the north from Carthage to the neighbourhood of the straits. The Another unfortunate error which disfigured the eastern portion of his map of the Mediterranean was the position assigned to Byzantium, which Ptolemy (misled in this instance by the authority of Hipparchus) placed in the same latitude with Massilia (43°5'), thus carrying it up more than 2° above its true position. This had the inevitable effect of transferring the whole of the Euxine Seawith the general form and dimensions of which he was fairly well acquainted-too far to the north by the same amount; but in addition to this he enormously exaggerated the extent of the Palus Mæotis (the Sea of Azoff), which he at the same time represented as having its direction from south to north, so that by the combined effect of these two errors he carried up its northern extremity (with the mouth of the Tanais and the city of that name) as high as 54° 30', or on the true parallel of the south shore of the Baltic. Yet, while he fell into this strange misconception with regard to the great river which was universally considered by the ancients as the boundary between Europe and Asia, he was the first writer of antiquity who showed a clear conception of the true relations between the Tanais and the Rha or Volga, which he correctly described as flowing into the Caspian Sea. With respect to this last also he was the first geographer after the time of Alexander to return to the correct view (already found in Herodotus) that it was an inland sea, without any communication with the Northern Ocean. With regard to the north of Europe his views were still very vague and imperfect. He had indeed considerably more acquaintance with the British Islands than any previous geographer, and even showed a tolerably accurate knowledge of some portions of their shores. But his map was, in this instance, disfigured by two unfortunate errors, the one, that he placed Ireland (which he calls Ivernia) altogether too far to the north, so that its southernmost portion was brought actually to a latitude beyond that of North Wales; the other, which was probably connected with it, that the whole of Scotland is twisted round, so as to bring its general extension into a direction from west to east, instead of from south to north, and place the northern extremity of the island on the same parallel with the promontory of Galloway. He appears to have been embarrassed in this part of his map by his having adopted the conclusion of Marinus-based upon what arguments we know not-that Thule was situated in 63°, while at the same time he regarded it, in conformity with the received view of all earlier In accordgeographers, as the most northern of all known lands. ance with this same assumption Ptolemy supposed the northern coast of Germany, which he believed to be the southern shore of the Great Ocean, to have a general direction from west to east, while he placed it not very far from the true position of that of the Baltic, of the existence of which as an inland sea he was wholly ignorant, as well as of the vast peninsula of Scandinavia beyond it, and only inserted the name of Scandia as that of an island of inconsiderable dimensions. At the same time he supposed the coast of Sarinatia from the Vistula castwards to trend away to the north as far as the parallel of Thule; nor did he conceive this as an actual limit, but believed the Unknown Land to extend indefinitely in this direction, as also to the north of Asiatic Scythia. The enormous extent assigned by him to the latter region has been already adverted to; but vague and erroneous as were his views concerning it, it is certain that they show a much greater approximation to the truth than those of earlier geographers, who possessed hardly a suspicion of the vast tracts in question, which stretch across Central Asia from the borders of Sarmatia to those of China. Ptolemy was also the first who had anything like a clear idea of the chain to which he gave the name of Imaus, and correctly regarded as having a direction across Scythia from south to north, so as to divide that great region into two distinct portions which he termed Scythia intra Imaum and Scythia extra Imaum, corresponding in some degree with those recognized in modern maps as Independent and Chinese Tartary. The Imaus of Ptolemy corresponds clearly to the range known in modern days as the Bolor or Pamir, which has only been fully explored in quite recent times. It was, however, enormously misplaced, being transferred to 140° E. long., or 80° east of Alexandria, the real interval between the two being little more than 40°. It is in respect of the southern shores of Asia that Ptolemy's geography is especially faulty, and his errors are here the more unfortunate as they were associated with greatly increased knowledge in a general way of the regions in question. For more than a century before his time, indeed, the commercial relations between Alexandria, as the great emporium of the Roman empire, and India had assumed a far more important character than at any former period, and the natural consequence was a greatly increased geographical knowledge of the Indian peninsula. The little tract called the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, about 80 A.D., contains sailing directions for merchants to the western ports of that country, from the mouth of the Indus to the coast of Malabar, and correctly indicates that the coast from Barygaza southwards had a general direction from north to south as far as the extremity of the peninsula (Cape Comorin). We are utterly ignorant of the reasons which induced Marinus, followed in this instance as in so many others by Ptolemy, to depart from this correct view, ard, while giving to the coast of India, from the mouths of the Indus to