158 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 317 



experienced eye by means of contour-lines. Therefore these 

 models have a highly educational value, and will be used to the 

 greatest advantage m the teaching of geography. One of the fea- 

 tures most strikingly shown in the model of the Atlantic Ocean is 

 the extent of the continental shelves both of the Old and' of the 

 New World. The abruptness with which oceanic islands rise 

 from the greatest depths is also well shown. The deep valleys of 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, of the Florida Strait, south of Cuba, and 

 at the mouth of the Kongo, appear very distinctly and clearly, and 

 the bold relief of the Mediterranean Sea is seen to be in striking 

 contrast to the oceanic depths. The undulations of the ocean are 

 shown not less clearly. The great transatlantic cables are shown. 

 Mr. Court deserves the thanks of teachers of geography for having 

 undertaken a work of this magnitude. As the prices are very 

 reasonable, — being ninety dollars for the model of the Atlantic 

 Ocean, and seventy dollars for that of the Caribbean Sea, — it is to be 

 hoped that universities and colleges will possess themselves of these 

 valuable works. The author has also published photographs of 

 these models, which show the relief to good advantage, although 

 of course not as clearly as the models themselves. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 



London, Ancient and Modern, from a Sanitary Point of View. 



In Nature of Feb. 7 is an abstract of a lecture delivered by Dr. 

 G. V. Poore at the Sanitary Institute on Thursday, Jan, 24. Dr. 

 Poore began by reminding his hearers that the mere age of London 

 was one of the reasons why it became unwholesome. Roman Lon- 

 don was buried deeply among rubbish of all kinds, much of which 

 was putrescible, and therefore a source of danger in the soil. 



Ancient London was well placed, and magnificently supplied with 

 water, for, in addition to the Thames, there were many streams, 

 such as Westbourne, Tybourne, the Fleet River, Walbrook, and 

 Langbourne, which originally were sources of pure water. All these 

 brooks, however, had become disgracefully fouled, and for very 

 shame had been covered over. One great drawback to the site of 

 London was the proximity of marshy land on every side except the 

 north-west, and formerly from this cause malarial fever and dysen- 

 tery were great causes of the high death-rate. 



In mediseval London, and even down to the eighteenth century, 

 the houses were not so closely packed as they are now. Reference 

 to Aggas's map (time of Elizabeth) would show that there was a 

 great dealof garden-ground within the city; and, on comparing this 

 map with Newcourt's map (Charles II.), it was evident that just be- 

 fore the Plague and the Fire the crowding of houses had become 

 very much greater than it was in the time of the Tudor monarchs, 

 who discouraged building near or in London. 



Parker's map (1720) would also show that after the Fire the 

 houses were not so closely packed as in the days of the Stuarts, for 

 in this map a surprising amount of garden-ground is visible within 

 the walls. At this time, also, Moorfields was not built upon, and 

 remained as a playground and air space, as it had done for centuries 

 previously. That mediEEval London was very unhealthy, a perfect 

 fever-den, there could be no doubt. The Black Death in 1349, and 

 the Sweating Sickness two centuries later, were times of great 

 mortality which struck the popular mind ; but it was not till 1593, 

 when bills of mortality were first introduced, that we began to have- 

 any certain knowledge of the amount or the kind of disease preva- 

 lent. There was reason to think, however, that in the eighteenth 

 century (after the Fire and the Great Plague) the deaths exceeded 

 the births by about 600,000 in the hundred years. 



The fatal diseases were mainly malarial fever, small-pox, typhus, 

 measles, and (latterly) whooping-cough. The causes of the enormous 

 mortality of mediajval London were due (i) to the marshy undrained 

 soil, fouled with refuse of every kind ; (2) the filthy state of the un- 

 paved city, and a perfectly swinish condition of the houses of the 

 lower orders ; (3) the ill-nourished and driinken condition of the 

 masses, among whom a taint of scurvy was very common ; (4) the 

 condition of superstition and brutality (as evidenced by the punish- 

 ments and the pastimes), which made any measures of public 

 health impracticable ; (5) the bad management of epidemics, with 

 a total neglect to separate the sick from the sound ; and, finally, the 



medical faculty were scarcely less ignorant and superstitious than 

 their patients. 



