to his jest about the Constantinople dogs (erroneously called scavengers) and all. She had the advantage of knowing all about Constantinople, and the merits of its natural drainage. As for Madras, she thought that there had been "consideration" enough (it had lasted for more than 20 years), and that the Secretary of State ought to insist on action, in which connection she sent various proposals. Lord Salisbury's reply to Miss Nightingale did not appear to be promising. "The indecision of the Madras Government," he said (Sept. 19), "is partly due to the fact that various authorities have to be consulted, and no orders from the Secretary of State will prevent those authorities from differing. But the real difficulty," he added, "is money." It was all that the Madras Government could do to find money for "imperious necessities." The implication was that the protection of the public health was not an imperious necessity. A rank heresy, this, in Miss Nightingale's eyes. In sending on Lord Salisbury's letter to Dr. Sutherland, her comment was: "And they call _me_ a dangerous man!" To which Dr. Sutherland replied: "So you are! They tell you a thing can't be done, and you won't believe them! It is all nonsense that the Municipality cannot find money to drain with, and no number of letters can make it sense." Lord Salisbury's action was, however, more favourable to Miss Nightingale than his letter, for it was presently announced in the Madras papers that the Secretary of State had ordered drainage works of some sort to be carried out at once. If this were so, the words "at once" were interpreted with some reference to "the periods of Indian cosmogony." The scientific drainage of Black Town, the most thickly populated quarter of Madras, was begun in 1882; that of the remainder of the town was in progress twenty-five years. [168] In view of its selection as the new capital of India, the "sanitary regeneration" of Delhi is at last to be taken in hand. (_See_ the _Times_, April 22, 1913.) [169] In 1871 it was 28.96 per 1000; in 1874, 37.1. In some parts of the town, the rate was as high as 80 per 1000. IV