to the invalid, as it is easier to guard against variations from day to day than from similar variations at different periods of the same day. Our drainage has been pronounced to be excellent, the discharge taking place twice daily, both at the east and west end, and in such a manner that the entire outflow is carried many miles away into the sea by the action of the tide.* The late Medical Officer of Health of the Hastings Urban Sanitary Authority, Chas. Ashenden, Esq., states, "that taking the last seven years, the average annual death-rate has been 16.84 in a thousand only, and this will compare favourably with any other health resort. There is little doubt whatever that Hastings is cooler in summer, and warmer in winter, than either Brighton, Osborne, Ramsgate, or Bournemouth. In the important feature of daily range or criterion of equable temperature Hastings stands Al. Our mean temperature for the last year was again good, being lower than Brighton, Osborne, Ramsgate, and London, and a little higher than Bournemouth; as might be expected from the character of the soil and proximity of the sea. Hastings during the summer months has rather a high rate of humidity, but, at the same time, this humidity of the air is sufficient to temper the heat."+

.a

In regard to the death-rate, watering-places suffer in two-fold manner when compared with inland towns, for not only is the number of deaths increased by the many visitors sent here in the last stage of decline, but the places, from which they are sent, register a less number of deaths in consequence. Notwithstanding this drawback, it will be seen that our average death-rate is very good, and if we were to deduct the percentage due to visitors (13 per cent. of the whole) the average would rank very high indeed. One rather singular phenomenon has been discovered by a close comparison of pulmonary cases sent to Torquay and Hastings; that at Torquay the patients suffered loss of appetite and diarrhoea, and cod liver oil could not be persevered with; and, on the contrary, at Hastings and St.

* One of the best drained and best ventilated of seaside places now is Hastings and St. Leonards.-British Medical Journal, Jan., 1872.

In a report dated April, 1881, Mr. Ashenden states:- That the death-rate is 16 75, which is slightly under the average o! the last seven years.

*The quarterly return of the Registrar-General, issued May 4th, 1881, shows that in the United Kingdom, in the fifty other town districts infant mortality averaged 144 per 1,000, and exceeded the average rate in the twenty larger towns by 4 per 1,000; the proportion did not exceed 70 in Hastings, 76 in Shrewsbury, and 89 in Cambridge, while it ranged upwards in the other towns to 174 in Swansea, 179 in Preston, 180 in Ashton-under-Lyne, 190 in Halifax, 192 in Blackburn, and 235 in Macclesfield.

HASTINGS AND ST, LEONARDS

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Leonards the appetite improved, diarrhoea was less prevalent, and cod liver oil was taken regularly.*

Another point not fully recognised is that we have three welldefined climates, with, of course, all intermediate gradations. 1st. The invalid climate, which may be described as embracing the Old Town and the frontage of Hastings and St. Leonards; the whole completely sheltered by the cliffs behind from the north and east, and open to the warming influences of the sun, and thus peculiarly adapted for the residence of pulmonary invalids. 2nd. The residential climate occupying the sides and summits of the first range of hills, defended on the north east from cold winds by a still loftier ridge, but more exposed than the milder region lying beneath the cliffs, and, consequently, affording a most exhilarating and bracing atmosphere, well calculated to revive those exhausted by business or subject to a mental strain. 3rd. The Fairlight and Ore Down climate, along the summit of the ridge or watershed extending from Fairlight towards Battle. Here the air is extremely bracing, the winds are fully felt, the range is much greater, and the mean temperature of course modified by the altitude of about 500 feet above the sea level; accordingly, the district is free from high summer temperature.

"The Influence of Climate in the Treatment of Pulmonary Consump tion," by C. T. Williams, M.D., Oxon, F.R.C.P., and Physician to the Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest, Brompton.

That the prevailing winds are the S. W. can be discovered by any stranger, if he notices the direction in which every tree, ar d shrub and hedge that is at all exposed to the wind, is bent, they all point in one direction with singular uniformity-viz., towards the N.E. The extreme mildness of climate may be inferred from the abundance of the beautiful shrub "Euonymus," growing freely in every direction, though in Warwickshire it cannot be reared in the open air. Nearly every winter the Veronica blooms unprotected, and not unfrequently gains the height of nve feet; occasionally, too, the Camellia blossoms out of doors, and the Passion flower, year after year, adorns the front of

houses on the esplanade, flourishing almost as an evergreen within a few yards of high water-mark. Except on a very few days in the year, a breeze comes off the sea, and as the sea temperature is never above 60°, the temperature of the adjoining land in the summer and autumn is, necessarily, considerably reduced. On the contrary, in the winter and spring months-the temperature of the sea then exceeding that of the coast line the sea breezes tend to increase the warmth, or, what is the same thing, tend to diminish the intensity of the cold of the parts adjacent, and hence it is that snow seldom lies on the ground here, and that when a very severe winter comes though, of course, we have snow and ice here as everywhere else, yet the duration of the cold is for a much less period-the snow lies less thickly, and altogether the effects are less severely felt. As regards fogs, the district is peculiarly free, two or three days only in the course of the year, on an average, does the vapour of the sea invade the land, in the shape of a white mist curling up the hills and disappearing as rapidly

as it came, and altogether different from the smoke-laden fogs that trouble London. During the two last winters, when London was hidden under a dark and poisonous veil, invalids here were enjoying the bright sunshine, seated in the open air.* The brilliant azure of the skies has been often remarked by artists; and a resident of Port Elizabeth said our skies reminded him of an African sky, and that he had seen the stars more clearly here than anywhere else, except in South Africa.

It may be presumed that such august personages as Royal and Imperial Visitors rarely visit any place without the warrant of their medical attendants, and that those medical gentlemen are, as a rule, amongst the most distinguished of their confrères: therefore, we may with confidence refer to the repeated visits of families of exalted rank as a proof of the estimation in which these towns are held by the physicians of highest repute and greatest practice. Her Gracious Majesty, when Princess Victoria, resided for a considerable time in the Marina, and in 1864 the Prince and Princess of Wales and their infant son, Albert Victor, made a stay at the Victoria Hotel. The Crown Princess of Prussia visited St. Leonards in 1868 with her family; the children being sent there again in the years 1875 and 1876. Two of the children of the Prince of Wales have on two several occasions sojourned, as their Royal parents had done, at the Victoria. When the Revolution of 1848, which overturned so many thrones, sent Louis Philippe into exile, he at once came hither, and converted the Victoria Hotel into a temporary palace. For several years he and the Queen Amelie, and the various distinguished members of his family resided here on Sundays going regularly to the Convent Chapel, the Chapel of St. Thomasà-Becket not then being built. On another occasion, the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier and their children, with Queen Christina, of Spain, made a stay; and in 1870 the Empress Eugenie and her ill-fated son, in the first days of exile, took refuge in the Marine Hotel at Hastings, the Prince being specially directed to come here by the Emperor, who knew the place well, having lived in the adjoining house in by-gone days.

In conclusion, we may remark that the Census Returns establish the wonderful progress the towns are making-42,256 in 1881, against 29,289 in 1871, being an increase in the population

* SUNSHINE AT HASTINGS.-A correspondent, writing on Monday from Hastings, says: "This is the eighth successive day (with the exception of a few hours' fog this morning) that we have had brilliant and warm sunshine, lasting nearly the whole of the time the sun is above the horizon, thus adding greatly to the pleasure and benefit of the many visitors and invalids staying here. The promenades have been thronged, and most of the seats more or less occupied.""Vide Daily Telegraph, 4th February, 1880.