IGO 
Saiiilanj Effects of Land Drainimj. 
deserves the name ; it is a collection of badly-built houses, rendered 
unhealthy from tlie large ditch, into which every kind of refuse is 
poured ; the removal of that nuisance is imperatively called for. All 
these houses have one privy in common, but the ditch is the place gene- 
rally used. 
" This district would he much served by enclosing and draining Colston 
Common, by keeping the sewers at Kingston clean, and by draining the 
(litcii at Toad Ditch. These are the only removable nuisances of which 
I have any knowledge." 
Mr. Blick, medical officer of the Bicester union, describes the 
prevalence of typhus : — 
" This disease has been very prevalent in this district during the past 
year, indeed we are never free from it. I think its origin may be traced, 
in most instances, to a constant exposure to an atmosphere loaded with 
malaria, and propagated, in the second place, by contagion, so little 
attention being paid to prevent its diffusion. 
" The malaria alluded to arises from the decomposition of vegetable 
matter left upon Otmoor (a marsh of about 4000 acres), by the pre- 
vious winter's flood, and acted upon by the sun, &c., during the sum- 
mer." 
Mr. J. Holt, the medical officer of the Leighton Buzzard union, 
reports : — 
" I have had only 34 cases of remittent and intermittent fevers during 
the last year, which is a small number in comparison to the amount 
usually occurring in hot summers. The great prevalence of these fevers 
at iuch times is attributable principally to the number of stagnant ponds 
and ditches which are situated in the very midst of many of the towns 
and villages of this union, and which, in hot weather, become quite putrid 
and offensive from the quantity of decaying animal and vegetable matter. 
I have generally observed that the greater number of these fevers occur 
in houses situated in the immediate vicinity of these ponds, and have no 
doubt is the chief cause of nearly all the fevers of this description. The 
villages to which I more particularly refer are Egginton, Eddlesbon, 
Cheddington, &c." 
The sanitary effects of road cleansing, to which house drainage 
and road drainage is auxiliary, it appears are not confined to the 
streets in towns and the roads in villages, but extends over the 
roads at a distance from habitations on which there is traffic. Dr. 
Harrison, whose testimony has been cited on the subject of the 
analogy of the diseases of animals to those which affect the human 
constitution, in treating of the prevention of fever or the rot 
amongst sheep, warns the shepherd that, if after providing drained 
pasture and avoiding " rotting-jilaces " in the fields, all his care 
may be frustrated if he do not avoid, with equal care, leading the 
sheep over wet and miry roads with stagnant ditches, which are 
as pernicious as the places in the fields designated as " rotting- 
places." He is solicitous to impress the fact that the rot, i. e. the 
