Ventilation. This is a matter of primary importance, though it will be difficult to convince the people of its necessity. It has already been fully noticed at pages 10-13.

Care of Houses.-Smearing houses with clay instead of cow-dung has been already recommended. It is desirable to whitewash

houses twice a year, in May and October. Hot lime wash destroys hurtful matter which has clung to and accumulated on the surface of the walls.

Sleeping on the Floor.-This is another cause of unhealthiness. The floor may appear quite dry, but if you dig down a few inches. it will be found to be damp. There should be a cot for each person. It will cost only a few annas-wooden sides and legs and string being all that is required. This will be a great protection against catching fever by sleeping on damp ground.

Vaccination.-The Headman should explain the advantages of this to the people. He should give every as istance to the vaccinator when he visits the village. He should from time to time warn the people that they must take all unvaccinated children to be vaccinated at the next visit of the vaccinator. Repetition after attaining puberty is a great additional safeguard.

Feverish Season.-Before this comes on, the Headman should have a meeting of the people, and show them how they may do much to protect themselves against an attack. The precautions are given at page 35.

Cholera. Particular care should be taken when any outbreak of cholera is threatening. See pages 36-38.

Registration of Births and Deaths.-Government now requires an account to be given of all births and deaths, and the people are carefully numbered every ten years. The ignorant do not see the use of this; many think that it is to enable more taxes to be imposed. On the contrary, it does great good, and has nothing to do with taxation.

Every father wishes his children to be healthy and happy. When they go to different parts of the country, after they grow up, the father wishes them to send letters, letting him know whether they are well or ill.

It is somewhat the same with Government, A good king is like the father of his people. With millions of subjects, a king can only know how they are by his officers reporting births and deaths. When the births fall below the proper number, it shows that the people are not prosperous. When the deaths are more numerous than they ought to be, inquiry is made into the cause, and it is sought to be remedied. If births and deaths are not reported, Government is like a father who does not know whether his children are alive or dead, and is thereby hindered from doing any thing to benefit them.

This registration of births and deaths has been carried out in England for some time with great advantage. It has caused much to be done to improve the health of the people. Formerly about eighteen soldiers died a year out of every 1000: now there are only about eight a year out of the same number. Government wishes sickness and death to be reduced in the same way in this country.

The Headman should warn the villagers that, whenever any birth or death occurs in their houses, it should be reported within 24 hours, that it may be duly entered in the village register.

Disposal of the Dead.-The burning ghats on a river should always be below the place from which drinking water is drawn. No burial ground ought to be allowed inside the village, and all graves ought to be 6 feet deep. The Headman should see to this.

Punishments.-Certain Headmen have power to punish by a fine or confinement persons who defile tanks, or wells, who deposit rubbish in forbidden places, who commit nuisance, &c. It is best to get the people to understand the advantages of these rules, so that they may willingly carry them out. At the same time, they may be warned that if they persist in breaking them, they will be punished.

By carrying out the foregoing suggestions, not only will there result a great saving of life from cholera, fevers and other diseases, but the villagers will enjoy better health than they did before, and their children will grow up well and strong, and all classes will recognise the truth of the English proverb, that health is wealth.*

DUTIES OF MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONERS.

The Royal Commission of 1859 gave the following account of the general sanitary condition of Indian towns :—

"The towns and bazaars in the vicinity of lines are in the worst possible sanitary state-undrained, unpaved, badly cleansed, often teeming with offensive and dangerous nuisances, with tanks, pools, and badly made surface-gutters containing filth and foul water; the area overcrowded with houses put up without order or regularity, the external ventilation obstructed and the houses over-crowded with people, no public latrines and every spare plot of ground covered with filth in consequence; no water-supply except what is obtained from bad shallow

The remarks on Village Sanitation are chiefly taken from a Paper by Dr. Hewlett, the able and enthusiastic Sanitary Commissioner of Bombay, based on the Memorandum of the Army Sanitary Commission. Notices in the Coimbatore Gazette, by Mr. Wedderburn, while Collector, have also supplied some materials. There is an excellent dialogue on the subject by Dr. Bellew, formerly Sanitary Commissioner in the Panjab, in his Report for 1880 (pp. 78, 79), but it has not been within reach of the compiler.

wells, and unwholesome and doubtful tanks. These towns and bazaars are the earliest seats of epidemics, before their ravages extend to the European troops in the vicinity. The arrangements for the prevention of disease are either non-existent or most deficient."*

Since 1859 the number of Municipalities has been considerably increased. In 1883 there were 761, with a population of 14,295,502, and an income of 308 lakhs.+ Considerable improvements have been made in some cases, but vastly more yet remains to be done. Some Municipal Commissioners take a warm interest in promoting the welfare of the people; but others look merely to their own. honor, or even their own gain, or to providing for some of their relations.

The preceding chapters explain in detail the chief sanitary duties of Commissioners. A brief summary, with a few additional remarks, is all that is necessary.

1.

2.

3.

Water Supply.

Latrine and Scavenging Arrangements.

Drainage.-The Memorandum of the Army Sanitary Commission says:

At present the only kind of drainage suitable for small towns is open surface drainage, carried along lanes and streets to some convenient outlet. All covered drains should be avoided. The surfaces of lanes and streets should be so graded so as to allow rain water to pass readily to the surface drain and the drain should have a shallow water-tight section.

