members of the coniferous order are specially noted for the large amount of essential oil which they contain.

Rain is another of the great agents which act upon the atmosphere, cleansing it in a very effectual way, by dissolving and carrying down the impurities which it meets in its fall. In towns, and especially where factories exist, rain-water, instead of being the delightfully soft water so much prized in the country, becomes little better than a more or less dilute solution of sulphuric acid, black from tarry matter and suspended soot. That this is no exaggeration, recent enquiries at Manchester show. For some time a sub-committee of the Field Naturalists' Society have been looking into the question of air-pollution. The committee found that in the Ancoats district the amount of free sulphuric acid which fell in one inch of rain amounted to 19 cwt. per square mile, beside 10 cwt. of ammonia. In by no means the worst part of Manchester there was carried down in three days nearly 6 cwt. of sulphuric acid per square mile besides over 13 cwt. of "blacks." Manchester Manchester may be an extreme case, but a similar state of affairs exists also in other large towns.

The effect of fogs in towns prevents the dissemination by winds of the carbonic acid gas, and of the soot, etc., from fires, but when conditions so change that rain is produced, these impurities are washed down out of the air. This acid condition of the rain has a most deleterious effect upon vegetation, but not upon vegetation alone, for dwellers in towns find their clothes and umbrellas wear out much more quickly from the same cause than would be the case in the country. Need we wonder then that the town-dweller, who has to breathe these impurities into his lungs over and over again, becomes enfeebled and unhealthy.

No disease shows the influence of breathing impure air better than consumption of the lungs, and it is of no infrequent occurrence that a change of occupation from an indoor, or sedentary life, to an active one out of doors is the means of checking this complaint. Donaldson has estimated the tubercular death-rate to be at least 20 per cent. more in towns than in the country districts.

It is on account of this damage to health that sanitarians are anxious to prevent overcrowding of houses together, and to obtain wide streets and open spaces. But these, after all, are but a makeshift, and cannot take the place of the country. Compare, for instance, the amount of relief and freshness to be obtained from a walk in even the most charmingly laid-out urban park, with a ramble through the woods or over the hills.

In the country everything tends to induce one to take exercise, either by walking or riding, for the mere pleasure of exercise, or in conjunction with hunting, shooting, fishing, or the numerous other attractions. which the country offers.

In this connection we might mention gardening. A more healthful or interesting occupation than gardening it would be difficult to mention, and it has also the advantage that it may be made a profitable pastime. But whether commercially a success or not, the owner of a good garden is amply repaid in being able to have his table supplied with fresh fruit and vegetables nearly all the year round, whilst the town householder has to be content with garden produce often stale through keeping for lengthy periods in warehouses, cellars and shops.

One reason why we do not care to take much exercise in towns is that we live at such high pressureeverything around us is so full of rush and hurry that we are unconsciously carried along at the same rate, and

when work is over we feel that we want to sit down quietly rather than go off for a stroll, which would really be more beneficial if it could be taken in purer air; and this leads us to express regret that greater facilities are not offered to induce persons engaged in business pursuits in London and other large towns to live some few miles out in the country. A frequent service of quick trains, with large reductions of fares to season-ticket holders, would go far to induce people of all ranks to live under the more healthful surroundings of the country. Large towns might become merely business centres, instead of being in great part residential, and if proper care were taken to build good houses under proper sanitary precautions, with plenty of free space between each, the health of the nation would wonderfully improve. It is too often forgotten that health means wealth alike to the nation as to the individual.

FRANCIS J. ALLAN.

GEORGE BROWN.

CHAPTER III.

HEALTH IN RELATION TO LAND.

BY BENJAMIN WARD RICHARDSON, M.D., F.R.S.

À GREAT classical authority in medicine, Aurelius Celsus, who lived in the Augustan era, tells, in the opening passages of his one great work, that as agriculture provides aliment for healthy bodies, so medicine provides health for the sick. That is true. Agriculture provides aliment for health. But it does more; it provides health for the body; it is, indeed, the great factor of health. As agriculture declines, perfect and typical health declines, and a people that had no land in cultivation would soon be as poor as the land itself. Our great cities and towns are the markets of the world in respect to material things and produce; they are the markets also of health, no less, no more. We have to send our produce into the markets, and we have to send our health there from the country-from the land.

Health
It

is a crop good or bad according to its cultivation. may be bad although it be bred in the country and on the land; but it thrives best when the land thrives best, as if the two were one and the same.

In the eyes of the sanitarian, land is the test of health. Good land, rightly cultivated, is the cradle of health for all crops, animal or vegetable. One of the earliest facts dwelt upon by my late friend, Sir Edwin Chadwick, was land drainage in its bearing on health.

He took special pains to point out the severe consequences of the neglect of land drainage in every part of the country where it is neglected, and the advantages of an increasing salubrity and productiveness wherever the drainage has been skilfully and effectually carried out. The following example of this fact was stated by him in a report from Mr. John Marshall, the clerk to the Union in the Isle of Ely :

"The Isle of Ely was at one time in a desolate state, being frequently inundated by the upland waters, and destitute of the adequate means of drainage; the lower parts became a wilderness of stagnant pools, the exhalations from which loaded the air with pestiferous vapours and fogs. By the improvements which from time to time were made, within fifty years an alteration took place which might appear to have been the effect of magic. By the labour, spirit, and industry of the inhabitants a forlorn waste has been converted into pleasant and fertile pastures, and they, themselves, have been rewarded by bounteous harvests. Drainage, embankments, engines, and enclosures have given stability to the soil, which in its nature is as rich as the Delta of Egypt, as well as salubrity to the air. These very considerable improvements, although carried out at a great expense, have at last turned to a double account, both in reclaiming much ground, in improving the rest, and in contributing to the healthiness of the inhabitants. Works of modern refinement have given a totally different face and character to this once neglected spot; much has been performed, much yet remains to be accomplished by the rising generation. The demand for labour produced by the drainage is incalculable, but when it is stated that where the sedge and rushes grew a few years since, we have now fields of waving corn, oats, and even