ECONOMIC EFFECT OF SANITARY WORKS. 127 
quarters, and some cases occurred in which there existed 
entire streets without any privy accommodation whatever. 
The evidence further shewed that in some instances where 
there were main drains tolerably well formed, for the want 
of proper water supply both house drains and sewers only 
acted as extended cesspools. 
In order to illustrate the reduction of the death rate 
consequent upon the construction of sanitary works, the 
author has plotted the curves for London, Sydney, and 
Melbourne (Figs. 1, 3, and 4) an inspection of which will 
shew how marked the decline has been since their inaugur- 
ation, and on the same diagram are plotted the population 
curves for those cities, and the capital expended on the 
works, so that comparison may be made between the decline 
of the death rate, the increase of the population, and the 
capital cost of securing those wonderful results. Appendix 
*‘A”’ has been prepared giving the population, death rate, 
and expenditure on works for 13 well known cities, by means 
of which a more extended comparison may be made, and 
fig. 5 illustrates diagrammatically the same information. 
The illustrations here given clearly show that the reduc- 
tion of the death rate is due to the construction of sanitary 
works, a result that cannot fail to be highly gratifying to 
engineers. 
The number of lives saved the world over, during the 
last twenty years, through the agency of sanitary works, 
amounts to many millions, and for the 138 cities I have 
quoted, it amounts to over one million. The assessment 
in money value of these lives saved from destruction is a 
very difficult matter owing to the great variation in the 
estimated value of human life: many people will tell you 
that human life is above price and others say that a very 
large proportion of human beings are only fit for powder, 
but the eminent engineer Mr. Baldwin Lathan, ™. mst. on, 
