“Since the introduction of the New Poor Law and the enclosure of the land, considerable draining has been effected, employment has been more plentiful, and the wages higher, and many of the labourers have allotments of ground. Typhus has been rapidly diminishing, and this year (1839) there was no case until November, and then only two. This must principally be attributed to the improved state of the parish, and partly, perhaps, this year, to the wetness of the season, by which the water-pits have been kept nearly full, so that the conditions favourable to the generation of malaria have not existed. “A few wells have been dug lately, and good water has been obtained, and there is every probability if the water-pits were filled up, and more wells dug, and the draining completed, that sporadic typhus and ague, which have so long infested this village, and occasioned so much distress and expense, might be entirely eradicated. A respectable farmer informed me that, in the neighbouring parish of Houghton, a few years ago, his was the only family that used well-water, and almost the only one that escaped ague.” The state of the supplies of water to the labouring classes in Scotland appears to be similar to that prevalent in the towns and the rural districts of England. _Mr. William Tait_, surgeon, of Edinburgh, states, in regard to the houses in the High-street, Cowgate, and Canongate:— “The dwellings of the poor are remarkable for their generally uncomfortable appearance, and I attribute this in most instances to a deficient supply of water, necessaries, and such like conveniences. There are no receptacles for filth of any description, and it is either accumulated in the stairs or dwellings themselves, and the stairs are scarcely ever washed. And how can it be otherwise, seeing that the poor have to travel for a considerable distance for water, and afterwards carry it up five, six, or seven stories?” The Return from Glasgow states that the— “Sewers or drains are left uncovered, and with no diluting water except the refuse of families and rain-water.” That— “There is no scarcity of water if carried into the poorer houses.” _Dr. Alexander Cuddie_, of Aberdeen, states that the— “Water is plentiful; but it would be proper to bring it into the houses of the poor as well as the rich.” _Mr. Forrest_, in his report on the sanitary condition of the population of Stirling, states that in that town—