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of being. According to the same theory, "hearing" corresponds to "obedience," or external action carrying out internal dictates: hence the appropriateness of the scriptural expression "a hearing ear," and the Eastern saying, "To hear is to obey." We employ the terms "warm" and "cold" not simply in reference to physical temperature, but to the state of the affections. This is because of the connection of heat with love a connection so striking and powerful that the temperature of the body often changes with the change of the emotional state within. The truth is, that the one thing is on a lower plane what the other is in a higher, and the common perception of mankind endorses the fact of their eternal connection by the very form of outward expression which it adopts. The same thing may be seen in the double meanings attached to the words "sense," "taste," " 'feeling," 'heart," "breath," and many others. In this way, a great philosophical truth, though to a great extent lost sight of owing to the dulled perceptions of mankind, has not died out altogether, but has in part been handed down to us in the very structure of our spoken language.

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What a fund of knowledge, then, is stored up for us in the simple combinations of spoken sounds which we employ to express our ideas! History, morality, philosophy are here presented to us, not in long drawn sentences and tedious orations, but in single words, in pregnant syllables, in suggestive expressions, which, instead of wearying the attention are calculated to awaken curiosity, stimulate inquiry, and lead to a healthy exercise of the rational faculties.

PUBLIC HEALTH.

BY

JOHN A. NICHOLLS,

NICHOLLS, F. R. A. S.

Concluded from last month.

I believe that the improper manner in which houses, cottage houses more especially, are erected, becomes a fruitful source of disease from the insufficient protection they afford against the severities of the weather, and the ease with which their thin walls are penetrated by the damp and moisture prevailing in this district during large portions of the year. The pressure of popula tion alone enables these speculators to obtain the large remuneration for their outlay, which generally exceeds the profits of any other mode of investment. I need say nothing on the insufficiency of the supply of conveniences of all kinds. At best, such houses are mere shells, to protect their occupants from the rain, and so far from being economical as residences, they are specially expensive, because of the necessity of warmer in-door clothing, and a larger consumption of fuel to ward off the cold that so easily finds entrance through their thin walls, and badly-fitting casements and doors.

All these circumstances affect most powerfully the physical condition of our poorer fellow-men, and are all capable of improvement, and it would be an easy task to multiply examples. I shall content myself with dwelling on one other great primal law of public health, the breach of which, I fear, is more pregnant with misery than any other :-I mean the great law of Temperance.

The body and soul-destroying vice of drunkenness is only too prevalent. Thanks, however, to greater enlightenment, it is not now considered necessary for a gentleman to prove himself one, by the quantity of strong drink he can manage to imbibe. A drunkard is speedily ejected from all decent society. I trust the spirit of imitation may, in this respect, as it often does in others, soon extend to the masses of the labouring population. We never can expect any real intellectual advancement to take place, until intemperance shall be the exception, and not the rule; thank God, there is less of it than there used formerly to be. We may, each one of us, aid the working classes in this, which is peculiarly their own effort, and ought to be worked out by themselves. It is not for those who can, if they wish, have any luxuries they may desire at home, to go forth into the world, and say, that all the places where working men can purchase intoxicating drinks shall be at once and for ever closed. Such a declaration, if it come at all, must come from the working classes themselves, and gladly would we join in assisting them in this effort. It is indeed a misfortune,-nay, I will use a stronger term, it is a disgrace, that in this civilized country so large an amount of the public revenue should be derived from the direct encouragement of the lowest vices of the people. It is a difficult task to fight against the array of influence which can be brought to bear, in defence of the present system. If the working classes would be resolved, and be true to their resolve, this might all soon be changed. Our streets are crowded with beershops, nightly filled with those who should use the means thus absolutely wasted, to provide better clothing and food for their families, and instruction for their children. In these cases we may lament; but unless we act, our sorrow is of little avail. In acknowledging the existence and magnitude of an evil, it is our duty, if possible, to point out a remedy, which even though it may not

perhaps produce all the effect we desire, would nevertheless be a step in the right direction. And, by way merely of suggestion, in order to show that these evils, great as they are, can be easily lessened, allow me to point out one means, requiring of course resolve and determined effort to carry it into effect, but still quite practicable. We have but to make a slight change in the signs over each door, to introduce one little word of three letters, to produce, if not all the good, at least a very large portion. Suppose, for example, these signs read, "Not to be drank on the premises." Can we not readily imagine an immense change for the better? It is one thing for a working man, perhaps tired with his day's labour, induced either by a companion, or the warm bright glow which is artfully allowed to penetrate the cold foggy air of the street without, to enter a beerhouse, and sitting hour after hour with others, reel home to his expectant wife and family, and quite another, for such a one to buy his drink and take it home with him, and sit selfishly consuming it by his own fireside, with his children, perhaps, imploring for food around him. There are, indeed, few sufficiently hardened to do this; and yet many think it no sin to spend their children's food, and clothing, and schooling, in company with others, and excuse themselves afterwards on the score of being led away,-still they would rather cut off their right hands, than exhibit so revolting a picture of utter selfishness to their own offspring in their own houses. Here, too, how valuable would be the assistance of increased education. How many have recourse to drink, simply because they do not know how to pass their leisure hours, they are devoid of all resources within themselves, and must look to external sensual gratification as the only available relief from the tedium, the utter weariness, of their own selves.

I have already briefly mentioned, that the excitements of intoxicating liquors are in request by those

who are suffering from the ill effects of breathing vitiated air. The failing appetite is excited by these meaus, and the decreasing strength is stimulated for a time into some likeness of its former self, only to relapse into greater weakness and more helplessness when the reaction occurs which always follows the use of stimulants. If the working classes could have placed before them, in some readily appreciable form, all the evils resulting to themselves and their families from the abuse of those gifts which are only beneficial when used with care and judgment, they would shrink appalled from the dread prospect thus revealed.

Not less fearfully does this truly terrible scourge operate on the intellectual, than on the physical condition of the people. The mental powers entirely give way under its pressure, and we have imbecility and insanity as its undoubted consequences. Every hope of better things, every higher aspiration, every struggle to better condition, to rise in the scale of society, every noble energy, is laid utterly prostrate; and when, ast is too often the case, this habit establishes itself in more respectable families, we see them go from bad to worse, sinking deeper and deeper. The little refinements of life are first thrown on one side; the craving appetite requires fresh supplies, comforts are abandoned, necessaries follow; the sense of selfrespect is lost; and those who once held better positions, with bright prospects and cheering hopes, fall into the sad abyss, and hide their wretchedness in the close dens where vice and folly love to congregate.

As neglect of sanitary laws leads to intemperance, so, in the vicious circle, intemperance is a fruitful source of fresh inroads on their observance, and prepares a never-failing supply of fresh victims for the next attacks of any epidemic, in addition to the numbers that perish annually from the mere direct effects of the absolute poisons they are in the habit of consuming. This state of things calls loudly for

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