1864. | Sanatory Science. 169 
amongst the personal habits of the soldier which call most loudly for 
correction and reform, and we cannot but think that if proper steps be 
taken, the mortality arismg from them may be largely diminished. 
Experience has shown that the proper carrying out of sanatory prin- 
ciples in other parts of the globe in which British troops are quartered, 
has succeeded in effecting great improvements in the health of the 
men, and we see no reason why the same good result should not follow 
the application of the same principles in our Indian empire. 
We cannot close this brief résumé of some of the most important 
recent contributions to Sanatory Science, without directing attention 
to the suggestive address on many matters connected with public 
health, delivered at the Edinburgh meeting of the Social Science 
Association, to the department over which he presided, by Professor 
Christison. 
In this address Dr. Christison inquires into the mode in which 
the principal diseases or groups of diseases are influenced by the 
agents which affect public health. One of the most remarkable facts 
which he elucidates is the total disappearance of ague which has of late 
years taken place in Scotland, a country in which at one time it was 
very common. This disappearance does not indeed seem to be coin- 
cident with the drainage and agricultural improvements which have 
been carried on so energetically there for many years past; for the 
decline in the disease took place before such improvements were car- 
ried out. The co-existence of typhus fever with deficient ventilation 
and cleanliness and want of work is forcibly pointed out, but the de- 
cline which has of late years taken place in Edinburgh in the number 
and fatality of the visitations of this disease is ascribed by the Pro- 
fessor to changes in the type or constitution of epidemic diseases, 
rather than to any satisfactory improvement in the cleaning of the 
lanes and houses of the working classes. In the case of the typhoid 
or enteric fever, Dr. Christison thinks that something more is to be 
looked for in endeavouring to decide upon its mode of origin than ill- 
drained streets, defective water-closets, and foul air. Allthese cir- 
cumstances certainly favour its invasion, but its true cause lies in 
something more specific, and whilst better drainage and more perfect 
ventilation ought to be encouraged, yet they alone are nut sufficient to 
extirpate enteric fever. These statements are in opposition to much 
that recent writers, both medical and non-medical, have been for 
many years back strongly inculcating, and, as was naturally to be ex- 
pected, have not been allowed to pass unchallenged. But we cannot 
help thinking that as the deliberately expressed opinions of a phy- 
sician, who has possessed opportunities of studying fever second to no 
man, they are deserving of much careful consideration. From a sta- 
tistical comparison of the mortality of the large towns of Scotland with 
the agricultural counties, the greater frequency of the diseases de- 
pendent on a depraved state of the constitution in the former than 
the latter is, as might naturally be expected, clearly proved. The 
address concludes by showing that the Western Islands of Scotland, 
in spite of their mist-laden atmosphere and exposed position, enjoy 
an almost complete immunity from pulmonary consumption. 
