To the Editor of the "Nonra-Cursa Datty News."
Sm,—Can anyone tell me, under what scientific data, authority, or inspiration, the Health Office here take it upon themselves, every spring, to have filthy sludge-ponds, ditches, and creeks, which are stagnant and unused, cleared out. and the sludge deposited upon the banks? Not deeming myself scientific, but just practical, would it not be less aromatic, and more healthful if the sludge were left at the bottom of such "sloughs despond" until the latter are either about to be filled in, or culverted, instead of now being stirred up to fresh efforts of siltage and the manufacture of poisonous gas? L am, etec., Rosewarer.
Shanghai, March 20.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.