Turning to modern London, the lecturer said there had been a 

 great and manifest improvement ; but, when we looked at the low 

 figure which is called the London death-rate, several things must 

 be taken into consideration : e.g., (i) the London of the registrar- 

 general included large districts, such as Lewisham, Wandsworth, 

 Fulham, etc., which, in great part, were scarcely urban in character, 

 and these, being occupied largely by well-to-do persons, lowered 

 the average death-rate for the whole city ; (2) London being a city 

 in which wealthy people abounded, its death-rate must not, in 

 fairness, be compared to a city packed with undiluted operatives ; 

 (3) the mobility of the population was so great, that this fact must 

 vitiate the statistics, and it was to be remembered that nothing 

 quickened the departure of an individual from London more than 

 ill health ; (4) the age distribution in London was very abnormal, it 

 was largely recruited by selected adults from the country, and there 

 was a great deficit in the extreme ages, among which (the very 

 young and very old) death-rate is always highest ; (5) again, the 

 diminishing birth-rate (that for 1887 was 2.8 below the average of 

 the previous ten years) very greatly diminished the death-rate in a 

 city where 158 children out of every looo born die before they are 

 one year old. 



It was difficult to believe that Londoners were very robust, when 

 more than 25 per cent of them had recourse to the public hospitals 

 in the course of the year. 



The cause of the diminished death-rate (which was very con- 

 siderably reduced after every allowance had been made) was due 

 (l) to the increase of knowledge, not only among doctors, but 

 among the people generally, for it must be remembered that " self- 

 preservation is the first law of nature ; " (2) vaccination, and the 

 modern plan of treating infectious diseases by the prompt separa- 

 tion of the patients, had done a great deal (the total absence of 

 small-pox and typhus were mainly due to these causes); (3) the 

 cheapness of food, clothing, and fuel, had, of course, diminished the 

 tendency to disease, and the ease with which fresh fruit and vege- 

 tables were to be got had abolished the taint of scurvy which was 

 so fatal to previous generations ; (4) the water-supply had been 

 improved, and the intake of the water companies was now removed 

 to a portion of the river less tainted with sewage than that formerly 

 in use ; (5) although the system of sewage-disposal was an un- 

 doubted evil, and had caused three or four epidemics of cholera, 

 and was the foster-mother of typhoid, still it was probable that so 

 far the balance for good was in its favor, because it had removed a 

 good deal of filth from dwellings. 



The outlook in the future was dashed by three considerations : 

 (i) The system of sewerage aAd water-supply had increased over- 

 crowding by enabling houses of any height to be built without in- 

 convenience to the occupant, and without any curtilage whatever; 

 and, since all sanitarians recogriized that overcrowding was the 

 greatest of all sanitary evils, it was impossible to shut one's eyes to 

 this danger. (2) There was an -expensive and menacing " loose 

 end " to sanitation in the shape of 1 50,000,000 gallons of sewage 

 pouring into the Thames every day. The only proper destination 

 of organic refuse was the soil, and it was not possible to see the 

 end of the gigantic blunder that had been committed in throwing it 

 into the water. (3) The rapid increase of population along the 

 valley of the Thames, where sewage-disposal is on the same lines 

 as in London, must make the EngHsh apprehensive for their water- 

 supply^ because the various tricks played with sewage in the shape 

 of precipitations, etc., were not probably of a kind to make the ef- 

 fluent a desirable or a wholesome beverage. If the evil effects of 

 free trade are to be counteracted, it will be by returning the refuse 

 of towns free of cost to the impoverished agriculturist. " If we go 

 on as we are going," said the lecturer, in conclusion, " and if our 

 brethren in the colonies follow our bad example, as they appear to 

 be doing, it will be a Chinaman rather than a visitor from New 

 Zealand who will sit in contemplation on the ruins of London 

 Bridge." 



Large deposits of lead and silver ores and coal have recently 

 been discovered in the district of Kouban, Russia, on the Black 

 Sea. 



