from the effluvia or exhalations breathed into the atmosphere from noxious minerals to which might be added stagnant waters and putrid bodies of every kind. Gibbon, in his _Roman History_, 4th Edition, Vol. IV, p. 327-332, gives a very particular account of the plague which depopulated the earth in the time of Emperor Justinian. He thinks that the plague was derived from damp, hot and stagnating air, and the putrifaction of animal substances, especially locusts. The Mahometans believe that the plague proceeds from certain spirits, or goblins, armed with bows and arrows sent by God to punish men for their sins; and that when the wounds are given by spectres of a black colour, they certainly prove fatal, but not so when the arrows are shot by those that appear white. The learned Dr. Chandler, who travelled in Asia Minor, was of the opinion that the disease arose from animalcules which he supposed to be invisible. The three Plague years. In 1603 the number of deaths in Battersea was 22 " 1625 ditto 61 " 1665 ditto 113 Average of Births with Burials:-- 1580-1589 Births 13 Burials 7 1680-1689 " 58 " 68 1780-1789 " 60 " 69 In 1876 the number of births in Battersea Parish was 3459, and the number of deaths 1751, not including the Hamlet of Penge. The subjoined is copied from "St. Mary's Battersea Parish Magazine" for November, 1875. "Vicars of Battersea from Olden Times. The following extract from 'A History and Antiquities of Surrey,' begun by the Rev. Owen Manning, enlarged and continued to the year 1814 by William Bray, Esq., printed for White, Cochrane & Co., at Horace's Head, Fleet Street, will be of interest. PATRON. VICAR. INSTITUTION.