The bill had been thrown out in 1847, but in 1848 the first sanitary law, the Public Health Act, passed! Footnote 20: "The Health of Towns Commission." Footnote 21: The statements as to the saving of life which would be effected if proper sanitary measures were carried out were necessarily various, since the difference which could be made in the death-rate was a matter of opinion, and had yet to be proved by experiment. If, instead of one death annually in every 46 inhabitants throughout England and Wales (the then proportion), there should be an improvement sufficient to secure there being one death in every 50, upwards of 25,000 lives would be saved. Whilst, if the sanitary state of towns could be raised to that of healthy counties, there would be a saving of 49,000 lives. The Association seems to have chosen something between the least probable and the highest probable saving of life.--G. L. Footnote 22: Lord Morpeth speaks here of the saving of life in large towns only. CHAPTER VIII. OFFICIAL LIFE--GENERAL BOARD OF HEALTH, 1848-1854. Immediately after the passing of the Public Health Act, Lord Morpeth wrote to my grandfather that the changes made in the bill during its passage through Parliament had prevented the creation of any post which could be offered to him. Lord Morpeth said, however, that if Dr Southwood Smith would give the department the advantage both of his presence and counsel by accepting a seat on the Board, he hoped to provide for him a permanent post, by means of a supplementary Act, "The Diseases Prevention Act," which the Government expected to pass shortly. In answer to this my grandfather wrote as follows:-- 38 FINSBURY SQUARE, _Sept. 12, 1848_. MY DEAR LORD MORPETH,--I thank you very sincerely for your kind communication.... Thanks to your Lordship's indefatigable exertions, a position is now gained from which it is possible to attack, with some hope of success, the sources of excessive sickness and of premature mortality. You have at last laid the foundation of Practical Sanitary Improvement; but the structure is still to be raised, and if, as your Lordship intimates, both you and the Government are desirous that I should assist you in this labour, no one will apply himself with a deeper feeling of responsibility, or with greater earnestness, to what her Majesty justly calls "this beneficent work."