ype, in so far as we have
knowledge of it from ancient learning. And that fearful scourge,
the great plague of Constantinople, the plague of hallucination and
convulsion which raged in the Fifth Century of our era, has in
our time, under the new names of tetanoid fever and cerebro-spinal
meningitis, been met with here and in France, and in Massachusetts
has, in the year 1873, laid 747 victims in the dust.

I must cease these illustrations, though I could extend them fairly
over the whole chapter of disease, past and present. Suffice it if I
have proved the general propositions, that disease is now as it was in
the beginning, except that in some examples of it it is less virulent;
that the science for extinguishing any one disease has yet to
be learned; that, as the bases of disease exist, untouched by
civilisation, so the danger of disease is ever imminent, unless we
specially provide against it; that the development of disease may
occur with original virulence and fatality, and may at any moment be
made active under accidental or systematic ignorance.

A CITY OF HEALTH.

I now come to the design I have in hand. Mr. Chadwick has many
times told us that he could build a city that would give any stated
mortality, from fifty, or any number more, to five, or perhaps some
number less, in the thousand annually. I believe Mr. Chadwick to be
correct to the letter in this statement, and for that reason I have
projected a city that shall show the lowest mortality. I need not say
that no such city exists, and you must pardon me for drawing upon your
imaginations as I describe it. Depicting nothing whatever but what is
at this present moment easily possible, I shall strive to bring
into ready and agreeable view a community not abundantly favoured
by natural resources, which, under the direction of the scientific
knowledge acquired in the past two generations, has attained a
vitality not perfectly natural, but approaching to that standard. In
an artistic sense it would have been better to have chosen a small
town or large village than a city for my description; but as the great
mortality of States is resident in cities, it is practically better
to take the larger and less favoured community. If cities could be
transformed, the rest would follow.

Our city, which may be named _Hygeia_, has the advantage of being
a new foundation, but it is so built that existing cities might be
largely modelled upon it.

The population o