taken of this appeal; until, towards the end of the Session of 1839, the Bishop of London, in the House of Lords, not only called the attention of the Government to the Report, but moved an address to Her Majesty, praying for an inquiry as to the extent to which the causes of the disease-stated by the Poor-Law Commissioners to prevail among the labouring classes of the metropolis-prevail also among the labouring classes in other parts of the kingdom. This address being carried, Lord John Russell directed the Poor-Law Board to institute such an inquiry, and the Commissioners, in the month of November following, gave instructions accordingly to their assistants. They likewise addressed letters to the several Boards of Guardians, as well as to their medical officers, requesting them severally to furnish answers to a series of questions enclosed: besides which, a circular letter to the dispensary-surgeons and medical practitioners having been forwarded to the provosts of Scotch Burghs, a resolution was passed by the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, recommending that all members and licentiates of that body should give every aid to this inquiry. In due time, from a number of medical men, residing in different towns and districts of Scotland, as well as of England, very valuable reports were obtained.

As soon as this mass of MS. was collected in Somerset House, its bulk being evidently more than the Commissioners or Parliament could find leisure to examine, the Secretary of the Board was directed to digest it; and, after comparing its various statements with such

authentic facts as he might obtain from other sources, to frame a Report exhibiting the principal results of the whole investigation. From his own various and extensive personal inspections, from the information which had been forwarded to the Commissioners, from the documents of the medical officers, and from his examination of witnesses, Mr. Chadwick, after nearly two years' labour, succeeded in completing the remarkable Report now before us.

Before, however, we enter upon the first important chapter, we cannot refrain from observing how little the subject to which it particularly relates—namely, the purification by science of the air we breathe-has hitherto been deemed worthy of consideration.

Through our main thoroughfares, such as Oxfordstreet, Holborn, Piccadilly, the Strand, Pall-Mall, and St. James's-street, the atmosphere would flow with healthful celerity, were it not that to most of these ethereal rivers there are linked on either side, in the forms of courts, alleys, stable-yards, and culs-de-sac, a set of vile, stagnant ponds in which the heaven-born element remains "in durance vile," until, saturated with the impurities and sickness of its gaol, it flows into, mixes with, and pollutes the main streams we have described. And yet if the pavement of St. James's-street be but cleanly swept, those who saunter up and down it, as well as those who in red coats or brown ones sit at club windows, indolently gazing at carriages (many of which, as they roll by, seem mechanically to make their heads nod) appear not to be aware that they are one and all inhal

ing stale, pent-up, corrupt air, which an ounce of science could have dispersed by circulation. Even the hollow square of the Royal palace is made to retain its block of the stagnant fluid, while several others of our public buildings, like the offices in Downing-street, and like the numerous high "dead" walls enclosing property of the Crown, etc., seem to have been purposely planned to act as tourniquets upon those veins and arteries which, if unobstructed, would give health and ruddiness to the population. Instead, however, of philosophizing any longer in the streets, we will invite our readers to enter with us for a moment into one of the splendid mansions of our Metropolis; and accordingly, ascending its spacious staircase, let us take up our position in the doorway of the second of the suite of drawing-rooms, beyond which, the assemblage, being under high pressure, makes it evidently impossible for us to advance.

We here see before us, a dense phalanx, of both sexes, amongst whom are conspicuous persons of the highest rank, beauty, and wealth in Europe. Upon their education no expense has been spared ;-money has done all in its power to add to Nature's choicest gifts the polish of Art. Their dresses are importations from every country of the civilized world. The refreshments are delicacies which it has required months, and in some cases even years, of unremitting attention to obtain. The splendid furniture has every comfort that ingenuity can devise. And yet within this painted sepulchre, what, we ask, is the analysis of the air we are breathing? That lofty duchess's head is sparkling with dia

monds; that slight, lovely being leaning on her arm has the pearls of India wound around her brow ;-those statesmen and warriors are decorated with stars ;-the dense mass displays flowers, ribbons, and ornaments of every colour in the rainbow; but among them all, is there, we ask, a single one who for a moment has thought of bringing with him upon his back, the hogshead of air per hour necessary for his respiration? And if every guest present has neglected to do so, in what manner, it must be inquired, has the noble host provided for the demand? Alas! the massive, pictured walls around us, and richy-stuccoed and gilt ceiling over our heads, answer the question; indeed one has only to cast a glance at them to perceive that the five hundred persons present, like those in the Black-hole at Calcutta, are conglomerated together in a hermetically-sealed box full of vitiated air.

Every minute a thousand gallons of air pass into the lungs of those present, from whence, divested of its oxygen, it is exhaled in a morbid condition unfit for combustion or animal life; every respiration of each elegant guest, nay, even our own contemplative sigh, vitiates about sixteen cubic inches of the element; and yet, while every moment it is becoming more and more destructive to health; while the loveliest cheeks are gradually fading before us; while the constitutions of the young are evidently receiving an injury which not the wealth of Croesus will be able to repay; what arrangements, we repeat, has the noble host made for preventing or repairing the damage he is creating? If foul air,

like manure, could be carted away, and if good air, like fresh, clean straw, could be brought in its stead, surely one of the simplest luxuries which wealth could offer to society would be to effect this sanitary operation; and thus, instead of offering a set of lovely women ices and unwholesome refreshments, to spend the money these would cost in pouring upon their heads, necks, and shoulders a continual supply of that pure, fresh, exhilarating, oxygenous mixture, which would give animation to their hearts, and colour to their cheeks. But is this expensive, troublesome, complicated, horse-and-cart mode of purifying the horrid atmosphere we are breathing necessary? No; everybody present knows that outside the shutters and plate-glass windows of the rooms in which we are suffering, there is at this moment in waiting, not two inches from us, an overwhelming supply of pure air, just as desirous to rush in as the foul air we have been breathing and re-breathing is eager to rush out.

The laws of specific gravity, ordained by Nature to ensure for us the performance of this double process, are in attendance; indeed so great is the supply of spare air in her laboratory, that the proportion of oxygen consumed by animated beings in a century is said not to exceed 7200 of the whole atmosphere; and yet, as though the demon of suicide had prevailed upon us to thwart these beneficent arrangements, we close our doors, bar our windows, stuff up by curtains and drapery every crevice, as if it were the privilege of wealth to feed its guests on foul air!

If any one of our readers, who, like ourselves, has