The difficulty of disposing of the ashes, mixed as they must necessarily be with animal and vegetable matter, is one that is forcing itself upon the attention of all town authorities, and the days of the rich dust contractors of the metropolis are practically numbered. Destruction by fire seems to be the ultimate end to be aimed at, and in this respect several towns have led the way. But as this is a subject which will be fully dealt with by a paper to be read during the meeting, I will not anticipate the information which will be brought before you, further than to say that the great end to be aimed at in this method of disposing of the ashes and refuse of towns is greater economy in cost of construction of destructors, as well as in cost of working them. The progress in sanitation on the Continent, America, and the colonies has not been coincident with the progress in England, but these countries have largely benefited by the experience of the United Kingdom, and in some respects their specialists take more extreme views than those of this country in matters of detail. This is, perhaps, more particularly the case with the Americans, who have devised all sorts of exceptional details in connection with private drainage, in order to protect the interior of the houses from sewer gas, and to perfect its ventilation. In plumbing matters they seem also to be very advanced, and to have established examinations for plumbers and far-reaching regulations for house drainage. Time will not permit me to examine into the works of a sanitary character which have been undertaken in the several countries after the example of England, but they have been attended with similar beneficial results and saving in life and sickness as in this country, although the Continental towns which have led the way with such works cannot as yet point to the low rates of mortality for large towns which have been attained in England, with the exception of the German towns of Carlsruhe, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, and Stuttgart, which show death rates of 20.55, 20.64, 22, and 21.4 respectively. The greatest reduction of the mortality by the execution of proper sewerage and water works took place in Danzig, on the Baltic, and Linz, on the Danube, where after the execution of the works the mortality was reduced by 7.85 and 10.17 per 1,000 respectively, and in the case of Danzig this reduction is almost exclusively in zymotic diseases. Berlin is also a remarkable example of the enterprise of German sanitarians, for there they are demonstrating to the world the practicability of dealing with the sewage from a population of over 11/4 million upon 16,000 acres of land, of which about 10,000 acres are already under irrigation.