3o6 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. ix. 



ours,' he says, ' but it is chiefly Chadwick's 

 and Southwood Smith's. My share was hunting 

 up some of the cholera evidence, and general 

 revision before it went to press. . . . The 

 Government have acted promptly on the main 

 recommendation— viz. the quashing of the old and 

 the formation of a new general Commission, a step 

 essential to the carrying out on an adequate scale 

 experiments to determine the best and cheapest 

 modes of street and house drainage. The results 

 of these experiments will alter the mode of sewer- 

 age in all London first, then in provincial towns, 

 next in Continental towns, where, in Paris even, 

 they have as bad or worse modes of sewerage than 

 with us. The amount of typhus and other deadly 

 disease which will thereby be prevented is scarcely 

 calculable, but will be enormous ; a healthy, 

 cleanly, and moral population will be substituted 

 for the present unfortunate and oppositely charac- 

 terised habitants of the courts, alleys, and small 

 streets ; and the blessings will extend far beyond 

 the points immediately in view. The new consoli- 

 dated Commission for London is for two years- 

 time enough, I believe, to determine the merits of 

 the new system. We work gratis to avoid the 

 chances of obstruction from the cry that would be 

 raised by the 800 cashiered Commissioners of 

 " Government job." I lend the little aid I can 

 give most willingly to help forward this great 

 work, though some jealousies and misconceptions 