The material should be of the best and cheapest to be obtained on the spot. Cat stone or concrete or asphalte might be used, or masonry or close-fitting vitrified brick; but in any case it is absolutely necessary that the channel should be laid true, have a sufficient fall, and that all the joints should be water-tight. Open cuts in the earth are of no use, but are on the contrary to be avoided, as leading to a damp unwholesome state of the sub-soil.

Shallow saucer-sectioned surface drains can be kept clean by sweeping or by throwing water into them. With due care in cleansing with fresh water, there would be no risk in allowing water used by households for washing and bathing to run into the surface drains.

Markets. These should be watched. Damaged grain, decaying vegetables or meat, should not be allowed to be sold.

Unwholesome Trades.-Tanners and dyers should be obliged to work in some outskirt or little frequented part of the town. Slaughter-houses should be kept clean.

Hospitals and Dispensaries.-These should be provided in all towns. There should be a ward for women in connection with Lady Dufferin's scheme.

Quoted by Mr. Justice Cunningham, p. 9.
G

+ Decennial Review, p. 59.

Miscellaneous Improvements.-All ruinous buildings should be removed, and the ground levelled. When possible, crooked streets should be straightened to allow the free passage of air.

Any foul unwholesome surfaces of ground can readily be improved by covering the area with a few inches of fresh earth, which is by far the best disinfectant.

The general health of small towns may be much improved by removing all useless jungle, by lopping the lower branches of trees so as to improve the external ventilation, and by planting trees on wet or damp ground within or near the town, a measure which dries the ground and purifies the air. Tree planting along the public roads is also beneficial to health.

Open squares, public parks, and gardens are of great benefit. In England these are sometimes presented to towns by wealthy benevolent individuals. Wells and such like gifts are sometimes made in India. They are a far more useful mode of expending money than in squandering it on show or feeding lazy vagrants.

Funds. The great obstacle to sanitary improvement is want of money. This, however, chiefly applies to extensive undertakings. But many valuable measures need not be expensive. All the materials and labour required are on the spot, and most of the work could be done by the inhabitants of houses themselves; and they ought to be required either to do what is necessary or pay for the doing of it, on the well-understood principle that an unhealthy house. is not only dangerous to its own inmates, but also to its neighbours and to the town generally.*

By thorough distribution of the outlay, very much may be done. Some of the streets in Benares are so narrow as not to admit carriages. Half a century ago the roadway was mud-very dusty in the dry weather and almost knee-deep during the rains. energetic magistrate required the owner of each house to bear his share of the cost of paving the streets with smooth flat stones. There was a great outcry against it at the time as a piece of grievous zulum, but when the work was executed the people felt its great advantage.

The owners of houses may justly be required to pay for drains in front of their property.

Loans should be avoided as far as possible. A few public-spirited men can often get the inhabitants to subscribe what is required in ordinary cases.

For extensive undertakings, as water-works, loans will be necessary. Until 1879 the law was that Municipalities might borrow of the Government and of the Government alone. In 1879 this policy

*Many of the foregoing remarks are from the "Suggestions of the Army Sanitary Commission."

was abandoned. It was done probably to give less trouble, and to obviate the large apparent increase of State indebtedness. But it was a great wrong to the Municipalities. Government can borrow at 4 per cent. Municipalities must pay much more. The pseudopatriots, English or Indian, who declaim against Government incurring debt for any object, are in reality enemies of the country. There should be a return to the old rule.

As already mentioned, Government can borrow at 4 per cent. Municipalities might pay 6 per cent,-2 per cent going as a Sinking Fund to pay off the principal.

The remarks of Mr. Justice Cunningham under this head deserve consideration.

ALL INTERESTED IN SANITARY REFORM.

The recent National Congresses have awakened much enthusiasm in many of the people; but some Muhammadans have kept aloof, thinking that their welfare might be better promoted by other means. In protection from disease and death, the adherents of every creed are equally concerned. So also are all classes, high or low, rich or poor.

If people are too selfish to care for their neighbours, yet even for their own sakes and that of their families, they should endeavour to improve the sanitary condition of the place in which they live. Although attention to the rules of health in one's own household is a great safeguard, yet when an epidemic prevails all around, the cleanest homes may yield their victims.

Mr. Justice Cunningham, in a Calcutta address, showed the advantages of sanitary reform in the following striking manner :— "Imagine that a good angel came to-night into this room, and offered every person in it and all his household in Calcutta, another five years of life. Ah! you will say, that is what happens in fairy stories. What a boon it would be thought! With what rapture of gratitude it would be accepted! With what prayers and supplications would that beneficent being be beset to extend a similar boon to other communities. Now that good angel does literally come and make that offer to every community. The offer

in many cases has been accepted and the boon conferred. In many cities she has actually of late lengthened the average life of the community by five years or more. Her name is Science, and Science is only another name for well-informed common sense. She offers it here in Calcutta ; but then it is on certain conditions -simple, easy, intelligible, but essential.

"In the name of common sense, of common humanity, in the name of that beneficent utilitarianism which regards all knowledge