those of the Ganges, an undue extension in longitude, to curtail its extension towards the south to such an amount as to place Cape Cory (the southernmost point of the peninsula) only 4° of latitude south of Barygaza, the real intervals being more than 800 geographical miles, or, according to Ptolemy's system of graduation, 16° of latitude! This enormous error, which has the effect of distorting the whole appearance of the south coast of Asia, is associated with another equally extraordinary, but of an opposite tendency, in regard to the neighbouring island of Taprobane or Ceylon, the dimensions of which had been exaggerated by most of the earlier Greek geographers; but to such an extent was this carried by Ptolemy as to extend it through not less than 15° of latitude and 12° of longitude, so as to make it about fourteen times as large as the reality, and bring down its southern extremity more than 2° to the south of the equator. We have much less reason to be surprised at finding similar distortions in respect to the regions beyond the Ganges, concerning which he is our only ancient authority. During the interval which elapsed between the date of the Periplus and that of Marinus it is certain that some adventurous Greek mariners had not only crossed the great Gangetic Gulf and visited the land on the opposite side, to which they gave the name of the Golden Chersonese, but they had pushed their explorations considerably farther to the east, as far as Cattigara. It was not to be expected that these commercial ventures should have brought back any accurate geographical information, and accordingly we find the conception entertained by Ptolemy of these newly discovered regions to be very different from the reality. Not only had the distances, as was usually the case with ancient navigators in remote quarters, been greatly exaggerated, but the want of accurate observations of bearings was peculiarly unfortunate in a case where the real features of the coast and the adjoining islands were so intricate and exceptional. A glance at the map appended to the article MAP (vol. xv. Plate VII.) will at once show the entire discrepancy between the configuration of this part of Asia as conceived by Yet with the materials at his Ptolemy and its true formation. command we can hardly wonder at his not having arrived at a nearer approximation to the truth. The most unfortunate error was his idea that after passing the Great Gulf, which lay beyond the Golden Chersonese, the coast trended away to the south, instead of towards the north, and he thus placed Cattigara (which was probably one of the ports in the south of China) not less than 85° south of the equator. It is probable that in this instance he was misled by his own theoretical conclusions, and carried this remotest part of the Asiatic continent so far to the south with the view of connecting it with his assumed eastward prolongation of that of Africa. Notwithstanding this last theoretical assumption Ptolemy's map of Africa presents a marked improvement upon those of Eratosthenes and Strabo. But his knowledge of the west coast, which he conceived as having its direction nearly on a meridional line from north to south, was very imperfect, and his latitudes utterly erroneous. Even in regard to the Fortunate Islands, the position of which was so important to his system in connexion with his prime meridian, he was entirely misinformed as to their character and arrangement, and extended the group through a space of more than 5° of latitude, so as to bring down the most southerly of them to the real parallel of the Cape de Verd Islands. In regard to the mathematical construction, or, to use the modern phrase, the projection of his maps, not only was Ptolemy greatly in advance of all his predecessors, but his theoretical skill was altogether beyond the nature of the materials to which he applied it. The methods by which he obviated the difficulty of transferring the delineation of different countries from the spherical surface of the globe to the plane surface of an ordinary map differed indeed but little from those in use at the present day, and the errors arising from this cause (apart from those produced by his fundamental error of graduation) were really of little consequence compared with the defective character of his information and the want of anything approaching to a survey of the countries delineated. He himself was well aware of his deficiencies in this respect, and, while giving full directions for the scientific construction of a general map, he contents himself for the special maps of different countries with the simple method employed by Marinus of drawing the parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude as straight lines, assuming in each case the proportion between the two, as it really stood with respect to some one parallel towards the middle of the map, and neglecting the inclination of the meridians to one another. Such a course, as he himself repeatedly affirms, will not make any material difference within the limits of each special map. Ptolemy's geographical work was devoted almost exclusively to the mathematical branch of his subject, and its peculiar arrangement, in which his results are presented in a tabular form, instead of being at once embodied in a map, was undoubtedly designed to enable the geographical student to construct his maps for himself, instead of depending upon those constructed ready to his hand. This purpose it has abundantly served, and there is little doubt that we owe to the peculiar form thus given to his results their transmission in a comparatively perfect condition to the present day. Unfortunately the specious appearance of the results thus presented to us has led to a very erroneous estimate of their accuracy, and