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portant domestic supply, be not eiiflangered by vitiated water. 

 The best energies of the State cannot possibly be so serviceably 

 employed, or public funds so appropriately applied, as in pro- 

 viding an ample supply of pure water, and in protecting it, on 

 its way to our homes, in town or country, by the severest penal- 

 ties, from impurity and these germs of death. It is impossible 

 to over-estimate the sanitary advantages of water. The penalty 

 which Nature attaches to contempt of her provisions and 

 neglect of her laws are not always immediate, but they are 

 certain. As we go on drinking polluted water, or breathing 

 impure air, the system is becoming more and more prepared 

 to fall a victim whenever the avenging pestilence arrives. The 

 powder is being stored and dried, waiting only the fatal spark.. 

 Call to mind the loss of children at Brig-hton, and more lately, 

 at Sorell, where whole families have been well nigh swept off, 

 and say whether there was not a preventible cause. Remem- 

 ber how many families were invuded when scarlet fever first 

 broke out in Hobart Town. That was before the reservoirs 

 ■were constructed, and the citizens had to draw their supplies 

 from wells unprotected from the pollutions of sewers and other 

 sources of poison. We shudder when we read of the 80,000 

 or 90,000 human beings slaughtered on the battle fields of 

 Turkey, but there is not a single year when a larger number, 

 relatively to the population, do not fall victims to modern bar- 

 barism. I say "modern barbarism," for old Eome was in- 

 finitely in advance of modern cities in practical cleanliness. 

 We can fancy the profound sensation in the reign of Augustus 

 which would have followed a report from the inspector of 

 cloacal nuisances which contained the following passage : — ■ 

 *' Some arrangement is required to direct the contents of the 

 sewers along before filtering through stones, by which solid 

 matters in suspension are arrested, undergo putrefaction, and 

 pollute the atmosphere. The cop>ious fall of rain we have had 

 (i.e., in February last) never swept the filth from sides of the 

 greater part of the rivulet, though the centre channel was 

 well flushed. During my frequent examinations of the rivulet, 

 I have often observed refuse of all kinds thrown from the 

 habitations bordering thereon into it. I also see organic 

 refuse thrown from houses into the street-gutters shortly after 

 they have been swept by the scavengers." This was the wit- 

 ness of your own " Officer of Health," written not long before 

 an intolerable stench forewarned the inhabitants of Battery 

 Point of coming mischief, before which not only the weaklings 

 perished, but the strength of the young man has been bowed 

 down. I know that we shall be met, as all reformers are sure 

 to be met, by the cry of expense. Let me reply to this cry by 

 quoting a passage from the Eeports of your own Transactions, 



