public that thereafter it was not so difficult to secure better local voluntary observation of temperature, barometer, precipitation, and the verification of the weather predictions, &c., &c.

Still, at this point, really the weakest one in the system of voluntary observation, the officers of local boards of health could render very valuable service in aiding to secure these necessary meteorological data. What the state services want most are reliable readers of instruments. The necessary reductions of observations for the sake of comparison can, and ought to be, done at the central stations, under the direction of an experienced signal officer. To read the instruments and make all the records ought not to consume more than thirty minutes for all the readings which are required daily.

Now, as to the details of a plan of coöperation which I have suggested, I would ask your attention to one which we are trying to develop in Minnesota, the working points of which were devised by my good friend Dr. Hewitt. For convenience in his own work as secretary of the state board of health, he has divided Minnesota into districts, as indicated by the prominent boundary colors on the map.

Prominent water-courses were the division lines generally, giving small compact districts, with territory usually quite homogeneous. This division of territory is not regarded as final, for in working the signal service of the state, or carrying out the plans of the state board of health, or the union of the two, it may be found best to change this plan of division, especially if the study of magnetic force is included in the plan of observation.

The heavy colored dots indicate the position of Signal Service stations belonging to the state and government services. These stations have been reporting monthly to the central office in St. Paul, in the Chamber of Commerce building of that city, and in rooms adjoining the government signal office, located there also.

ones.

It is our purpose soon to make a change in the plan of reporting the readings of local observers, so as to secure weekly reports instead of monthly In this way the central office will be able to keep up closely with all reductions and table work, and give time for the preparation of graphic curves of some facts, and the prompt publication of all meteorological data soon after the close of the month to which they belong.

Now, if all these accurate and systematic meteorological observations can be graphically represented by curves based on coördinates that may be used by the health officer in arranging his curves for disease prevalence, a means of determining coincidences is at once in hand, and if there be a relation between the data of these two different lines of work, it must certainly appear in the course of time.

Not only this, but if any such relations are found to exist, it is fair to presume that something of the nature of those relations will also appear from a continued study of the same evidence.

The points, then, which this Association is asked to consider, and, if found worthy of indorsement, to approve of, are the following:

1. Accurate and systematic meteorological data are a source of useful evidence in sanitary work and study.

2. That Signal Service organizations, and those in the interest of public health, ought to coöperate in securing needed meteorological data for the best results to all concerned.

3. A prompt publication of results is very desirable.

XXI.

"NEW ORLEANS, TO BE SAVED, MUST BE DRAINED AND CLEANED."

PORTLAND, OREGON, November 9, 1888.

H. DUDLEY COLEMAN, Esq.,

President of the Chamber of Commerce of New Orleans:

DEAR SIR: Your kind letter, enclosing a certificate of my election as an honorary member of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, was received with a sense of gratification and reasonable pride.

Having filled the measure of my ability to relieve the urgent necessities of my fellow-citizens of New Orleans, through methods of protection against pestilential invasion coincident with the preservation of commerce, upon which they almost wholly depend, and having exhausted every effort to bring about a reformation in the drainage and cleanliness of the city, upon which all hope of improved health, the general comfort, the well-being and assured prosperity of the people is necessarily established, it is, indeed, some reward to receive such a recognition as that embodied in the resolution conferring upon me honorary membership in your commercial organization.

In acknowledging this mark of your personal esteem, I would prefer to reveal my never changing loyalty to my native city and tender affection for its people by giving utterance to appropriate sentiments expressive of the same; but my solicitude in their behalf is always foremost, demanding the unwelcome but salutary truth first, and complimentary assurances later.

While appreciating the honorable distinction, your action has aroused emotions I have earnestly endeavored to repress-feelings of bitter disappointment, of sorrow and regret, that I have been compelled to wipe out the professional work of a lifetime, to sever all ties of old and dear association, and transplant myself to begin anew in a far distant region, forced into that extreme resort as the only escape from the anguish and despair continually oppressing me when surrounded on every hand by the silent but woeful witnesses of the official negligence, the inhuman disregard and rapacity, to which our people have been subjected through decades of years prior to the present well intentioned but poorly provided city administration.

