198 
MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
In what manner the Mauritian Government has 
erred is not stated. One thing is, however, 
certain, that if it has put its faith in quarantine, 
and still allowed such thinys as I have just 
described to exist, it has, indeed, been much to 
blame. In the tilth annual report (in 1853) to 
the Commissioners of Sewers of tho City of 
London, their intelligent and indefatigable 
officer of health, Mr Simon, says:—"iso city, so 
far as science may be trusted, can deserve 
immunity from epidemic disease, except by 
making cleanliness the first law of its existence; 
such cleanliness, I mean, as consists in the 
perfect adaptation of drainage, water-supply, 
scavonage, and ventilation, to the purposes they 
should respectively fulfil; such cleanliness as 
consists in carrying away by these means, in¬ 
offensively, alt refuse materials of life—gaseous, 
solid, or fluid—from the person, the house, tho 
factory, or the thoroughfare, so soon as possible 
after their formation, and with as near an 
approach, as their several natures allow, to one 
continuous current of removal. 
This assertion, I do not doubt, all who now 
hear me, are prepared at once to endorse; but to 
hold an opinion is one thing, to carry it into a 
practical result is another. We applaud, and 
justly, no doubt, the benevolence that founds 
and maintains hospitals and other charitable 
institutions, but the truest philanthropy, as well 
as the surest eventual economy consists, in well 
directed efforts to avert, as far as possible, the 
necessity for them. 
In this brief and imperfect essay I have con¬ 
fined my attention to those matters which come 
more particularly under what may he called 
public hygiene, and which may properly he 
subjects of (and indeed imperatively call for) 
legislative interference, in contradistinction to 
tiio.se which more immediately depend on indi¬ 
vidual habits and domestic arrangements. These 
must he met by other means. We are to have, 
it appears, a rc establishment of municipal 
institutions. And here I cannot but express my 
distrust of the electoral element in their com¬ 
position. It has been tried and found lamentably 
deficient in its results. But whatever the form 
adopted, ample power must be given to enforco 
sanitary regulations. In society no man can do 
exactly “ what he likes with his own.” Each 
must surrender a portion of his individual liberty 
for the common good, and ho man has, nor can 
any length of time confer upon him, a prescrip¬ 
tive right to kill his neighbour indirectly, by 
compelling him to inhale a poisoned atmosphere, 
any more than he has directly, by giving him a 
dose of strychnine. To enable "the municipal 
authorities to exercise these powers wise])- and 
effectively, they must be required to appoint an 
officer of health, with inspectors for the several 
wards of the city under his control, whose 
duty it will he to visit every portion of the dis¬ 
tricts under their surveillance periodically, and 
to report to him. He, in his turn, will have to 
report to the authorities, and to suggest such 
measures for the preservation of the public 
health as he, from time to time, may deem 
necessary. 
I now proceed briefly to state the require¬ 
ments of a well-regulated city. 
1. A complete and efficient system of sewerage and 
drainage. 
With regard to the sewerage, a good commencement 
has been made, and it is to be hoped that it will be car¬ 
ried oat to its completion with as little delay as pos¬ 
sible, inasmuch as it may he considered the foundation 
of all the rest. To make it fully answer its intended 
purpose, power mast he given to enforco the drainage 
of all private premises in connection with it. 
2 . An ample supply of water. 
It is gratifying to know that, under the City Com¬ 
missioners, this important subject has also received its 
due share of attention — money only, I understand, 
being wanting to complete their plan’s. The adoption 
by them of a constant, instead of an intermitting supply 
which has elsewhere been found so inefficient 'anil 
wasteful, is greatly ,o their credit. 
3. The slaughtering of cattle, candle-makipg, tallow, 
melting, and other offensive and unwholesome occnpa- 
tions should ho disallowed within the city boundary. 
4. The old grave-yard in Geofge-stree't has verv'pro- 
perlv been closed lor some years' past. What yet rc- 
mains open of that at die Sandhills must soon follow; 
it is becoming too closely surrounded with the habita¬ 
tions of the living to be safe. Both ought to bo planted 
with trees, so that the products of animal decomposithn 
may be, as quickly as possible, recomposed into some¬ 
thing fit for human lungs. 
5. Common lodging-houses should ho subject to a 
system of registration and supervision, to prevent over- 
Crowding, and to keep them, as much as possible, free 
from mural, as well as physical ilnhealthiness. 
0 . Steam-engines, foundries, and other producers of 
the. smoke-nuisance, must be compelled to consume 
their own smoke ; a compulsion which will ultimately 
be a boon to tho owners, by tho sating of fuel it will 
effect. Her Majesty’s Mint should be' no exception to 
this rale. 
7. The Building Act should he extended. 'In its 
present form, its principal provision is against the 
spread of fires, but these are, happily, of very infre¬ 
quent occurrence, and seldom attended with loss of life, 
while defective drainage and ventilatioa are productive 
of continually recurrent disease and premature mor¬ 
tality. Back-yards should he properly’ paved and 
drained. 
8 . The streets should be macadamised, and cleansed 
by periodical sluicing from the fire-pines. 
9. The. reclamation of the sandhills should be pro¬ 
ceeded w-ith as rapidly as possible. At present, especi¬ 
ally with any wind, we are forced to breathe a vile 
compound of atmospheric air adulterated with pulver¬ 
ised. animal and vegetable refuse of all kinds, rendered 
additionally pungent by the admixture of various 
mineral products. 
10. Baths and wash-houses would, without doubt, 
soon repay their cost, and w-onld he an incalculable 
benefit. 
The advantages of hot-bathing appear to be very in¬ 
completely understood. In a hot elimate there is no 
greater luxury, and when the necessity of thoroughly 
cleansing the skin from perspiration and dust is more 
appreciated, it will become a necessity. At present, 
these establishments, from being in the "hands of private 
individuals, are limited in their means of accommoda¬ 
tion, and are, therefore, comparatively expensive. On 
a proper scale, always available and at a moderate cost, 
they would materially assist in lessening the indulgence 
in pot-house debauchery. 
Whether the erection of lodging-houses for the work¬ 
ing classes would more properly devolve on private 
enterprise than on the municipality, is a question I am 
not prepared to give a decided opinion upon. That, as 
a speculation, they would pay, may he readily inferred 
from the rents now given for wretched tenements at 
which a well-bred hog would, if he understood the 
meaning of tire action, turn up his nose in disdain. 
That as a sanitary’ measure its salutary effects would 
be great. Dr. Southwood Smith affords us some data for 
believing. In a lecture delivered by him at Edin¬ 
burgh, last November, he says, “That epidemics are 
