born in Lisbon, whose streets were open sewers and its 
atmosphere noted for its impure taint. Other Portuguese 
towns had the same character, as had also the towns of 
Italy and the Rhine. Yet in all these cases the deaths from 
typhoid fever did not compare unfavourably with those in 
English towns supposed to be decently drained and under 
some sanitary supervision. The moral from this seems to 
be that domestic sewage is not harmful unless diluted, and 
that the evils of typhoid fever first became critical when 
water closets were substituted for privies. If human ex- 
cretions were allow r ed to decay naturally without the 
addition of water, as they did in the old privies and still do 
in continental towns in the open streets, however noisome 
the smell may be there is apparently little fear of fever. 
He also thought that the notion of ventilating the miles 
of drains of a large city like Manchester by means of a few 
tall chimneys with fires at their bases was chimerical. 
There is no continuous draught in the drains, this being 
broken by the many grids in the streets. Now, by the 
ordinary laws of pneumatics it follows that if the street be 
cold and the house warm, there is a continuous current of 
tainted air passing on to the pantry and the closet from the 
drain, the fresh air being supplied at the open grid. The 
remedy that suggests itself is first to discover which classes 
of sewage are innocuous, and which are liable to fermenta- 
tion leading to the formation of fever germs, and to separate 
the latter, and allow them either to dry by themselves or to 
apply earth or ashes so that fermentation may be pre- 
vented. 
Mr. It. D. Darbishire, F.G.S., gave an account of a re- 
markable discovery of prehistoric relics in Ehenside or Gibb 
Tarn, near Braystanes Station, near St. Bees, Cumber- 
land. 
He introduced the subject by recapitulating the classifi- 
