83 



a whole year ought to be examined, but I imagine the 

 results if carefully gone into will give no advantage to 

 the use of pure soft water wdien compared with hard, for 27 

 is a very high rate for London. In building up the skeleton 

 of an adult large quantities of the phosphates and carbonates 

 of limes are required. The well to do, who consume plenty 

 of butchers' meat, cheese, and new milk, may manage to 

 obtain what nature requires, but for the poor, who live on 

 sloppy tea, fine white bread, a little butter, a trifle of meat, 

 and plenty of soft water, where are they to get their neces- 

 sary supply from ? It is not my intention to assert that the 

 high rate of mortality is all due to soft water. No doubt 

 there are many causes which help to produce it, but good, 

 wholesome drinking water, containing carbonate of lime, 

 and plenty of fresh air, which is hard to get in a close and 

 crooked-built town of high warehouses, have in my opinion 

 much to do with it. In my own case, I put a little lime in 

 the drinking water used in my house, and I live on a sandy 

 hill, well exposed to the winds of heaven. In all sanitary 

 arrangements too much attention cannot be given to provi- 

 ding plenty of fresh air and as much light as practicable. 



" Observations on the Rate at which Stalagmite is being 

 accumulated in the Ingleborough Cave," by W. Boyd 

 Dawkins, M.A., F.KS., F.G.S. 



The only attempt to measure with accuracy the rate of 

 the accumulation of stalagmite in caverns, in this country, 

 is that made by Mr. James Farrer in the Ingleborough Cave, 

 in the years 1839 and 1845, and published by Professor 

 Phillips in " The Rivers, Mountains, and Sea Coast of York- 

 shire," (second edition, 1855, pp, 34-35). The stalagmite of 

 which the measurements were taken is that termed, from 

 its shape, the jockey cap. It rises from a crystalline pave- 

 ment to a height of about 2 J feet, and is the result of a 

 deposit of carbonate of lime, brought down by a line of 

 drops that fall into a basin at its top, and flow over the 



