properly disinfected by dry earth, etc., and properly walled with brick, are not hurtful, and are farther removed from being a nuisance than are sewers as commonly built, provided we do not depend on well water for potable use.

Therefore let us cease digging shallow wells, resort to cisterns with the filter as described, and dig vaults deep enough to enter the underlying gravel beds, walled, but not cemented, and have their contents often properly disinfected. If this plan is followed it will be far cheaper, more healthful and so simple that all can understand it. It will therefore be practicable.

VENTILATION.

It is, no doubt, true that Indianapolis lacks many of the hindrances to true sanitation incident to "over crowding" as found in compactly built cities. How long this shall remain a fact is a question, but even as we find it now there is room for improvement, especially the construction of private residences and public buildings. We do not know how many of the former are erected with reference to proper ventilation, but we suspect but very few, and as to churches and other public buildings we know them to be woefully deficient. In summer, especially when the weather is suitable, there may be plenty of air circulating by the way of windows, etc., but in winter scarcely a church, theater or public school-house, as costly and magnificent as they are, is safe to remain in for any proper length of time, the number they are capable of accommodating being present, even with those built in accordance with the latest recognized true principles. Such principles are seldom carried out so as to practically secure the ends intended. If a central ventilating shaft is built it may be too small, and the pipes entering it from the room or rooms, are not of sufficient capacity, or the draft, from other causes, is deficient, etc.

It may seem to be a heinous crime or bold ignorance to speak thus of costly and elegant buildings, where either the parents or children congregate for amusement or instruction, buildings erected under the eye of good architects; but ever and anon the facts, palpable to the few, become apparent to the many. They feel something is lacking; they chafe and criticise, but are silenced by the frowns of the press or the assertions of the builder.

That there are practical modes to remedy much of the evil we speak of is evidenced by the fact that some have adopted the true principles and carried them out in a practical manner. The intelligent sanitarian should be consulted equally with the skillful architect.

CELLAR AND YARD FILTH.

In addition to the topography, water supply, proper mode of excreta disposal, drainage, etc., which we have noticed in this article, we must mention the necessity of cleaning cellar and yard of filth. Many cellars, especially under the business houses, have not been properly cleaned for years. Vegetable and animal matter, drifting from storage, etc., accumulate and decay, forming not only offensive but deleterious compounds. Because the cellars are not seen by customers no call is felt to remove such filth-poisoning of the atmosphere, and disease is the result. The same state of affairs is often met with in cellars of residences.

Again, the slops and offals necessarily attached to a household are, as a general rule, cast out into the yard, or, at most, adjacent alley, and then left to decompose, the liquid portion permeating the soil and making it a bed of putrefying material that spreads disIf any municipal law has been passed to correct either the evils of cellar or yard filth it has not been enforced, nor will it be, until full police power is given the Board of Health and means furnished them to assist, at least, in providing means for removal of such detritus.

ease.

In these two causes alone, either directly or indirectly, we find the source of one-half the disease incident to the citizens that could and ought to be prevented.

SUMMARY.

Taking the nature and formation of the ground, we find that the site of Indianapolis is susceptible of admirable drainage, both of surface and subsoil water-the first in direction of the natural channels of old bayous, etc., to the various streams mentioned; the latter by way of the underlying gravel bed. We see, also, that as this gravel bed is and must continue to be a sewer drain, the stream of water within it should not in any case be used as a supply for potable water. We are reminded, too, that while streams are proper

