neglected by the citizens.  When the plague ceased for a few days in the autumn, the chief medical authorities announced that it was at an end; and when it broke out again, these wise ones comforted the public by assuring them that it was only a “Nach-epidemie”—­an after epidemic—­that is, a final effort of the mysterious poison, like the last flashing up of an expiring flame.  And yet this “after epidemic” lasted more than five months, and was more virulent in its workings than had been the three months’ visitation in the previous summer!  The official reports and scientific discussions of the subject were unsatisfactory to the last degree.  The principal object seemed to be, not to cleanse Munich and get rid of the pestilence, but to substantiate the proposition that the variations in the sanitary condition of the city are intimately connected with the rising and falling of the ground-water (grund-wasser)—­a theory which, whether true or not, is of small practical value under existing circumstances, since the ground-water, so far as quality is concerned, is entirely beyond human control, while the drinking-water and the sewers are capable of improvement.

It is but justice to say that a few physicians—­who, having recently come to Munich, are properly impressed with its sanitary deficiencies, and one, at least, who, long a resident, has a thorough knowledge of what is wanted, and sufficient common sense and courage to speak out—­do not hesitate to declare that the bad water and bad drainage of that city are the principal causes of its everlasting typhus and its frequent epidemics.  But these men are in bad odor with their colleagues, and are denounced on all sides as enemies of the fair fame and prosperity of Munich.  Certain physicians of high standing there laugh at the fuss made about the water, 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