1874. Messiís. Editors,-A poorly drained city may be fairly compared to a case of empyema left to the tender care of nature, who, strive us she may, is sometimes but a clumsy physician. Virchow's pamphlet, "Drainage or Diarrhoea," roused the authorities of Berlin to the necessity of providing their unwholesome city with an alimentary canal. Would there were a Virchow here! How the city of Philadelphia escapes yearly epidemics of cholera, typhoid fever, diarrhoea and kindred evils is a problem.

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... rainage facilities are in process of construction here and there, but authorized less with a view to promotion of public health than for the purpose of giving a profitable job to a slave of the "Ring." Even at this early season, smells are countless. Every district has its peculiar odors, and one involuntarily recalls the famous couplet of Coleridge in relation to the city of Cologne:-" Yo nymphs who reign o'er sowers and sinks," &c.