ants more than it contained at the end of 1855. Think of
that--the population of a large city absorbed in London, and no
perceptible inconvenience occasioned by it! Houses are still to let;
there are still the usual tickets hung up in windows in quiet
neighbourhoods, intimating that apartments furnished for the use of
single gentlemen can be had within; the country still supplies the town
with meat and bread, and we hear of no starvation in consequence of
deficient supply. London is the healthiest city in the world. The city
death-rate, according to Dr. Letheby's report for 1857, is 22.5 per 1000,
and in all England it is 22.2. During the last ten years the annual
deaths have been on the average 25 to 1000 of the population, in 1856 the
proportion was 22 to 1000; yet, in spite of this, half of the deaths that
happen on an average in London between the ages of 20 and 40 are from
consumption and diseases of the respiratory organs. The Registrar traces
this to the state of the streets. He says: "There can be no doubt that
the dirty dust suspended in the air that the people of London breathe
often excites diseases of the respiratory organs. The dirt of the
streets is produced and ground now by innumerable horses, omnibuses, and
carriages, and then beat up in fine dust, which fills the mouth, and
inevitably enters the air-passages in large quantities. The dust is not
removed every day, but, saturated with water in the great thoroughfares,
sometimes ferments in damp weather, and at other times ascends again
under the heat of the summer sun as atmospheric dust."

London, says Henry Mayhew, may be safely asserted to be the most densely
populated city in all the world; containing one-fourth more people than
Pekin, and two-thirds more than Paris--more than twice as many as
Constantinople--four times as many as St. Petersburg--five times as many
as Vienna, or New York, or Madrid--nearly seven times as many as
Berlin--eight times as many as Amsterdam--nine times as many as
Rome--fifteen times as many as Copenhagen--and seventeen times as many as
Stockholm. "London," says Horace Say, "c'est une province couverte de
maisons." It covers an area of 122 square miles in extent, or 78,029
statute acres; and contains 327,391 houses. Annually 4000 new houses are
in erection for upwards of 40,000 new-comers. The continuous line of
buildings stretching from Highgate to Camberwell is said to be 12 miles
long. It is computed if the