Tae Capital of Ohina appears to be distinguished by two very salient eud firat sight contradictory character. istles. It enjoys the reputation of being one of the filthiest cities in the world, and also one of the healthiest. Wo believe a recent Correspondent was perfectly within the bounds of truth when he said that the rate of mortality in Peking compared favourably with that of any other city of its size; and there is no doubt that in spite of the appalling smells which pervade the atmosphere, and the horrible accretions of seething filth which lie rotting by the roadside it is jestly regarded as suited to the constitutions of foreigners, Palmonary diseases, it is trae, are apt to attack persona of weak lungs, and ophthalmia is prevalent enough. Thes spring, we believe, from the exceeding dryness of the air and its impregnation with fine, sharp, particles of dost, which boat upon the face daring a high wind like a chower of lilliputian arrows. But it is to these two phenomena that Peking primarily owes its reparation for salubrity. The atmosphere is gout emily speaking intensely dry, and the feelings of lassitado which are so great a drawback to both bodily and mental sprightliness in nm humid place like Shanghai give place to an exhilaration and buoyancy which are eminently suggestive, if not an indication, of fine health. The pools of stagnant water whicl line the streets are offend sive to both nose and eyes, but they are not dangerous to health as they do not give out those noxious and typlioidbreeding eflavia which are generated by closed drains. In fact, Poking affords an apt illustration of defective human arrangements being counter. acted by nataral pbonomonn, The lightness and porousness of the soil onuses it to form a ready-made sieve, or filter, through which all liquid im. purities percolate and disappear almost as soon as the accumulations take place, Even dost-storms ara a beueficont arrangement of nature. It has been stated on medical authority that these exasperating visitations, whioh powder the whole interior of one's house with fine grit and tura a clean man into something very much like a chimney-sweep in a few minutes, have a distinctly purifying effect upon the atmosphere, and that without them Peking would be o very much less healthy place than it actually is, In fact they are said to purge the air in almost the same way as tho soil purges the water, and disngrocable as their prevalence may be they are really a blessing in disguise. These precautions which natare is good enough to take on behalf of those who are so careless of themselves are supplemented by a practice in vogue among the people, which, while it excites the disgust of Europeans, nevertheless plays no unimportant part in hygienics. We refer to the unbit of garlic-oating. Fresh from the fields, garlic has a fine puugout aroma; as an article of diet ib is eminently wholesome, and its universal consumption is believed to Lave a distinctly beneficial influence upon the publio health. This inflaenos, according to the latest theory, lies in the foot that garlic, when received into the system, has the effect of destroying the bacteria which are supposed to inhabit the haman blood, and from the presence of which spring all disorders of afebrilenature. Itmay bessid, there. fore, that Nature revenges herself for the outrages of man by making use of the most disagreeable remedies to shield him from the results of his own apathy and folly, Bat there is another point about the natural conditions of the North referred to by our Correspondent, on which we touched ourselves some woaks ago. We refer to what be calls the saspeoted impregnation of the soil with certain valuable chemical substances which can be profitably utilised. It is not only true, as we have pointed out, that Peking affords one of most conclusive practical examples of the disinfectant attributes of earth, but that the soil itself possesses certain peculiarly valuable properties, Attention was drawn to this years and yeara ago by one of the old French missionaries, and roosutly referred to by ourselves. Wo allude to the presence of nitro, among other things. Now nitro, whioh is used as a manure, and very efficacious in the preservation of meat, is generated spontaneously in the soil by the gradual decomposition of animal matters, and crystullises upon the surface of the ground, It oocara in Egypt, India, and Persia as well as in the plain of Chibli, where its presence exercises a benign inflaence upon the crops and me directly also on the general health of the people, This substance is indeed of inestimable value in the case of persons who like the poorer class in Peking feed on animals that have died a natural death, and it is owing almost entirely to it that epidemics are virtually unknown among them. One shudders to think what ravages would occur every now and then if Nature did not exorcise this salutary providence over those who are so little able to take care of themselves. There can be no doubt that were it not for these count. eraoting agencies the population of the Northern Capital would be subject to periodical pests of extremely virulent typo. In Shanghai we live under na. tural conditions far lasa favourable to health. The soil, so far from being dry and porous, is viscid and malaria ons, Inatoad of the disagreeable though beneficent dust-storms of the north, whioh choke bat purify, we have mists and water-fogs the effects of which are distivetly dangerous to health. 'The practice resorted to by the Chinese of distributing dead bodies over the face of the coautry, enclosed in rotten coffies many of which are broken open, canna' but exercise a deleterious influence upon the neighbourhood. Municipal arrangements in Shanghai itself are no doubt excellent as far as they go, bat of course they cannot extend to the surrounding fields, and it is there that one great source of the unhealthiness of Shanghai is to be found. The difference betwoon Peking and Shanghai, hygienically speaking, lies in this—that in the former place Natare exerts herself to counteract the defective arrangements of man, while hero we have to exert ourselves to counteract the hostile influences of Natare.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.