NATICIA 
ib shih 3) 
XX.—On Drainage and Sewerage, §c., of Towns, with 
special relation to the late Epidemics in Hobart Town 
and Launceston. By Six W.T. Denison, F.R.S., &c. 
[Read 9th November, 1853.] 
Tue prevalence during the last three or four months of a 
fever, whose type was, I believe, assimilated most closely to 
that which characterizes scarlet fever, has induced me to 
bring under the notice of the Royal Society, in the first 
place, the nature of some of those influences which may 
have aggravated, if not caused, the disease; and in the 
second, an outline of the precautions which ought to be 
taken to secure to the inhabitants of Hobart Town a 
continuance of the advantages which its position entitles 
them to claim,—situated as it is on the banks of a noble 
river, with an atmosphere pure and healthy, if not affected 
by influences arising from within the city itself. 
Tt would be altogether out of place were I to enter into 
a medical disquisition on the cause of fevers, and the effect. 
produced by them on the human frame, but I may be allowed 
to submit a brief abstract of some of the facts established by 
the “ Health of Towns’ Commissioners” in 1844; at which 
period a close and searching inyestigation was made into 
the state of many towns in England, the results of which, 
with some modification from causes peculiar to each locality, 
are of universal application. 
The evidence taken before the commissioners, or collected 
by them, goes to show that neglect in cleansing and draining 
the dwellings of the poor, and the absence of proper yenti- 
lation, is productive of the worst effects. 
That fever is constantly present in one form or another 
where the people live in dirt and filth. 
IL 
