Sanitary F.ffeds of Land Drmnliuf. 
typhus fever, has been contracted in ten mhiutes, that sheep can 
at " any time be tainted in a quarter of an houi", while the land 
retains its moisture and the weather is hot and sultry." He gives 
the following- instance, amongst others, of the danger of traversing 
badly drained roads. ' 'A gentleman removed 90 sheep from a 
considerable distance to his own residence. On coming near to a 
bridge, wliich is thrown over the Barling's river, one of the drove 
fell into a ditch and fractured its leg. The shepherd immediately 
took it in his arms to a neig-hbouring house, and set the limb. 
During this time, which did not occupy more than one hour, the 
remainder were left to graze in the ditches and lane. The flock 
were then driven home, and a month afterwards the other sheep 
joined its companions. The shepherd soon discovered that all 
had contracted the rot, except the lame sheep ; and as they were 
never separated on any other occasion, it is reasonable to conclude 
that the disorder was acquired by feeding in the road and ditch 
bottoms." The precautions applicable to the sheep and cattle 
will be deemed equally applicable to the labouring population 
who traverse such roads. 
Such instances as the following, on the prejudicial effects of un- 
drained and neglected roads, might be multiplied. Mr. E. P. 
Turner, the medical officer of Foleshill union, in accounting for 
some cases of fever, states, — 
"These cases of typhus all occurred in the same neighbourhooJ, 
where the road is bad and a dirty ditch of stagnant water on each side 
of it; the road is generally overflowed in the winter. The disease broke 
out in the month of October ; other cases occurred in tlie same neigh- 
bourhood at the time." 
The nature of the more common impediments which stand in the 
way of the removal of the causes of disease and obstacles to pro- 
duction described in the preceding, are noticed in the instances 
following. Others will be adduced when the subject of the legis- 
lative means of preventi(m is stated. 
Dr. Traves, on the sanitary condition of the poor in the Malton 
union, states, — 
" The whole of the low district above alluded to, and extending into 
the Pickering union (knowii by the name of the Marishes, or Marshes), 
has at different times within the last few years been* the seat of typhus 
and other fevers. 
" Attempts were made by some of the landed proprietors a few years 
ago to etfcct a system of drainage and embankments likely to prevent 
the inundations of these rivers in wet seasons, but the attempt was 
abandoned in consequence of the reluctance of certain townships to bear 
their portion of the necessary outlay, and any partial system of embank- 
ment is positively injurious, inasmuch as the water that is let in upon 
the land at a higher point of the river is prevented returning into the 
VOL. IV. M 
