operation, and in enforcing the provisions of the Acts. In regard to the
pollution of the air, he called attention to the fact that nearly fifty
years ago Mr. Edwin Chadwick impressed upon the community the evils
which were caused by the impure condition of the air in our towns owing
to the retention of refuse around houses. The speaker remarked that the
gases, which were the result of putrefaction, were offensive to the
smell, and some of them, such as sulphureted hydrogen, when present in
undue proportions in the air, would kill persons outright, or when those
gases were in smaller proportions in the air breathed by people, there
would be a lowered tone of health in the individuals exposed to them.
Continued exposure might lead to the development of other conditions,
which, in their turn, might lead to disease or death.

From this point the President proceeded to speak of the increased
toxical power of volatile compounds given off by neglected decomposed
matter, and was thence led to dwell upon the dangers arising from
decomposed substances in cesspools and in badly constructed drains.
There was no doubt, he said, that in the sewering of towns want of
experience in the construction of works had in some cases led to
deposits in the sewers, and evil consequences had ensued; but it might
be accepted as certain that in every case where the sewerage had been
devised on sound principles, and where the works had been carried
on under intelligent supervision, a largely reduced death-rate had
invariably followed.

Evidence of this fact he adduced from the history of Newcastle, for in
the ten years beginning in 1867 the death-rate was 27.6, while in the
ten years ending 1881 (during which there had been improved sewerage in
operation) the death-rate was only 23, while in 1881 it was only
21.7. He instanced the like results in Munich, where the entire fever