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washed, the windows thrown open, the bed clothes and wearing apparel of the tenants washed. On inquiry at the dwelling two months after, the family was completely free from sickness.

In a room about fourteen feet square, situated in an entry adjacent to No. 34 Plunket Street, eight persons slept; a fever broke out among them; six individuals were attacked. They applied to the House of Recovery for relief, and were removed into the hospital, the room being ventilated, and fumigation and whitewashing employed. The bed clothes and wearing apparel also were carefully washed and aired. This was done about the 25th of August. On visiting the dwelling on the 11th of November following, the family still continued to occupy it, and no sickness had appeared since the preventative means had been employed. It conveyed a pleasing sensation to observe, that the practice of cleanliness seemed to have been introduced into this poor family; the staircase and the floor were much cleaner than is usual, the clothing and persons of the occupiers were in like manner improved.

In a miserable dwelling situated at the remote

extremity of an entry adjoining to No. 8, Patrick's Close, a fever had constantly prevailed for many months. Inquiry was made at this house, and it appeared that nine persons had been attacked with this distemper, three of whom had died. The circumstances of this abode of wretchedness must have contributed in a peculiar manner to render it the seat of contagion; the entry being extremely narrow, the dwelling remote from the street, and the dirt and offals of the numerous inhabitants collected on one side of the door in a dunghill that exhaled all its effluvia to the windows placed over it. Several of the tenants were admitted into the House of Recovery, and after the admission of James Dunn, the house was thoroughly scoured, washed, and fumigated with muriatic acid vapours. The bed clothes of some of the tenants were also washed: after this the fever ceased; the house was free from sickness when visited three months after cleansing.

Frequent admissions to the House of Recovery had taken place from No. 6, Still's Court, a lodging-house at the upper extremity of a narrow blind lane on the Coombe. The result of inquiry shewed that five persons had

been attacked with fever there, previous to the admission of Michael Byrne, on the 24 July. The distemper was principally confined to one garret-room. This case was represented to the managing committee, and it was suggested, that more than usually active means should be employed to destroy the contagion, by whitewashing, scouring the floors and furniture, and by fumigations with muriatic acid vapours, which were put in practice in a complete manner after the removal of the sick, and with the happiest effects. On visiting every room in the dwelling on the 12th November following, there was no sick person to be seen there, nor has there been any since. To superficial observation it might have appeared, that fever had prevailed there afterwards, as Nancy Harding had been admitted into the fever hospital a few days before this visit; but inquiry shewed that her illness began in another house, where she acted as a servant, in a wet kitchen, and that she had come to this lodging on being taken ill. At No. 5, Island Street, a fever broke out, beginning with the father of the family William Lyon, from whom it spread to his wife and four children. They were all admitted into the hospital on the same day, July 22d; the

cellar in which they dwelt was whitewashed and cleansed; on returning to their home, another of the family sickened and was received into the House of Recovery. Their abode was then fumigated with muriatic acid vapours, after which the sickness ceased, nor has it since appeared though near four months have elapsed.

10th April, 1806.

No. XV.

The following is extracted from the late address of the BENEFICENT SOCIETY AT EDINBURGH, to the Inhabitants of that place.

WITH

ITH respect to the possibility of our finding and continuing to find persons able and willing to distribute such provision to the poor, we trust, before this meet the public eye, we shall be able to appeal to something more than presumptions, or speculative reasoning on the subject. We acknowledge that good understanding, considerable experience, as well as compassion and a bountiful heart, are necessary qualifications in those, who may be requested to become the visitors of the poor, and the immediate trustees of the public benevolence. We acknowledge also, that it is in itself a mortifying employment to enter the abodes of many of the poor. A man must not be fastidious who exposes himself to stench and filth, and perhaps to vermin, who encounters rude manners without impatience or disgust, and detects