"In Havana the average height of the ground floor of a house above the soil is but six or seven inches; and this space is unventilated. The earth is not only damp, but is sodden with putrefying organic matter. The houses are closely built, without adequate space for ventilation between them. In the poorer quarters the population is crowded, a whole family often occupying a single room. The emanations from the cesspool and garbage-vault pervade, as has been stated, the kitchen and the sleeping-and living-rooms, even of houses of the better class. The standard of personal cleanliness is, necessarily, very low. These conditions, for which the citizens are responsible, are sufficient in themselves to transform the most healthy locality into a fever-nest. In the case of Havana, they are accumulated by climatic conditions favourable to, but in no case accountable for, the propagation of disease. No amount of rainfall, no high average of humidity, and no degree of temperature will cause zymotic pestilence, if cleanliness be secured and maintained, and proper drainage of the soil established." In the notes which Colonel Waring brought with him from Cuba, the following improvements are specified as absolutely necessary for the sanitary redemption of Havana: (1) The immediate organisation of a Department of Public Cleaning," under the full control of a single Commissioner experienced in the conduct of such work," who should have authority to act as occasion may require. The chief function of the Department would be the maintenance of a "constant state of cleanliness" in all the streets and places of public business or resort, including the abattoirs and markets. "It should also control the disposal of all wastes, except sewage--by cremation and otherwise." (2) The construction of a system of sewers "to receive the liquid wastes of all houses of the main city." The topography of the city divides it naturally into several districts. Each of these should be served by a distinct sewerage system, which should discharge directly into the harbour or the Gulf, as the case may be. " Before such discharge, the effluent should be effectively clarified by one of the various well known methods; so that it would carry only its dissolved impurities." The dilution would be immediate and more than sufficient; for the daily movement of sea water into and out of the harbour is about six thousand times as great as would be the day's discharge of clarified sewage from the harbour slope of the city.