1868. | The Public Health. 133 
save the lives of 400 people in the year, and 8,000 illnesses into 
the bargain. ‘To be sure, that would be an enormous gain to 
Worcester, equal, at least, to a sum of 10,0002. per annum, when 
properly calculated ; but then it would not appear in the rate-books. 
Town councils and vestries are everywhere alike, utterly regardless 
of the health and lives of their fellow-creatures, but particularly 
anxious to keep down the rates. 
We are glad to report that the New Drainage at Hastings and 
St. Leonards has just been completed. The works have been 
executed by Mr. Bazalgette. The sewage is now taken out to such 
a distance into the sea as to render it impossible that it should ever 
return to the shore, and the sea will be now uncontaminated with 
the sewage of the town. It is to be hoped that the local authorities 
will take care that every house in the town is supplied with drains 
and a water-closet, so that all those diseases which are dependent 
on the retention of sewage-matters near houses may be for ever 
abolished. 
A report comes to us from Sandown, in the Isle of Wight, of a 
very extraordinary character. Sandown is one of those watering- 
places on our coast which are very likely to become unhealthy 
through the grasping economy of the tradespeople, who prey upon 
their visitors who come for health. Fortunately, however, for San- 
down, a portion of its land became possessed by a leading barrister 
on the Northern Circuit, distinguished for his attamments in natural 
science and his practical knowledge of sanitary measures. Princi- 
pally through his agency, Sandown has been thoroughly drained and 
supplied with an abundance of pure water. The consequence has 
been, that ordinary epidemics are unknown in Sandown, and the 
bills of the mortality in the last five years show a death-rate of only 
eleven in the thousand. We would call general attention to this 
remarkable case, as it clearly shows what may be done by ordinary 
sanitary activity. This is, probably, the lowest death-rate on record. 
Every local body in the kingdom would do well to study Sandown. 
It is not a rich place. It is not a place of palaces alone. It has 
poor and rich, and closely resembles other towns in the character of 
its population, but it has this peculiarity, its drainage and water 
supply are perfect. 
As an instance of how an otherwise healthy village in the 
country may be made to rival the largest towns in its filth, disease, 
and death, we may mention the village of Child’s Hill, in the 
parish of Hendon, in Middlesex. The village has no system of 
drainage; to many of the houses there are privies with open cess- 
pools, which overflow into the neighbouring ditches, which ulti- 
mately empty themselves into the Brent. The population is about 
1,000. During the summer of 1860, dropping cases of typhoid fever 
occurred in this village, and in 1867 this disease became an epidemic, 