it has been too often supposed that what was stated in so scientific a form must necessarily be based upon scientific observations. Though Ptolemy himself has distinctly pointed out in his first book the defective nature of his materials and the true character of the data furnished by his tables, few readers studied this portion of his work, and his statements were generally received with the same undoubting faith as was justly attached to his astronomical observations. It is only in quite recent times that his conclusions have been estimated at their just value, and the apparently scientific character of his work shown to be in most cases a specious edifice resting upon no adequate foundations. There can be no doubt that the work of Ptolemy was from the time of its first publication accompanied with maps, which are regularly referred to in the eighth book. But how far those which are now extant represent the original series is a disputed point. In two of the most ancient MSS. it is expressly stated that the maps which accompany them are the work of one Agathodæmon of Alexandria, who drew them according to the eight books of Claudius Ptolemy." This expression might equally apply to the work of a contemporary draughtsman under the eyes of Ptolemy himself, or to that of a skilful geographer at a later period, and nothing is known from any other source concerning this Agathodemon. The attempt to identify him with a grammarian of the same name who lived in the 5th century is wholly without foundation. But it appears, on the whole, most probable that the maps appended to the MSS. still extant have been transmitted by uninterrupted tradition from the time of Ptolemy. 2. Progress of Geographical Knowledge.-The above examination of the methods pursued by Ptolemy in framing his general map of the world, or according to the phrase universally employed by the ancients, the Inhabited World ( oikovμévn), has already drawn attention to the principal extensions of geographical knowledge since the time of Strabo. While anything like an accurate acquaintance was still confined to the limits of the Roman empire and the regions that immediately adjoined it, with the addition of the portions of Asia that had been long known to the Greeks, the geographical horizon had been greatly widened towards the east by commercial enterprise, and towards the south by the same cause, combined with expeditions of a military character, but which would appear to have been dictated by a spirit of discovery. Two expeditions of this kind had been carried out by Roman generals before the time of Marinus, which, starting from Fezzan, had penetrated the heart of the African continent due south as far as a tract called Agisymba, "which was inhabited by Ethiopians and swarmed with rhinoceroses." These statements point clearly to the expeditions having traversed the great desert and arrived at the Soudan or Negroland. But the actual position of Agisymba cannot be determined except by mere conjecture. The absurdly exaggerated view taken by Marinus has been already noticed; but, even after his estimate had been reduced by Ptolemy by more than one-half, the position assigned by that author to Agisymba was doubtless far in excess towards the south. But, while this name was the only result that we know to have been derived from these memorable expeditions, Ptolemy found himself in possession of a considerable amount of information concerning the interior of northern Africa (from whence derived we know not), to which nothing similar is found in any earlier writer. Unfortunately this new information was of so crude and vague a character, and is presented to us in so embarrassing a form, as to perplex rather than assist the geographical student, and the statements of Ptolemy concerning the rivers Gir and Nigir, and the lakes and mountains with which they were connected, have exercised the ingenuity and baffled the sagacity of successive generations of geographers in modern times to interpret or explain them. It may safely be said that they present no resemblance to the real features of the country as known to us by modern explorations, and cannot be reconciled with them except by the most arbitrary conjectures. It is otherwise in the case of the Nile. To discover the source of that river had been long an object of curiosity both among the Greeks and Romans, and an expedition sent out for that purpose by the emperor Nero had undoubtedly penetrated as far as the marshes of the White Nile; but we are wholly ignorant of the sources from whence Ptolemy derived his information. But his statement that the mighty river derived its waters from the confluence of two streams, which took their rise in two lakes a little to the south of the equator, was undoubtedly a nearer approach to the truth than any of the theories concocted in modern times before the discovery in our own days of the two great lakes now known as the Victoria and Albert Nyanza. He at the same time notices the other arm of the river (the Blue Nile) under the name of the Astapus, which he correctly describes as rising in another lake. In connexion with this subject he introduces a range of mountains running from east to west, which he calls the Mountains of the Moon, and which have proved a sad stumbling-block to geographers in modern times, but may now be safely affirmed to represent the real fact of the existence of snow-covered mountains (Kilimanjaro and Kenia) in these equatorial regions. Much the same remarks apply to Ptolemy's geography of Asia as to that of Africa. In this case also he had obtained, as we have already seen, a vague knowledge of extensive regions, wholly unknown to the earlier geographers, and resting to a certain extent on authentic information, though much exaggerated and