Sanitanj Effects of Land Draivlncj. 
153 
tensive improvements have taken place in the drainage of these levels, 
and in consequence of that change, the diseases constantly engendered 
by marsh miasmata, viz., typhus and intermittent fevers, are not more 
common than in other districts which present' to the eye a fairer pros- 
pect of health." 
Mr. G. R. Rowe, medical officer of the Ongar union, ob- 
serves, — 
" It is worthy of remark, that in the districts surrounding Chigwell 
no malignant, infectious, or contagious disease has appeared during my 
experience of thirty years' occasional residence, and even during the 
prevalence of cholera not one case occurred. The land is well drained, 
the situation elevated, and the cleanly habits of the poor, with the bene- 
volence of its residents, have tended much to the prevention of disease, 
and its amelioration when occurring." 
Mr. W. Sanders, medical officer of the Gravesend and Milton 
union, states^ — 
" I beg leave to suggest how extreme are the beneficial effects of a 
proper drainage, which shall prevent stagnant water, and its deleterious 
consequences, accumulating in crowded neighbourhoods. This is ex- 
emplified in this town, and also in Tilbury Fort opposite, which is built 
on a marsh, and where, during the cholera period, then under my care, 
not a single case occurred." 
Mr. Emerson, one of the medical officers of the Eastry union, 
states, — 
" There is, I believe, no locality which has been for some years so 
exempt from fevers of a malignant and contagious character as the 
eastern coast of Kent. Accordingly, idiopathic fever, under the form of 
synochus and typhus, very rarely occurs, and when it does appear, is 
generally of an isolated kind. Intermittents, also, which fifteen or 
twenty years since were so generally prevalent in this district, have 
become comparatively of rare occurrence, and indeed have almost dis- 
appeared from the catalogue of our local endemics. This exemption 
from ague and other febrile epidemics of an infectious nature may he 
justly imputed to the total absence of malaria, and of all those causes 
which usually generate an unwholesome and contaminating atmosphere, 
viz., from the whole district being secured from inundations by the most 
comi)lete and effectual system of drainage and sewerage. Also, from the 
exposed state of the country favouring a free and rapid evaporation from 
the surface of the soil." 
Mr. George Elgar, another of the medical officers of the Eastry 
union, observes that, — 
" The parishes forming the fifth district of the Eastry union are, with 
one or two exceptions, close to marshes separating the Isle of Thanet 
from this portion of East Kent, and consequently, during the spring and 
autumn, the inhabitants are exposed to the malaria therefrom ; but for 
these last few years, owing to the excellent plan of draining, very few 
diseases have occurred (in my opinion) that can be said to be produced 
by malaria. There is very little ague, scarcely any continued fevers ; 
