1866. | The New Ivon-fields of England. 323 
influences are so easily brought to bear in all these matters, that it 
is better for local reforms to be enforced by strangers than by 
friends. A special Committee of the House of Commons on the 
whole question of the health of our large towns would of course be 
the alternative (and the only one, as far as we can see), and such a 
commission would no doubt first direct its attention to the most 
sickly towns—Liverpool being notoriously the worst. In its labours 
it would no doubt have the cordial co-operation of the honourable 
members for the borough and county, two of whom, by the way, 
Mr. Graves and Mr. Charles Turner, are members of the Liverpool 
Town Council. 
Having thus explicitly, and we trust charitably, made public 
the sanitary state of Liverpool, its dangers to the country, and 
the remedy which appears to us to be the most feasible, we must 
defer the consideration of the health of other large towns for the 
present, and leave the matter m the hands of those whose duty and 
interest it is to watch over the public safety, and to prevent amongst 
our people an outbreak of pestilence similar to that which has 
rayaged our herds and flocks.* 
II. THE NEW IRON-FIELDS OF ENGLAND. 
By Epwarp Hout, B.A., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of 
Great Britain. 
Ir is now becoming daily more apparent that there is scarcely a 
geological formation—at least in England—which cannot be turned 
to some economic use, or is incapable of yelding some mineral sub- 
stance of value to man. Whether the formation be granite, porphyry, 
slate, grit, sandstone, limestone, chalk, clay, or shale, all are included 
under the above category. The requirements of art and the pro- 
gress of civilization put the earth under tribute, and however often 
the levy is made, the supply is certain to be ready: on the other 
hand, the very variety of the mineral products constantly challenge 
* Since the above article was written, the Corporation of Liverpool have 
applied to Parliament for powers to obtain an increased water-supply. The follow- 
ing is the evidence of Dr. William Stewart Trench, examined by Mr. Milward : 
“Tam Superintendent of the Board of Health at Liverpool. The death-rate last 
year was 364. The average throughout the kingdom is 22. The average death-rate 
in towns is 24:1. If Liverpool hud been as healthy as the average of towns, we should 
have saved 6,000 lives. Last year, I brought the subject before the Health Committee, 
and they submitted it to the Water Committee. There is a painful want of water 
in Liverpool. The state of health in Liverpool in May and June was very bad, 
and when diarrhoea appeared the death-rate was considerably increased—very much 
owing to the inadequacy of the rainfall and the supply of water. There was a 
direct connection between the death-rate and the insufficient water-supply. I look 
with great anxiety to the threatened approach of cholera, and particularly to what may 
occur during the months of July, August, September, and October.” 
