111 
NOTES ON THE WHITEHAVEN RURAL*SANITARY 
DISTRICT. 
By JAMES SYME, Mep. OFr. oF HEALTH, 
(Read at Whitehaven. ) 
In selecting my subject, I was impelled to do so upon the 
suggestion of your President, and also by the knowledge of the 
many requirements which every day become to my eyes more 
apparent, in the district over which I have the honour to. have the 
medical supervision. It is my purpose, in the first place, to give 
a short digest of the laws which ought to govern the sanitary 
condition of every district, in order to obviate those malarious 
diseases which are sure to make their appearance if the observance 
of what is laid down by the best authorities be not strictly adhered 
to. Effective sewerage, a good water supply, proper ventilation, 
and the absence of over-crowding, may be selected as the four 
corner-stones upon which to build the edifice. It is an old 
proverb, and a very true one, that “cleanliness is next to godli- 
ness.” It has been amongst the oldest and most universal of 
medical experiences, that people living among filth, and within 
direct reach of its polluting influence, succumb to various diseases, 
which, under opposite conditions, are comparatively, or even 
absolutely, unknown. The experience of modern times has shown 
_ that by various indirect channels, filth can operate far more subtly, 
and also far more widely and more fatally, than ancient science 
anticipated. An important suggestion with regard to the nature of 
the operations by which filth, attacking the human body, is able to 
disorder or destroy it, is that the chief morbific agencies in filth are 
