omestic arrangements. Children
are frequently thirsty, and cannot be kept from the pumps and
fountains; the poor are not able to afford a constant supply of beer
(and, for that matter, the beer itself is made with the same
material); it is used in cooking and for washing and bathing; and
though its impurities are lessened through boiling, it is so corrupt
that nothing short of complete distillation could make it wholesome
for either outward or inward application. Strangers are warned against
drinking it, and in numerous instances among the citizens bowel
complaints and typhus have been traced directly to its poison. It is
true that a small portion of the inhabitants are more favored in
respect to their water-supply. Within a few years the water of two
springs rising a little way out of the city, at Brunnthal and
Thalkirchen, has been introduced into a few streets and houses, and,
though by no means pure, it is vastly better than that of the wells.
But the whole yield from these sources is not sufficient for more than
a third of the inhabitants; and the Thalkirchner water has recently
been corrupted by the breaking in of the Isar, in consequence of an
attempt to enlarge the spring.

But besides the unfavorable nature of the climate and soil of
Munich--which cannot be helped--and the shameful condition of its
sewerage and water-supply--for which the city government is mainly
responsible--there are many accessory causes of disease to be found in
the habits and customs of the people. The open-air gatherings of the
Germans are, in many respects, a pleasant-and praiseworthy trait of
their social life, but the practice needs to be held in judicious
restraint to make it safe for the citizens of Munich. The changes of
temperature in that region are so frequent and so severe, and the
atmosphere at night is so heavily charged with moisture and malaria,
that the mere tarrying late in public gardens is dangerous; but when
to this source of danger are added the imbibing of copious draughts of
ice-cold beer and the eating of suppers of heavy food, such as
sausages, roast pork, radishes, etc., it is easy to see how a sudden
check of perspiration might react upon a gorged stomach and produce
the fevers and inflammation which abound.

Attention has been called to the peculiar soil of Munich as a
disadvantageous characteristic of the locality. There is, however, a
strip of land following the course of the Isar and bordering the city
on