Next to the unwholesomeness of houses arising from the neglected state of dust bins—to whatever cause the neglect may be attributable—no subject, perhaps, so often engages the attention of Sanitary Inspectors as that of water supply and the neglected state of cisterns. It would almost seem as if many householders thought that the water supply needed no more attention than that of gas, which is usually comprised in a quarterly settlement with the collector. Months and probably years elapse in some cases without any attention being paid to the condition of cisterns which, I need hardly say, ought to be cleaned out periodically, and not less frequently than once a month. It is true that the inconvenient position in which the cisterns are sometimes placed occasions difficulties in getting at them, which may in some measure account for the neglect. But in other cases where no such difficulty exists the result is the same. One among the “water regulations” by which the Companies are almost constituted a sanitary authority, and which might be enforced with public advantage, relates to the position of cisterns which are required to be placed in accordance with their views. This regulation is of a retrospective character, but so far as I know it is not carried out. Another valuable regulation would abolish the “waste pipe”—a fertile and unsuspected cause of foul water, and, in many cases of illness, being often untrapped and then serving as a ventilator to the drains, giving exit to noxious gases which the water absorbs freely. But I cannot say that I have heard of any instance in which the Companies have exercised their powers in this respect—powers, be it understood, claimed by and conceded to them, not on sanitary grounds, but simply to prevent the waste of water. It is one of my most often repeated instructions to the Inspectors to view the apparatus for water supply when making a house inspection, and to abolish waste pipes whenever practicable. Another regulation has for its object, to prevent waste of water, by the intervention of a service box for the supply of the water closet, thus limiting the discharge at each elevation of the lever to a maximum of two gallons. This regulation I have no doubt is carried out in the case of new houses; but it is perhaps of even more importance in old ones, in which, as too often happens, the domestic and the closet service are drawn from one and the same cistern. In a special report (November 20, 1872) I referred to all these points, and to many others, and I have seen no reason to modify the expressions of regret with which I then had occasion to speak of the stringency of the regulations, which is, I apprehend, the main, if not the sole cause of our being still without the constant system of water supply which it was supposed the Act of 1871 would give us. The stringency to which I allude has reference principally to the costliness of the apparatus and fittings on which the