misunderstood. But, while these informants had really brought home some definite statements concerning Serica or the Land of Silk, and its capital of Sera, there lay a vast region towards the north of the line of route leading to this far eastern land (supposed by Ptolemy to be nearly coincident with the parallel of 40°) of which apparently he knew nothing, but which he vaguely assumed to extend indefinitely northwards as far as the limits of the Unknown Land. The Jaxartes, which ever since the time of Alexander had been the boundary of Greek geography in this direction, still continued in that of Ptolemy to be the northern limit of all that was really known of Central Asia. Beyond that he places a mass of names of tribes, to which he could assign no definite locality, and mountain ranges which he could only place at haphazard. The character of his information concerning the south-east of Asia has been already adverted to. But, strangely as he misplaced Cattigara and the metropolis of Sine connected with it, there can be no doubt that we recognize in this name (variously written Thina and Sine) the now familiar name of China; and it is important to observe that he places the land of the Sine immediately south of that of the Seres, showing that he was aware of the connexion between the two, though the one was known only by land explorations and the other by maritime voyages. In regard to the better known regions of the world, and especially those bordering on the Mediterranean, Ptolemy according to his own account followed for the most part the guidance of Marinus. The latter seems to have relied to a great extent on the work of Timosthenes (who flourished more than two centuries before) in respect to the coasts and maritime distances. Ptolemy, however, introduced many changes, some of which he has pointed out to us, though there are doubtless many others which we have no means of detecting. For the interior of the different countries the Roman roads and itineraries must have furnished him with a mass of valuable materials which had not been available to earlier geographers. But neither Marinus nor Ptolemy seems to have taken advantage of this last resource to the extent that we should have expected, and the tables of the Alexandrian geographer abound with mistakes-even in countries so well known as Gaul and Spainwhich might easily have been obviated by a more judicious use of such Roman authorities. Great as are undoubtedly the merits of Ptolemy's geographical work, it cannot be regarded as having any claim to be a complete or satisfactory treatise upon this vast subject. It was the work of an astronomer rather than a geographer, in the highest sense of the term. Not only did its plan exclude all description of the countries with which it dealt, their climate, natural productions, inhabitants, and peculiar features, all of which are included in the domain of the modern geographer, but even its physical geography strictly so called is treated in the most irregular and perfunctory While Strabo was fully alive to the importance of the great rivers and mountain chains which (to use his own expressive inanner. phrase) "geographize" a country, Ptolemy deals with this part of his led to 2 Will. IV. c. 10, empowering the privy council to take certain preventive measures against the spread of the disease. Numerous local Acts gave the authorities of the more important towns power over the public health. To this day London is governed by separate legislation. The Towns Improvement Act, 1847, contained provisions of a sanitary kind for incorporation in local Acts. But it was not until as recently as 1848 that a general Public Health Act, embracing the whole of England (except the metro other editions followed in the latter part of the 15th and earlier half of the polis), was passed. The Public Health Act, 1848, created 16th century, but the Greek text did not make its appearance till 1533, when part, which is all that has yet appeared, contains only the first three books, PUBLIC HEALTH. State medicine as an organized department of administration is entirely of modern growth. By the common law of England the only remedy for any act or omission dangerous to health was an action for damages or an indictment for nuisance. (See NUISANCE.) At the same time the jurisdiction of the commissioners of sewers acted to a certain extent as a preventive means. Commissions of sewers were granted by the crown, at first in virtue of the general prerogative, afterwards under the provisions of numerous statutes, the earliest dating from 1427 (6 Hen. VI. c. 5). The powers of the commissioners included the removal of obstructions in rivers, the making of fosses and drains, &c. Their jurisdiction, where still existing, is expressly preserved in the modern Public Health Acts. The indictment for nuisance still lies for many offences which are now punishable in a summary manner under the powers of recent legislation. But for a long time it was the only, not as now a concurrent, remedy. Its obvious defect is that proceedings can only be taken after the mischief has been done. Old examples of nuisances dangerous to health and punishable at common law are the keeping of swine in a town, the dividing of a house in a town so that by reason of overcrowding it would be more dangerous in time of sickness or plague, and the carrying on of offensive trades, such as the melting of tallow. The court leet seems to have had some jurisdiction in sanitary matters, confined to the prevention of nuisances and the determination of the quality of provisions within its local limits. At a comparatively early date statutes were passed dealing with matters for which the common law had provided too cumbrous a remedy The attention of parliament, though but to a slight