Having devoted the best energies of my life and years of labor to the fulfilment of a true citizenship, and having sacrificed every personal consideration to that end, it is not incumbent upon me now to remain silent, nor to cloak my convictions with conventional phrases of etiquette. I

have earned the liberty to speak in behalf of that cause and of that people I have most esteemed; and although wearied and heart-sick by reason of "hope deferred," my opinion, still unchanged, is, that “NEW ORLEANS, TO BE SAVED, MUST BE DRAINED AND CLEANED."

Personal, domestic, and municipal cleanliness constitutes a very large department of my practical religion; and for the sake of my religion intact have I abandoned home, personal interests, and friends, content to make new friends and a new home in this farthest corner of the country, rather than subject myself and family to the mischievous influences of a cesspool in a swamp, to clean up and drain which I had exhausted energy and hope.

The little handful of far-sighted, public-spirited citizens, led by the admirable Edward Fenner, Joseph Shakspeare, and the board of health, supported by an enlightened and progressive daily press, have likewise exhausted energy, and have labored in vain to overcome the prodigious inertia, the apathy of a destructive so called conservatism, really a fatal indifference, the absolute dead weight of a vast majority, contented with their surroundings, accustomed to that which should not be tolerated, oblivious to the fearful teachings of their own history, and unmindful of

consequences.

A sanitary condition implies a state of obedience to the principles of physical and moral health. The neglect of these is always associated with retrogression and decay.

While this is, no doubt, offensive to hear, it is none the less true: no creature can part from sanitary law without a correlative and proportionate degradation.

Inasmuch as no quality of citizenship demands of a man the loss of self-esteem, or any degree of degradation of himself and family, when the conditions of his life in a community are of this kind and obstinately resistful of remedial efforts on his part, manhood and religion then demand the severance of civic ties and the assertion of self.

New Orleans, to-day living under conditions subversive of normal growth and prosperity, manifests no serious intention to remedy evils the disastrous effects of which have long been felt and ultimate consequences predicted. To this date every period of her history has confirmed the conviction expressed in my address before the Medical and Surgical Association, October 31, 1885: "There is no beginning to the solid advancement of New Orleans, except the beginning of assured health established upon the efficient drainage and sewerage of the city!

What would be the difference between property values in New Orleans, undrained, sometimes partially inundated, no efficient sewage disposal, and a high death-rate, and New Orleans thoroughly drained, its sewage disposed of promptly, and mortuary statistics permanently reduced?

"With so many conditions favorable to the possibilities and comforts of living, presenting an unlimited field for manufacturing and commercial enterprise, why are there not a million of inhabitants? Simply

Worces

because our record is open before the world. Just turn to your ter's dictionary, unabridged, for the word sanitary, and you will find an instance of its definition cited thus: The sanitary condition of New Orleans as illustrated by its mortuary statistics.' We all know the import of that explanation.

"The world demands of us a reasonable guaranty for the protection of life and health"-I should have added property; for an undrained soil and unsanitary condition are destructive of building material and property values. "No prudent man can declare his confidence in the safety of New Orleans from invasions of pestilence until these conditions which invite, yea, seem indeed sufficient to create, disease are radically destroyed.

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Quarantine as we may, declare non-intercourse with the world, build around ourselves a wall without gates if we will, until this city is provided with a superficial and sub-soil drainage, and its sewage disposed of through some efficient system, we live in jeopardy, yea, in the certainty of disaster.

"NEW ORLEANS, TO BE SAVED, MUST BE DRAINED AND CLEANED." If, therefore, by a course of inaction, and under the plea of poverty or any other apology offered inexorable nature as an excuse for the violation of law, New Orleans elects to remain undrained and unclean, in the impending fate the citizen must determine for himself his first allegiance: and mine is always to my family, in such a case.

I have not replied to you earlier because I have felt in duty bound to write what is herein contained; but to do so has been painful, and an instinctive shrinking has caused me to postpone it from day to day.

Please express to my friends of the Chamber of Commerce my sincere appreciation of the favor they have bestowed upon me, and assure them, as an honorary member, I feel obliged to do all within my power to favor the prosperity of New Orleans, particularly her commerce, and for that reason have written this letter of acknowledgment as worthy of amiable acceptance and consideration.

With sentiments of high esteem, I remain,

Your friend,

JOSEPH HOLT, M. D.