Its Present and its Future. 
59 
1879.] 
quently transformed into a centre of pestilence merely by 
such influx of strangers, the entirely natural modes of dis- 
posal of refuse and excreta no longer being adequate, and 
the artificial methods not being provided until an outcry due 
to disease is raised. In no way, however, is the growing 
intelligence on sanitary matters more strikingly shown than 
by the extreme sensitiveness of pleasure-seekers ta-the 
salubrity of summer resorts in respeCt to water, sewerage, 
and drainage. Of the multitude of illustrations I need but 
speak of Bethlehem, in New Hampshire, a beautiful village 
situated 1700 feet above sea-level, and so renowned for the 
purity of its atmosphere that of the 40,000 hay-fever patients 
whom Dr. Beard has calculated exist (and hay-fever 
patients say that life to them is only a tolerable existence) 
in this country, several thousands annually spend part of 
the summer there. Its popularity increased in a few years 
so rapidly that a crowded village soon arose, and during the 
summer of 1877 an outcry was made concerning drainage. 
The towns-people, realising that the reputation of salubrity 
was the wealth of the town, steps must be taken at once 
to preserve it. They did so, and during the past summer 
the influx of visitors has been greater than ever. 
These two stages in the growth of a summer resort — its 
sanitary degradation and subsequent rehabitation — can now 
be witnessed in every phase of their development, along the 
entire coast-line of the State of New Jersey. This great 
sea-side resort, a hundred miles in length, stretching from 
Sandy Hook to Cape May, is rapidly growing into an almost 
continuous city. It harbours each summer a vast multitude 
from our two metropolitan cities, and from the Middle and 
Middle-Western States. Even as a Sanitarium in winter, 
the physicians of Philadelphia, during the past lustrum, 
have recognised the great advantages that were pointed out 
by Dr. John Torrey nearly a half century ago, and are 
sending their patients in need of change of air to Atlantic 
City and neighbouring points. The arid expanses of its 
sandy shores have become in this way one of the principal 
sources of income to the State. Would it not, then, be a 
highly remunerative policy for the State to maintain their 
attractiveness ? As a faCt, nothing of a preventative nature 
was done. The shallow pits, which provided surface water 
for drinking and other purposes when the population was 
sparse, were multiplied when the visitors came by thousands. 
Malarial and typhoid fevers were rife in spots which the 
sea-breezes visited every day. Only with the consequent 
suspicion and public alarm which threatened to empty them 
