304 The Public Health. [April, 



than it was during the cholera epidemic. An excellent and complete 

 system of house to house visitation was commenced in the autumn, 

 and is still continued, and to this, as also to the ample supply of 

 Loch Katrine water — probably unsurpassed for quality and quantity 

 either in ancient or modern times — may be attributed the comparative 

 immunity from cholera which Glasgow enjoyed during the recent 

 visitation. There is no well or pump water used in Glasgow. 



The police authorities, by means of the night part of the force, 

 are still continuing to inspect the houses of less than three apart- 

 ments, so as to prevent overcrowding, one of the most fruitful 

 causes of epidemic disease. The following table gives the results 

 of the inspection up to, and including, the quarters ending : — 



1 Houses visited i Found i Found i Found not 

 i ' overcrowded. empty, j ovei crowded. 



31st October, 1866 . . . 18,208 1,814 328 j 16,066 



31st January, 1867 ... 20,249 1,679 314 ! 18,256 



! I ! 



As regards the sewerage of Glasgow, it may be stated that 

 things are rapidly ripening for action, which must result in 

 measures not yielding in importance to the emptying of the 

 contents of the Highland Loch into the cisterns and baths of the 

 Glasgow citizens, or the scheme for remodelling the streets and 

 other thoroughfares under the City Improvement Act, at an ex- 

 pense of a million and a quarter sterling. The town council was 

 represented in the late Leamington Congress, one of the depu- 

 tation being Mr. Walter Macfarlane, the manufacturer of the 

 well-known patented sanitary appliances. The Clyde trustees 

 mean action also, as they feel indisposed to submit passively to 

 the great injury which the sewage discharged into the river is 

 effecting upon the shipping, in which most of them are interested ; 

 a comprehensive scheme, therefore, for diverting the sewage from 

 the Clyde is not an improbable thing, and seems actually to be 

 " looming " in the near future. 



With regard to the health of Liverpool, it is now well known 

 that Mr. Arnold Taylor, of the Local Government Office, visited 

 Liverpool last autumn, to inquire into the system of defecation 

 practised there, and that in his report he was compelled to refer 

 to other causes the high rate of mortality in Liverpool. He 

 drew attention to the imperfect water-supply and the badly con- 

 structed houses, as well as to the wretched midden system, and in 

 consequence of his report, the Corporation were requested to dis- 

 continue the practice of depositing night-soil on a certain wharf in 

 the heart of the fever district, and to give guarantees that the use 

 of the wharf would be discontinued, except for the shipment of 

 innocuous substances. 



