DOMESTIC BATHS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.

fka.—You do not intend, I expect, to turn your paper into a vehicle for com- municating hints in domestic economy; but as you reproach us, of the middling cjreswith being indisposed to bathing, and it is obvious that a bath in-doors must bemore convenient than one out, allow me to mention that I am an old housekeeper, with a large family, and that for more than ten years we have en- joyed a hot and cold bath, at little expense, by catching nearly all the rain-water that falls on the house, and getting the heat from the kitchen-fire, at little in- creased consumption of fuel, and in the winter none at all. The principle is simply that of having a close boiler at the back of the fire, with pipes leading cold water from the tank and returning hot water to the same level sip stairs. .

Some of your readers have, no doubt, heard the old story of a sportsman, at a public-house, laying a wager that he would boil a leg of mutton, in a fixed time, in a bucket of water; and he effected it in this way: setting the bucket about two feet from the fire, he stopped the touch-hole of his gun, put the breech into the fire and the muzzle through a hole made for the purpose in the bucket, and so won his wager. I wish I could make my cook boil all my beef and mutton in the same way; because the mere simmering of the water, we all know, is better for the meat than a full boil.

Upon this principle is our bath heated; and in winter always ready. I had commenced a full detail of the fixing of the bath, pipes, and boiler, but found it would be too long for you.

Results of the Registrar-General's return of mortality in the Metropolis for the week ending on Saturday last—

Number of deaths. Zymotic (or Epidemic, Endemic, and Contagious) Diseases . . 157

Dropsy, Caneer,and other diseases of uncertain or variable seat 97

Diseases of the Brain, Spinal.Marrow, Nerves, and Senses .... 129 Diseases of the Lungs, and of the other Organs of Respiration 219 Diseases of the Heart and Blood-vessels 29

Diseases of the Stomach, Liver, tad other Organs of Digestion 79 Diseases of the Kidneys, eic 12

Childbirth, diseases of the 'Uterus, An 11 Rheumatism, diseases of the Bones, Joints, au 4

Diseases of the Skin, Cellular Tissue, Ate. 2

Old Age 46 Violence, Privation, Cold, and Intemperance 22 — Total (Including unspecified causes) 808 ... Summer average. 201 ...

155 ... 227 ... 23 ... 87 ...

6 ...

9 ...

62 ...

26

— 898 ... Annual average. 188 157 294 27 72 7 10 67 — 968

The temperature of the thermometer ranged from 83.10 in the sun to 47.00 in the shade; the mean temperature by day being warmer than the average mean temperature by 3.40. The mean direction of the wind for the week was East for Ilia first four days, and variable afterwards.