sources of water supply to a city, in all cases such supply should be well guarded, and no water used except that obtained up-stream, uncontaminated by the wash or sewage of any portion of the city; that while privy vaults, cesspools, etc., as often found, dug shallow and not disinfected, are unhealthful and ought to be discouraged, still such vaults, sunk into the gravel bed and at proper times disinfected by dry earth or otherwise, are as safe, or more so, than the connecting of the closet with a sewer, and that only want of space should interfere with their adoption; that drain sewers, if not properly guarded, are not only a source of offense, but danger; that while they benefit, by diminishing the amount of soil water, they add to the impurities contained in the air, unless the traps are kept in order and the sewers frequently "flushed," the danger being increased where the house connects with the sewer; that wells sunk to the third stream can be proper sources of supply for potable water, and water taken from them can be used with safety; that at the present time (until the supply for the water works is taken farther up stream), properly filtered cistern water is the best, and practically the only usable water obtained by the citizens, with the exception of the few deep wells sunk to the third stream; that the sewers and drains should follow the course of the natural drainage of the city, viz: Pogue's run and the beds of the old bayous. If the facilities that nature has provided be but utilized no site more favorable for good health could be found than that of Indianapolis; but labored and costly endeavors to force surface drainage out of its natural course must be abandoned, and the absurd and unnecessary plan of raising water for potable use out of the sewer drain provided by the gravel bed must cease.

While certain appearances are often acknowledged to be good, one cogent objection is that they "take money." We should be the first to oppose any innovation that takes from the citizens their earnings without adequate return being given-returns that shall benefit all. But to sink a well to supply water works in the part of a city where all the surface and subsoil washings tend; to abandon the bayous and small streams, the natural track of drainage, and place a main sewer upon the high ground; to cement vaults and hope by this means to keep the subsoil water pure enough to drink; to compel the cleaning of vaults, and thus offer a premium for all

households to cast their kitchen offals, old cans, shoes and rubbish in general into the vault, costing the citizens, and property holders especially, more money than would establish a proper and efficient cartage system, by which all such offals and rubbish should be taken away—is this anything but improvidence, caused by ignorance or worse?

It would take comparatively little to remove the source of supply of the water works to a point where profit to themselves and safety to the citizens would be the result. It is as easy to build sewers along natural channels as otherwise; as cheap to have the source of water supply from cisterns, with proper filters, as to dig shallow wells, and cheaper to cart away the rubbish than to pump or bail it out of the privy vaults. It is upon the side of profit, both as to health and money, to work by a system, and not in a spasmodic or disjointed manner.

That Indianapolis is comparatively a healthy city does not show that there are no sanitary evils. Whether these result from a crudity of plan or are irremediable is a question of great importance. No flippant objections should be raised to useful enterprises. The sanitarian is but a watchman upon the walls, giving notice of real danger, so that we can be upon the alert.

We do not ask that Indianapolis or any other city of the state (for what is true of one is of all, the topography of the different sites being considered) to do something because some neighboring city has done so, but rather discriminate, and, with true economy, build well, so that changes will not so often be needed. We can not prevent all evils, but we can study the locality where we live and then adopt well established principles, not with a blind clinging to the dictates of any one, but with a flexibility born of enlarged views and guided by science and common sense.

EPILEPSY.

WILLIAM FLYNN, M. D., MARION, IND.

Lessons drawn from failures, while less gratifying to the actor or student, are ofttimes quite as instructive and valuable as are those drawn from positive and brilliant successes. Occasional reviews of our practice, and its results in the treatment of a disease, are not without profit, and serve as mile-stones to mark our progress in the acquisition and application of knowledge. It is the object of this paper to present a brief analysis of fifty-five cases of epilepsy treated by Dr. Lomax and the writer during the last four years to outline the treatment employed, to indicate something of the results obtained, and to present some of the impressions made on the mind of the writer in the study of the disease under consideration.

Of these fifty-five epileptics, twenty-nine were males, and twenty-six were females. Twenty-six of the fifty-five were 15 years of age or over when first brought under professional notice, while twenty-nine ranged in age from 15 years down to 12 months. In twenty-seven cases the first evidences of epilepsy were detected subsequent to the 14th year, in one appearing as late as the 60th year. In twenty-eight the disease manifested itself prior to the 14th year.

CAUSES.

In one case careful inquiry led us to believe the exciting cause was due to mental distress from family troubles, abuse, and the extreme mortification arising from publicity of these troubles; in two cases, probably due to the wholesale abuse of intoxicants, lecherous and brutish conduct; in three, due to puerperal troubles; in