGEE read a paper on "The System of Inspection in Relation to Diseased Animals or their Produce." After some remarks on the diminution that had taken place in the supply of animal food, and its deterioration through the admission of foreign stock into the markets, he said-At present the only means adopted to prevent the sale of diseased meat were-first to prevent, if possible, the introduction of diseased animals from abroad; and, second, to inspect slaughter-houses and dead-meat houses. The inspectors at ports had been of some service, but it was well-known that foreign disease was constantly introduced by means of infected stock, which might even appear healthy when landed. The inspection of slaughterhouses and dead-meat markets had been wretchedly bad, and in many large towns, as in Edinburgh, almost useless. To stop the traffic in diseased animals disease must be prevented, and that could

not be accomplished unless by a general system of enlightened inspection. The system of inspection he would propose was one that should commence at the farm, and they should have, in the first place, a competent scientific veterinarian in every important agricultural district to assume the responsibility of preventing disease wherever it might appear. Secondly, the district veterinary inspector could examine stock exposed for sale in fairs, and attend to fairs being held where there would be the least danger of spreading contagious diseases, if any such were in his district. Thirdly, private slaughter-houses should be abolished, and if any such are established in the vicinity of large towns, there should be a tax so as to defray the expenses of inspection. Fourthly, that the inspection of slaughter-houses should be conducted by a veterinary surgeon, aided by a sufficient number of officials of a different class. Fifthly, attention should be paid in every important town to the dairies which supply the community with milk. Mr. Gamgee concluded by asking all who recognised the importance of this subject to join the Society for the Prevention of Diseases amongst Animals.

DISCUSSION.

Mr. RAWLINSON thought that question was one which ought to be taken up by Government. As one who had been employed as a Government Inspector of Slaughter-Houses, he knew something of the question, and he could relate circumstances to them which would certainly astonish them. He remembered once, near Manchester, finding twenty slaughter-houses which were openly and unblushingly employed in the trade in diseased meat, and in nothing else. They were locally known as "slink-butchers," and the stock was made into soup or mutton pies.

Dr. M'KINLAY, Paisley, expressed his concurrence in the views of Mr. Holland and Professor Gamgee. He stated that he believed all diseased meat was more or less poisonous, and he had himself known a case in which death had resulted from eating diseased meat.

Mr. EDWIN CHADWICK thought that, whatever the Social Science Association could do, they should do to support the legislative efforts of Mr. Holland on that subject. Any effort out of doors would be of little use unless some member in-doors took up the subject as a specialité, and he thought that Mr. Holland had rendered very great service to the agricultural public, as well as the community at large, by doing that.

Dr. ALEXANDER WOOD said, that while no one could for a moment hesitate to regard the consumption of diseased meat by human beings with extreme disgust, yet he would like to know whether the gentlemen who had read the papers could prove that any connexion existed between any specific disease and the consumption of diseased meat. He had failed to gather that such a connexion existed from the statements of Mr. Holland and Professor Gamgee. He would give his hearty_concurrence to the movement originated with so much talent and energy by Professor Gamgee; but before they launched out into statements that diseases resulted from the eating of diseased meat, they should be prepared to say what these diseases were, because it was a new fact that meat so diseased would, after it was cooked, produce any specific disease.

Mr. CHADWICK said that, while he could not give any instance of a specific disease produced by eating diceased meat, he had been assured by the officers of workhouses and similar institutions that they had found it of the greatest importance to preserve the inmates of such places from the influences of diseased meat, as they always led to ill-health.

Dr. SMITH alluded to the fact that the shepherds of the Highlands were in the