extent, was directed to the health of London as early as the Statute of the City of London in 1285 (13 Edw. I. st. 5). The earliest legislative enactment affecting the public health generally appears to be 12 Ric. II. c. 13, 1388, forbidding the deposit of offensive matter in rivers and other waters, as well in the city of London as in other cities. Acts of a similar character were from time to time passed to meet particular offences, such as 4 and 5 Hen. VII. c. 3, by which no butcher was to slaughter cattle in London or other walled towns. The plague called forth the Act of 1 Jac. I. c. 31, which made it a capital offence for an infected person to go abroad after being commanded by the proper authority to keep his house. The Act for the rebuilding of London after the great fire, 19 Car. II. c. 3, contained various provisions as to the height of houses, breadth of streets, construction of sewers, and proIn 1832 the fear of cholera hibition of noisome trades. d general board of health as the supreme authority in sanitary matters. The Local Government Act, 1858, amended the Act of 1848, chiefly in the direction of greater local sanitary control. By an Act immediately preceding the Act of 1858 the general board of health was superseded partly by the home office, partly by the privy council. The Local Government Board, the present central authority, was created in 1871 by 34 and 35, Vict. c. 70. The president of the Local Government Board is usually a member of the cabinet. Numerous other Acts dealing with public health were passed from 1849 to 1874. Finally in 1875 the existing law was digested into the Public Health Act, 1875 (38 and 39 Vict. c. 55).1 The tendency of sanitary legislation has been to place local sanitary regulations in the hands of the local authorities, subject to a general superintendence by a Government department. The Act of 1875, which registers the results of this tendency, is a co solidating not an amending Act, and did not materially alter the law. It is impossible in this place to do more than give a short notice of its comprehensive provisions. For the purposes of the Act England, except the metropolis, is divided into urban and rural sanitary districts, subject respectively to the jurisdiction of urban and rural sanitary authorities. The urban authority is either the corporation of a borough, improvement commissioners, or a local board, according to circumstances. A district becomes subject to a local board at the instance of either the Local Government Board or the owners and ratepayers of the district. The local board is elected by the owners and ratepayers. It must be elected before 15th April in every year. The members hold office for three years, one-third retiring every year. The Oxford local board is governed by regulations peculiar to itself, giving the university a large proportion of members. Rural districts are conterminous with poorlaw unions, exclusive of any urban district. The guardians of the poor form the rural authority. There is a port sanitary authority in seaport towns. (See QUARANTINE.) The jurisdiction of a local authority is both preventive and remedial. The matters falling under this jurisdiction include (1) sewers, with certain exceptions, among which come sewers under the authority of commissioners of sewers, (2) scavenging and cleansing streets, (3) water-supply, (4) cellar-dwellings and lodging-houses, (5) nuisances,2 (6) offensive 1 For the history of sanitary legislation in England, see the Report of the Royal Sanitary Commission, 1869; M. D. Chalmers, Local Government, ch. vii.; Stephen, Commentaries, vol. ii. bk. iv. pt. iii. ch. ix. ; G. A. R. Fitzgerald, The Public Health Act, 1875, Introd. 2 The list of nuisances which may be dealt with summarily under the Act is as follows :-"(1) any premises in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious to health; (2) any pool, ditch, gutter, watercourse, privy, urinal, cesspool, drain, or ashpit so foul or in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious to health; (3) any animal so kept as to be a nuisance or injurious to health; (4) any accumulation or deposit which is a nuisance or injurious to health; (5) any house or part of a house so overcrowded as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of the inmates, whether or not members of the same family; (6) any factory, workshop, or bakeshop (not already under the opera tion of any general Act for the regulation of factories or bakehouses) not kept in a cleanly state, or not ventilated in such a manner as to render harmless as far as practicable any gases, vapours, dust, or other impurities generated in the course of the work carried on therein, that are a nuisance or injurious to health, or so overcrowded while work is carried on as to be dangerous or injurious to the health of those employed therein; (7) any fireplace or furnace which does not, as far as practicable, consume the smoke arising from the conibustibles used therein, and which is used for working engines by steam, or in any mill, factory, dyehouse, brewery, bakehouse, or gaswork, or in any manufacturing or trade process whatsoever; (8) any chimney (not being the chimney of a private dwelling-house) sending forth black smoke in such quantity as to be a nuisance. statutory nuisances it is provided that no penalty is to be inflicted in respect of any accumulation or deposit if it is necessary for business therefrom to the public health, or in respect of a nuisance from uncon In relation to these trades, (7) unsound meat, (8) infectious diseases and hospitals, (9) prevention of epidemic diseases, (10) mortuaries and (by the Public Health Act, 1879) cemeteries, (11) highways, (12) streets, (13) buildings, (14) lighting, (15) public pleasure-grounds, (16) markets and