ater, and tell their patients, even
foreigners, to drink all the water they want; while it may be doubted
whether any, excepting the few referred to above, have any adequate
idea of the injury constantly accruing from the unwashed drains and
the crowded cemeteries.

And Munich will be visited with a succession of "after epidemics," and
physicians will continue to talk nonsense and make blunders and be at
their wits' end, so long as they persist in ignoring the true causes
of these plagues and in delaying to apply the only remedy. Water is
what Munich needs--pure water for the people to drink and to cook
with; plenty of water for them to bathe in; water to wash out the
vaults and drains; water for a daily flushing of the sewers. As long
ago as 1822 a competent authority pointed out an inexhaustible source
from which water might be obtained, with a fall sufficient to obviate
the necessity of any hydraulic works for its elevation. There is in
the Bavarian Mountains, not far away, a lake of remarkably pure water,
situated at such a height that the level would be above the loftiest
houses in Munich. The estimated cost of bringing the water into the
city is only five millions of gulden (about two millions of dollars).
It seems surprising that with this excellent opportunity at hand there
should be any hesitation about accepting it. And yet, after having
been possessed of the knowledge for more than fifty years, there was
only one vote in favor of the enterprise when the subject was
discussed in a meeting of the municipal and medical authorities a
short time ago. The proverbial thriftiness of the German is apt to
degenerate into stinginess when the object to be attained is of
general rather than individual benefit; and though Munich claims a
high place as an art-centre, it would take a long time to convince its
citizens that three hundred millions of kreuzers are but as dust in
the balance when weighed against the value to the world of Kaulbach.

One step, however, has been gained. The urgent need of an abundant
supply of good water, which is so patent a fact to all strangers
visiting Munich, is beginning to dawn upon the intelligence of the
community. The connection between cause and effect was so evident
during the cholera epidemic of last year that even Ignorance
recognized the Law, while Superstition dared only whisper of
"judgments," and refrained from attempting to propitiate the
destroying angel by religious mummeries