300 TJie Puttie Health. [April, 



characterized the arrangements in metropolitan workhouses. The 

 ohject of Mr. Grathorne Hardy's Metropolitan Poor Bill is to take 

 out of the hands of the present Boards of Guardians the manage- 

 ment of the sick, infirm, aged, and insane poor, and place them in 

 institutions under the control of managers, partly appointed "by the 

 parishes and partly by the Poor Law Board. London, for the 

 purposes of this Act, is to be divided into districts, in which asylums 

 will be built, having for their especial object the treatment of the 

 sick and insane and the care of the infirm. Dispensaries for the 

 poor are to be erected, where those unable to pay for medical 

 attendance will have a claim for assistance, and other arrangements 

 are to be made which will go far to redeem the character we have 

 lost as a nation for the care and regard of our suffering classes. 



The obstruction to business and the danger to life from the 

 overgrown traffic in some of the larger streets of the metropolis, 

 have at last excited the attention of our legislature. Nothing 

 could more forcibly demonstrate the weakness and imperfection of 

 the municipal institutions of London than then utter incapacity to 

 deal with this increasing and universally acknowledged nuisance of 

 the overcrowding of our street traffic. Upwards of two hundred 

 persons have been killed every year for the last five years in the 

 streets of the metropolis, and it has been shown where one person 

 is killed foity are injured, and receive hospital relief.* A large 

 amount of this death and suffering might be prevented by proper 

 legislation, and a Bill has been presented to the House of Lords by 

 the Earl of Behnore for the purpose of procuring legislation on this 

 subject. The principal provision of this Bill is the prohibition of 

 scavenging and the removal of refuse between the hours of ten 

 in the morning and seven in the evening ; also, the prohibiting of 

 the unloading and loading of coal, casks, timber, and other heavy- 

 goods during the hours of the day. There are also provisions for 

 the removal of snow, and regulations with regard to dogs in order 

 to prevent the extension of hydrophobia. The Bill, as printed, has 

 received considerable alteration in the House of Lords, but still it 

 is to be hoped that a measure will be passed this session of Parlia- 

 ment that will ensure a diminution in the future of the danger 

 which in a single year makes the streets of London more destructive 

 than a great battle. 



Although no public action will be taken by the Government on 

 the subject of Water Supply during this session of Parliament, this 

 question must increasingly demand the attention of our legislators. 

 However ample the supply to London may be from the Thames at 

 the present moment, all parties adroit that it is a contaminated 

 supply, is always dirty, sometimes dangerous, and soon must he 

 deficient. A royal commission, with the Duke of Bichmond in 

 * See ' Third Annual Report of the Coroner for Central Middlesex.* 