slaughter-houses, (17) licensing of hackney carriages, horses, and boats. It is to be noticed that jurisdiction in some of these cases is confined to an urban authority. Contracts made by an urban authority, whereof the value or amount exceeds £50, must be in writing, and sealed with the common seal of the authority. Where the contract is of the value or amount of £100 or upwards tenders for its execution must be invited. A local authority has power, subject to the approval of the Local Government Board, to make bye-laws and impose penalties for their breach. The authority must appoint a medical officer and an inspector of nuisances; if an urban authority, it must in addition appoint a surveyor, clerk, and treasurer. Officers may not contract with a local authority. An urban authority has power to levy a general district rate, a private improvement rate (an additional rate levied in return for some special advantage beyond that obtained by the inhabitants in general), and (in certain cases) a highway rate. The expenses of a rural authority are either general or special, the latter being chiefly the expenses arising from sewerage and water-supply. General expenses are defrayed out of a common fund raised out of the poor mate. Special expenses are a charge upon the contributory places benefited. A local authority may, with the sanction of the Local Government Board, raise loans for the purposes of the Act. The loans are charged upon the general district rate. Legal proceedings under the Act are generally summary. Where proceedings are by action, one month's notice of action must be given where the cause of action is anything done, or intended to be done, or omitted to be done under the provisions of the Act. The action must be brought within six months after the accruing of the cause of action. The local authority and its officers are protected from personal liability for matters done in pursuance of the Act. appeal from a court of summary jurisdiction lies to quarter sessions. In cases where the local authority decides a question as to liability to expenses, an appeal lies to the Local Government Board. The Local Government Board has power to alter areas and unite districts, to direct inquiries in relation to any matters concerning the public health in any place, to make provisional orders, and to enforce performance of duty by a defaulting local authority. An In addition to the Public Health Act, 1875, there are various Acts incorporated with that Act under the name of the " 'Sanitary Acts," dealing with similar subjects. These are the Bakehouse Regulation Act (1863), the Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Act (1868), the Baths and Washhouses Acts, the Labouring Classes LodgingHouse Acts (1851, 1866, 1867). Since 1875 numerous Acts amending and extending the Public Health Act have been passed, dealing with (among other matters) riverpollution, water-supply, hospitals for infectious diseases, nuisance arising from alkali-works, and lodging of fruitpickers. There is besides a mass of legislation which in fact, if not in name, has for its object the sanitary welfare of the people. It is sufficient to mention the Vaccination Acts, the Factory Acts, the Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Acts subsequent to 1868, the Merchant Shipping Acts (insuring the carrying of medicines and antiscorbutics on board ships, the provision of sleeping space for seamen, and the inspection of seamen's lodging-houses), the Adulteration Acts, and the numerous Burial Acts. In many local Acts notification of infectious disease by the medical man in attendance to the local authority is made compulsory, but the legislature has not as yet adopted any general provision of the kind. The scientific aspect of public health does not fall within the scope of the present article; it has been treated under the title HYGIENE. It is sufficient to say here that the effect of the attention which of late years has been given to the subject is seen in the reduction of the death-rate from 22-23 per thousand in the years 1841-51 to 21-27 for the years 1871-81. London-The metropolis is governed by a series of statutes, some peculiar to itself, others general Acts, repealed as to the rest of England, but specially preserved as to the metropolis by the Public Health Act, 1875. The limits of the metropolis for the sumed smoke if it be proved to the court that the smoke has been consumed as far as practicable and that the fire has been carefully attended to. purposes of public health depend primarily upon the Metropolis Management Act, 1855 (18 and 19 Vict. c. 120, s. 250, schedules A and B). The local authorities are the metropolitan board of works, the vestries and district boards, and (in the city of London) the commissioners of sewers. Asylums and hospitals are administered by the metropolitan asylums board. The water-supply is regulated by the Metropolis Water Acts, 1852 and 1871, gas by the Metropolitan Gas Act, 1860. Scotland.-Sanitary legislation occurs as early as the reign of Alexander III. The Statuta Gilde, c. 19, forbade the deposit of dung or ashes in the street, market, or on the banks of the Tweed at Berwick under a penalty of eight shillings. At a later date the Act of 1540, c. 20, enacted that no flesh was to be slain in Edinburgh on the east side of the Leith Wynd; that of 1621, c. 29, fixed the locality of fleshers and candlemakers. The existing law of public health is contained in the Public Health (Scotland) Act, 1867 (30 and 31 Vict. c. 101). The local authority is the town council, the police commissioners or trustees, or the parochial board, according to circumstances. There is no distinction of urban and rural authority. The central authority is the board of supervision constituted by 8 and 9 Vict. c. 83. Proceedings by a local authority in cases of nuisance are by summary petition to a sheriff or a justice (in some cases only to a sheriff) upon requisition in writing under the hands of ten inhabitants. An appeal lies in cases of sufficient value from the sheriff-substitute to the sheriff and from the sheriff to the Court of Session. The list of nuisances in the Act differs, but not materially, from that in the English Act. The powers of local authorities in England and Scotland are very similar. There are no provisions as to contracts by local authorities corresponding to those in the English Act. Ireland.