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gestions on a difficult subject, and at the same time one that properly belongs to a practical engineer.

I am, dear sir,

Your obedient servant,

W. B. SEALY.

To C. HUNTER BROWN, ESQ.,

Honorary Secretary to the Committee of Enquiry into the Drainage of Nelson.

Nelson, June 7, 1867.

DEAR SIR,—I am sorry that I have not been able to reply to yours of May 13 and 28.

You ask if I consider the health of Nelson is "injuriously affected by the present sewers, as now used." In the "present sewers" I believe you include all open closets and cesspools, as well as the sewer in Trafalgar-street. I certainly do believe the present manner of keeping the refuse is prejudicial to health. The General Board of Health, in its "Notification in respect to the Nuisances Removal and Contagious Diseases Prevention Act," published on October 5th, 1849, says, "The chief pre-disposing causes of every epidemic, and especially cholera, are damp, moisture, filth, animal and vegetable matter in a state of decomposition, and in general whatever produces atmospheric impurity; all of which has the effect of lowering the health and vigor of the system, and increasing the susceptibility to disease, particularly among the young, aged, and the feeble. The attacks of cholera are uniformly found to be most frequent and virulent in low-lying districts, on the banks of rivers, in the neighborhood of sewer-mouths, and wherever there are large collections of refuse, particularly among human dwellings."

In a proclamation issued for the protection of the population of the Russian Empire, in 1848, the important influence of this and similar causes has been recognised. In the practical recommendations founded thereon, are "to keep the person and dwelling house clean, to allow no sinks close to the house, and to prevent crowding wherever there are sick." Householders should be warned that the first means of safety lies in the removal of dung heaps, and solid and liquid filth of every description from beneath or about their houses and premises. Though persons long familiarised to the presence of such refuse may not perceive its offensiveness, nor believe in its noxious properties, yet all who desire to secure themselves from danger, should labor for the entire removal of filth, and the thorough cleansing of their premises.

Dr. Trench, the Medical Officer of Health for Liverpool, in his Annual Report for 1866, says:—"From July, 1863, to the end of 1866, the order for the conversion of privies into water-closets amounted to 3032 (2047 being issued during 1866) estimated to accommodate 800 persons; besides which the owners of more than 800 premises have voluntarily changed the middens into water-closets; and under the Sanitary Act privies supplying 1577 houses were converted. Dr. Trench admits that a system of sewerage, however complete, is not altogether unattended by a certain amount of sanitary evil, arising from the escape of deleterious gases; but he adds that measures have been taken to counteract the pernicious effects of those gaseous miasma, by the erection, since May, 1868, of 477 ventilating shafts, with a chamber for charcoal on Mr. Stenhouse's plan near the base, and an Archimedean air-extractor at the top.

I shall not attempt to point out the best way to drain Nelson; but I must say I consider that the drainage and sewage should not be carried off together; and that if it be decided to make use of the

ordure, it must be taken as far from the town as possible, and if on the contrary it is to be wasted, it should then be taken beyond the harbor, and only poured out at the commencement of the ebb tide. I have heard it argued that the salt water will counteract all bad effects from the pouring out of sewage on the mudflat. This is sheer nonsense; you have only to go down the Haven-road when the tide is out, when you will find the effects of the throwing out of the comparatively small amount of sewage quite appreciable now; what would it be if the whole town were drained on to it?

Multi-closets, where drains are impracticable, will be far preferable to the present open middens, enabling farmers and others to make use of that which otherwise is so prejudicial to health. Robert Bowie, Esq., in his "Report on the outbreak of cholera at Northdeiph in Norfolk," says:—"One suggestion I offered will, I trust, be permanently acted on, namely, the regular employment of scavengers, a farmer in the neighborhood having offered to cart away all the refuse, and to pay for it at the rate of 3s. 6d. or 4s. 6d. a load; a price which, it is imagined, will render the process beneficial to the parishioners, and profitable to the agriculturist, as there can be no doubt that the regular and efficient cleansing of the village will greatly lessen the susceptibility of the inhabitants to disease, while the means will be acquired of rendering vegetation more abundant.

Trusting you will not attribute to any discourtesy my not having answered you sooner.

I am, Dear Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

WILLIAM W. SQUIRES, M.D.

To the Secretary of the Sanitary Commission.

SIR,—In answer to your enquiry of May 13, as to "whether the health of Nelson is injuriously affected by the present sewers, as now used?" I beg leave to state that it is, and form my judgment from experience gained in the pursuit of my profession. In those portions of the city more particularly exposed to the miasmata of sewage matter lying on the mudflat, viz., Toi-Toi Valley and the Haven road, I have lately met with the most severe forms of choleraic diarrhea; in one case, in Toi-Toi Valley, where a strong man was living in a house situated by itself, well drained all round, and no other house within some chains of it in any direction, the symptoms were all of Asiatic cholera. Along the Haven Road, in several cases, the choleraic diarrhea was very severe, causing great and sudden prostration of strength. In both of these localities, though comparatively sparsely populated, I have found many cases of typhoid fever. In Toi-Toi Valley, the water supply is chiefly from a running brook; also, along the Haven road a great portion of the water-supply is from rain-water; and thus we must look to the vitiated state of the atmosphere as the only reason for diseases of every type taking a severe form. In either locality, the olfactory nerves of any person walking along at night, when the tide is out and the sea-breeze blowing, will be quite sufficiently afflicted to convince him that the drains already in use, and converted into sewers depositing their matter on the mudflat, exert a very deleterious effect. This is further exemplified by the character of disease along the Wakapuaka road, where the same cause is brought to bear, by the tide bringing up sewage matter and depositing it on the mudflat, causing at certain times a fearful stench, much complained of by the inhabitants of that part, as far up as Mr. Wastney's. How the tide brings up and deposits impurities is well exemplified last year by the quantity of what is