I was, during four years, apothecary to the Chorlton-on-Medlock Dispensary, during which time cases of sickness occurring in houses unfit for healthful habitation were constantly coming under my observation; many particular localities, affording far more than their due proportion of disease, owing to imperfect drainage and ventilation. Any one who had gone to inspect the body on the occurrence of death in those places, with powers to enforce sanitary measures, such as the removal of the survivors, the drainage and cleansing and ventilation of the premises, would, undoubtedly, have had the means of preventing much mortality. § 204. Mr. Leigh, the surgeon, whose testimony has already been cited, acts as one of the registrars of Manchester, and adverts to one source of mortality amongst infants which appears to be widely extended in the town districts. It is a practice with mothers who go to work to leave their children in the care of the cheapest nurses, who commonly neglect the infants, and have recourse to Dalby’s Carminative in large quantities to quiet them. It is his opinion that a large number of them fall a sacrifice to this and other improper modes of treatment. For example, says Mr. Leigh, There is one evil of the extent of whose existence I had no conception, till I had for some time held the office of registrar. In decrying this, I would beg distinctly to disavow any private professional feeling. I allude to the great number of cases in which either no medical treatment at all, or what is nearly as bad, improper medical treatment, had been resorted to. I think, in nearly one-fourth of the deaths of infants reported to me, on inquiry I find that the little patients had been attended by incompetent and unqualified practitioners, chiefly retail druggists. Cases of croup and inflammation of the lungs which are eminently benefited by medical treatment, and in which prompt and decisive measures often preserve life, are treated by them, and I have reason to know by inquiry into the details of the cases that bleedings, calomel, and the remedies absolutely requisite in such cases are never, or very rarely, employed, whereas, under proper medical treatment, most of such cases would recover. Under these circumstances, these men themselves become fertile sources of mortality to the young. In a subsequent communication, he states—