, 1874-08-15

streams. For mouths together the fields may
be soaked and the hollows standing With water,
you may have streams on both sides as you
drive along the roads, with here and there the
whole road pretty deep with standing or NOV
Jog water; foot travelling may be almost i'm
possible every pool may be the source of a
river the water mills may be obliged to let
of more than they can use, and the one idea
of the country may be to save itself from drown
ing. Happily, everywhere there is an outlet,
and it is made full use of. Within a twelve.
mouth, perhaps much less, there will not be a
vestige OF a sign of water. The surface will
be as dry as a pavement, the grass of the
form and hue of a WORKOUT Turkey carpet,
aud the cattle reduced to dry food and a vi.
sit twice q day to some precious stream a
mile of. There is nothing the poor things
will not then do 10 quest of green food aud
water, This, however, is outside the SANTA
tary question, which has to do with human
brings, supposed to be better able to take care
of th.ms Ives. We want water, ana at least
some of it pure water, for food, health, strength,
aud cleanliness. There are hundreds of villa
ges where there is 40 such thing to be got as
pure water. The warehouses; and the wells
are al poisoned. the former by infusion, the
latter by perooIation.' Storage thus becomes,
If not the only remedy, at least the readlest
and the cheapest. 1t is everywhere more easy
to retain the water dropping fresh from the
clouds than to make new water-courses and
dig new wells. There ia not a single parish
in England in which there is not the 0ppor-
tunlty of a natural fall, through some inequali-
ty Of the surface, for the creation of a re.
servoir sufficient, as may be, for the wants Of
a village or a farm.
The Circular before us, necessarily compre-
hensive, and intended for the largest as we'll as
for the smallest districts under sanitary super
vision, may appear to aim too high for small
areas and Scant means. But what is good for
twenty thousand acres is go,d for one, and
what is wanted by ten thousand people is
W lnted not less by a hundred, generally much
more wanted. The only real difficulty is the
want of vital energy and ordinary information
in the smaller communities. They both know
and care less for Ihese things. Even if they
are visited with a plague, it makes less sensa-
ton than even in proportion to its victims.
Everywhere there are the means of storage,
and it is a matter in which the cost will be in
fair proportion to the work, if only there is as
much science in the smaller work as in the
larger. The Local Government Board re-
minds the local authorities that thew have
very great powers, and can, indeed, do any
thing that may be necessary We presume
that there is found o certain difficulty in NOV
ing lhtSe authorities 10 a tulI sense OF their
duiies. They are generally interested, preiu-
diced, and socially hamFered, quite The other
way. Boards Of Guardians are usually COM
posed of farmers, the last men to believe a
farm-yard capable of disseminating disease, or
excreta of any kind poisonous. They say that
their cattle will always prefer a dirty pond to
a running stream, and as the latter is apt to
disorder cattle, at least On a journey, they
Cannot think pure water so essential to exis-
tence. Yet village statistics supply just as
much illns ration of sanitary principles as do
those of the worst conditioned town. If we
may venture to suggest anything to the Local
Government Board, and if it is not exceeding
their duties, we should say that the thing
most wanted is some simple, Ineligible &C.
count of work actually done. A few examples
of water storage, on the various scales adapted
to surfaces of from one to twenty thousand
acres of different formations and CONGREGATIONS,
would be everywhere useful. Such a volume
would be everywhere Suggestive of improve
ment-now formidable because mysterious and
.unknown-and would even be a welcome con-
ttribution to the studies in the first class of our
elementary schools. Our village boys of 12
or ID, often naturally endowed with mashema-
tlcal power, are really in want of something to
exercise their understandings upon. Yet