-Several Acts of the Irish parliament dealt with specific nuisances, c.g., 5 Geo. III. c. 15, forbidding the laying of filth in the streets of cities or county towns, and making regulations as to sweeping and scavenging. There were also numerous private Acts dealing with water-supply and the obstruction of watercourses. In 1878 the existing legislation was consolidated by the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878 (41 and 42 Vict. c. 52), a close copy of the English Act of 1875. The list of statutory nuisances is the same in both Acts. The urban authority is the corporation, the commissioners, the municipal commissioners, or the town commissioners, according to circumstances. Ireland has its own local government board. United States.-After the Civil War boards of health were estab. lished in the chief cities. Public health is under the control of the local authorities to a greater extent than in England. By the Act of Congress of 25th February 1799 officers of the United States are bound to observe the health laws of the States. A national board of health was created by the Act of 3d March 1879, c. 202. Its main duties are to give advice to local authorities and to carry on investigations in sanitary matters. It has certain jurisdiction in quarantine and in epidemics of a peculiarly dangerous nature. (J. Wt.) PUBLIC RECORDS. See RECORDS, PUBLIC. PUBLILIUS (less correctly written PUBLIUS) SYRUS, a Latin writer of farces (mimi), flourished in the 1st century B.C. He was a native of Syria and was brought as a slave to Italy, but by his wit and talent he won the favour of his master, who freed and educated him. His farces, in which he acted himself, had a great success in the provincial towns of Italy and at the games given by Cæsar in 46 B.C. Publilius appeared on the stage at Rome and received from Cæsar himself the prize for a histrionic contest in which the actor vanquished all his competitors, including the celebrated Laberius. For the rest, we learn from Jerome that in 43 Publilius still enthralled the Roman playgoers. Cicero witnessed with pleasure the exhibition of his plays, and Seneca was a warm admirer of his wise and witty sayings. All that remains of his works is a collection of Sentences (sententiæ), a series of moral maxims in iambic and trochaic verse. This collection must have been made at a very early date, since it was known to Aulus Gellius in the 2d century A.D. maxim is comprised in a single verse, and the verses are arranged in alphabetical order according to their initial letters. In course of time the collection was interpolated with sentences drawn from other writers, especially from apocryphal writings of Seneca; the number of genuine verses is about 700. They include many pithy sayings, such as the famous "judex damnatur ubi nocens absolvitur." The best editions of the Sentences are those of E. Wölfflin (Teubner, 1869) and W. Meyer (Teubner, 1880). Each PÜCKLER-MUSKAU, HERMANN LUDWIG HEINRICH, PRINCE OF (1785-1871), a German author, was born at Muskau in Lusatia on 30th October 1785. He served for some time in the body-guard at Dresden, and afterwards travelled in France and Italy. In 1811, after the death of his father, he inherited the barony of Muskau and a considerable fortune. As an officer under the duke of Saxe-Weimar he distinguished himself in the war of liberation and was made military and civil governor of Bruges. After the war he retired from the army and visited England, where he remained about a year. In 1822, in compensation for certain privileges which he resigned, he was raised to the rank of prince by the king of Prussia. Some years earlier he had married the countess of Pappenheim, daughter of Prince Hardenberg; but he separated from her in 1826. He again visited England and travelled in America and Asia Minor, living after his return at Muskau, which he spent much time in cultivating and adorning. In 1845 he sold this estate, and, although he afterwards lived from time to time at various places in Germany and Italy, his principal residence was the castle of Branitz in the district of Kottbus, where he formed splendid gardens as he had already done at Muskau. In 1863 he was made an hereditary member of the Prussian Herrenhaus, and in 1866 he attended the Prussian general staff in the war with Austria. He died at Branitz on 4th February 1871, and, in accordance with instructions in his will, his body was burned. As a writer of books of travel he held a high position, his power of observation being keen and his style lucid and animated. His first work was Briefe eines Verstorbenen (1830-31), in which he expressed many independent judgments about England and other countries he had visited and about prominent persons whom he had met. Among his later books of travel were Semilasso's vorletzter Weltgang (1835), Semilasso in Afrika (1836), Aus Mehemed-Ali's Reich (1844), and Die Rückkehr (1846-48). He was also the author of Andeutungen über Landschaftsgärtnerei (1834). See Pückler-Muskau's Briefwechsel und Tagebücher; Ludmilla Assing, Fürst Hermann von Pückler-Muskau; and Petzold, Fürst Hermann von Pückler-Muskau in seiner Bedeutung für die bildende