206 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [June 



The foregoing may be regarded in great measure as errors of 

 neglect or ignorance; but the very remedies apphed at high cost 

 are continual causes of disease. A large part of the older sewers 

 in the city are made of absorbent and now putrid wood ; and al- 

 though the Council have determined to lay down no more, the 

 brick sewers are often so badly constructed that the eflFete matter 

 oozes through them, and deposits soon accumulate in their slug- 

 gish course. Moreover a large proportion of the house drains, 

 even in high-rented dwellings, are still made of wood and un- 

 trapped. Only the new sewers are trapped at the gulley-holes ; 

 and at times, and in special places, the stench from these old poison- 

 pits is insupportable. Thus our sewer and house drain system 

 may be called (with few exceptions) an express contrivance for 

 conveying the ordinary air-poisons, and the extraordinary infec- 

 tions of small-pox, scarlatina, &c., into every part of the city ; 

 and especially from the low into the higher levels, lest the rich 

 should selfishly conclude that they were not affected by the evils 

 which they allow to scourge the poor. The prevailing currents 

 of air also, in the general direction of the river, while they serve 

 somewhat to mitigate the unhealthiness of Griffintown, carry the 

 air-poisons over the higher districts, where, being intercepted by 

 the " Mountain," they impinge upon the fashionable streets and 

 villas of our city. 



Infants are more dependent on pure air even than children ; 

 they, more than adults ; yet to all of us, unvitiated air is a 

 necessary condition of health. Moreover, infants c;innot escape 

 from the air of their dwellings, nor from the poisons which 

 fester there. The infantile death-rate is therefore the readiest 

 thermometer, by which we estimate the virulence of poisonous 

 emanations. How this thermometer rises and falls with the heat 

 of the sun, has here been shewn. So far from wondering why so 

 many children die in this city, we might rather wonder how 

 so many manage to struggle into life, against such murderous 

 forces. All these (as well as other) corrupting influences must be 

 removed, if we hope to render up our account to the great Judge, 

 free from the blood of these hundreds of children, to whom 

 the Lord gave Life ; who in their helplessness cry to us to nurture 

 and guard it; but whom we, to save a few wretched dollars and 

 a little toil and trouble, consign to a premature and therefore to a 

 guilt-bearing Death. 



Montreal, July 20th, 186&. 



