Its fpecific gravity is alfo the fame with diftilled water. This water, as well as the other, is, carried in wooden pipes under the streets into the houses of the inhabitants.

There are fprings found on digging every where in the town, which might yield large quanti ties of water; thefe were for merly ufed, but are now little employed, because the fupply from the Thames and New River is much cheaper. The waters of thefe fprings contain a fmall portion of fea falt, and a larger quantity of magnefia vitriolata, fo as to be fenfible to the tafte, and fo as, in fome places, to act as a purgative. They alfo contan gas; fometimes in quantity fufficient to give them brifknefs, and render them agreeable to the tafte.

Rain water is never used, being always very impure, from the duft which it washes from the tops of the houses. The whole fupply of water, from aqueducts and engines, is 109,440 cubic feet in an hour.

The valley through which the Thames runs, is gravelly, generally dry, and not marfhy till about a mile below the town, the water in the river being confined between its banks. The hills or rifings, on which the principal part of the town ftands, are moftly a mixture of clay and fand, the fand or gravel generally being in rather the largeft proportion. In fome places the foil is gravel.

The winds from the fouthwest to northweft, and from foutheast to northeast, are the moft prevalent. The wefterly winds blow

over the great Atlantic Ocean, paffing, before they reach Lon. don, over part of Great Britain for about two hundred miles, and over Ireland when they veer to the north. They are gener ally moist, although much drier than when they arrive at the west coaft of the island, The ba rometer is generally low when they blow. They are common. ly moft prevalent in February, Sep tember,November and December. The cafterly winds blow over the large continent of Europe; they are always dry, The barometer is high when they blow. They are moft prevalent in January, March, and the beginning of April. They are cold, except fometimes when they blow in July and Auguft; while the wefterly winds are almost always warm, except in November, if they verge to the north,

The heat of the air is very variable, feldom remaining equal for many days; and every year differing entirely from the preceding ones, not only in heat, but alfo in moisture and rains. Sometimes the winter is feverely cold, with froft from November till May, with little interruption. Sometimes the water is not frozen for more than ten or twelve days. Most commonly, there is a little froft in November and December, but otherwise, thefe months are usually very foggy and moift. The principal froft generally is in January. February is commonly a mild, open, moift month. March is generally cold and dry. The fummer months vary as much Sometimes there are three months very warm; fometimes not more

than

than a week: the latter half of July is commonly the hotteft. In Auguft, heavy rains often fall, efpecially the last half of the month. The thermometer fometimes rifes to above 80° of Fahrenheit's fcale, very rarely to 86, but the most common fummer heat is from 65 to 70°; it fometimes falls in the winter to 15°; it has been known to fall below the point marked O, but very rarely. The most common winter heat when it freezes, is between 20 and 30°; the most frequent when it does not freeze, between 40 and 50°. ·

The air when dry is always loaded with, and often obfcured by duft, which confifts of afhes and foot arifing from pit-coal, the fuel which is commonly burnt; horfe-dung, produced and ground to small powder, by the numerous carriages drawn by horfes, with which the streets are always crowded; powder of granite and flints, which form the streets and roads, and are ground extremely fine by the wheels of the carriages.-Thefe powders, with various others, penetrate the houses every where, and undoubtedly enter the trachea, adhere to the furface of the lungs, and not uncommonly produce cough, with difficulty of breathing in people first coming from the country.

The streets are generally wide, few of them fo narrow as to prevent two carriages from paffing, and many of them wide enough to allow five or more to pafs; efpecially in new parts of the town, which form more than half of it, they are from fixty to twenty feet wide; thofe of

great communication feldom lefs than thirty in the old part of the town; in the new part, most of them are not less than forty.-In feveral places there are fquares of a confiderable size, i. e. from about 100 to 1000 feet fquare. The streets are well paved, and clean, notwithstanding the immenfe quantity of horse-dung conftantly falling upon

them.

The houses, except most of thofe in the oldest part of the town, which are not more than a quarter of the whole, have a ftory funk under the level of the ftreet. This contains the kitchen and other offices. Below the level of the bottom of this story a covered canal is dug under the ftreet, with which there is a communication from the houses, and by which putrefcent matters fufficiently fluid are carried off. Afhes, bones, &c. are conveyed away in carts twice a-week. The greatest part of the houses are of a uniform structure; in each story a large room in front; a fmaller room and the ftair-cafe occupy the back part; and there is frequently a fmaller room added behind. There are commonly four ftories, befide the one under the level of the street. The town is fully inhabited; there is hardly a house unoccupied.

The number of inhabitants is very little known: calculations of various kinds have been made by many authors, but these have been founded on elements entirely conjectural, and are there, fore of no ufe. As far as my own opinion goes, and nothing better than opinion can be formed in this cafe, they are about a

million.

are not employed, may be confidered as in the fame ftate with the independent gentlemen.

Phyficians are fo few, that it is hardly worth enumerating them. There are not much above two hundred in all, and not near half that number are employed in practice. Except when they are cut off by infectious fevers, before they are habituated to infection, although often difeafed, phyficians generally attain a confiderable age.-Attornies and apothecaries are to be confidered, in their manner of life and conftitutions, in the order of tradefmen.

Merchants and traders of confequence form the next clafs, The women of this clafs live a regular life, going to bed generally before midnight, and rifing about nine in the morning. Moft families have villas near town, where the women pafs much of their time, efpecially during the fummer feafon. They are much more in the air, and confequently have neither the delicacy nor the irritability of the clafs we have firft enumerated; they enjoy a hiuch better state of health; their difeafes are more regular, and they bear the action of powerful remedies. Of the men of this clafs, fome lead a fedentary life; their time is much employed in writing, generally leaning on their breasts; fuch are fubject to complaints in the prima via; others of them ufe exercife, ef'pecially on horfeback, and often fleep in the country: all of them, in point of eating, are luxurious. The leffer tradefmen, fhopkeepers, and manufacturers, are fober and regular in their man

ner of life, but they are much confined to their houfes, efpecially the women of this clafs, which renders them irritable, and fubject to disease, often violent and fatal. Nor is that part of the men, whofe bufinefs calls them abroad, lefs fubject to morbid affection, fo that they rarely attain to great old age.

The laft clafs confifts of the working part of the manufacturers, and labourers of all denominations; who, with fome exceptions, are the most diforderly, profligate, debauched fet of human beings perhaps on the whole earth; working hard, and being dexterous in their occupa tions, and of courfe earning large fums of money, which they fpend in drinking, expofing themfelves at the fame time to the inclemency of the weather; always idle while they have any money left, fo that their life is spent between labour and attention above their powers, and perfect idleness and debauchery. Their women alfo, paffing from affluence to diftress almost every week, are forced, although foberly inclined, to lead a very diforderly life. Pulmonary complaints are more particularly common and fatal in this clafs, as well as all other difeafes.

London is fatal to infants in general. On a comparison of charity children fent to be nurfed in the environs, with those nurfed in town, it appeared the lofs in town being 39, was only 29 in the fame number and time in the country. But if this lofs is great altogether, it is tremendous among the lowest claffes, the mothers being almost always

obliged