Gartenkunst. PUDSEY, a township of the West Riding of Yorkshire, is situated on an acclivity rising above the valley of the Aire and on the Great Northern Railway, 4 miles east of Bradford and 6 south-west of Leeds. The principal buildings are the church of St Lawrence in the Gothic style, erected in 1821 and lately improved, and the mechanics' institute, a fine building, comprising class-rooms, a library, a public hall, and a lecture hall. The town has an important woollen trade and possesses dyeing and fulling mills. Pudsey appears in Domesday as "Podechesaie." It was sold by Edward II. to the Calverley family, from whom it passed to an ancestor of the Milners. By the Bradford Water and Improvement Act of 1881 part (37 acres) of the urban sanitary district of Pudsey was amalgamated with that of Bradford. The population of the diminished district (2409 acres) in 1871 was 12,173, and in 1881 it was 12,314. PUEBLÁ, or in full LA PUEBLA DE LOS ANGELES, a city of Mexico, formerly capital of the province of Tlaxcala, now of the state of Puebla, lies 76 miles south-east of Mexico, in 19° N. lat. and 98° 2' W. long., at a height of 7220 feet above the sea. It is admirably situated on a spacious and fertile plateau, which, while almost destitute of trees, is, especially in the neighbourhood of the city, clothed with gardens and fields. To the south-west rises the summit of Popocatepetl, and Orizaba and Iztaccihuatl are also within the horizon. By Humboldt Puebla was ranked as the most important city of Spanish America after Mexico, Guanajuato, and Havana, and in the matter of population it still stands third among the state capitals. Its spacious streets run exactly east-west and north-south, and its houses, often of three stories, are solidly built of stone and in Spanish style. The cathedral, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, was commenced in 1552 after the designs of Juan Gomez de Mora, but it was not completed until 1649, after Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza had devoted eight years of strenuous effort to the enterprise. It is rather more than 320 feet long and 165 wide, and consists of a nave 80 feet high, with side aisles and a dome, the upper portion of which is constructed of pumice-stone for the sake of lightness. The main front, like the columns of the interior, is in the Doric style, but its two side towers are Ionic. In one is a great bell cast in 1637 and weighing upwards of 8 tons. Apart from the cathedral Puebla was famous for the number, and more especially for the lavish decoration of its churches, monasteries, and colleges. Several of these (such as the church and convent of Santo Domingo and the church of S. Felipe Neri) are still of note, and the city also contains a museum, a theatre, &c. Puebla has long been one of the great trading and manufacturing centres of the country, and it has recently become an important point in the rapidly-developing railway system, having in 1884 lines to Apizaco on the railway from Vera Cruz to Mexico (28 miles), to Villa de Libres (58 miles), to San Martin (24 miles), to Matamoros Izucar (31 miles), and to San Juan de los Llanos. Cotton and woollen goods, leather, earthenware, soap, and glass are the leading manufactures. The population, which was about 80,000 in 1746 and 52,717 in 1793, and which greatly decreased during the revolutionary period, is now (1885) stated at 75,000. Puebla was founded in 1533-34 by Sebastian Ramirez de Fuenleal, archbishop of Santo Domingo, and the Franciscan friar Toribio originally been founded in 1526 at Tlaxcala. The epithet "de los Motolinia. In 1550 it became the seat of the bishopric which had Angeles," which is now practically dropped, was in the 17th and 18th centuries the chief part of the name, which often appears simply as Angeles. It is associated with a popular belief that during the building of the cathedral two angels every night added as much to the height of the walls as the workmen had managed to add in the preceding day. In 1845 Santa Anna made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the city. On 18th March 1863 it was invested by the French under Forey, and on 17th May taken by storm. See Buschman's history of the city and cathedral in Ztschr. f. allgem. Erdhunde, 1863, vol. xv. pp. 195-212, and xvi. pp. 338-345. of PUERPERAL FEVER. See SEPTICEMIA. PUERTO CABELLO, a town and seaport in the South American republic of Venezuela, in the province of Carabobo, used to rank next to Cartagena, and possesses one of the finest natural harbours in that part of the world. It is backed at the distance of about 5 miles by a range mountains 3000 feet high, across which pass, at a height of 1800 feet, the road (36 miles) and the railway now (1885) in course of construction to Valencia, the capital of the province. The old town used to lie on an island (originally a coral bank) joined to the mainland by a bridge; but since about 1850 the narrow channel between the town and the more extensive suburbs on shore has been filled up and covered with blocks of building, so that now Puerto Cabello occupies a kind of headland projecting into the bay. Formerly the lowness of its site and the mangrove swamps which fringed the whole coast rendered it appallingly unhealthy: at the time of Humboldt's visit, for example, the surgeon of the hospital reported that in seven years he had 8000 cases of yellow fever, and there were instances of the authorities having to take possession of vessels in the harbour because the entire crew had perished (Eastwick). But yellow fever has not been known at Puerto Cabello since about 1868, and the general deathrate of the place is quite normal. rate of the place is quite normal. A good supply of water is obtained from the Rio Esteban by means of an aqueduc |