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Table Showing Sickness and Mortality in Large Towns of England and Scotland During the Month of December 1884.

Scarlet

Typhus

Enteric

Cholera.

Relapsing

Puerperal

Small-pox.

Diphtheria.

Fever.

Fever.

Fever.

Fever.

Fever.

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Reported

Cases.

223

733300

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Deaths.

Reported

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Deaths.

Reported

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Deaths.

Reported

Cases.

Deaths.

Reported

Cases.

Deaths.

Ill-defined Fever.

Measles.

Whooping.

Cough.

Diarrhoea.

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Two deaths from puerperal fever were returned in Greenock, in Huddersfield, and 2 in Salford. Typhus caused 4 deaths in Edinburgh, and 2 in Salford. With reference to the notified cases of infectious diseases in the thirty-two towns, it appears that the proportion of the population reported to be suffering from one or other of the eight diseases was 5.24 per 1,000, against 7:92 and 671 in the two previous months. The proportion did not exceed o·53 per 1,000 in Warrington, 108 in Jarrow, 139 in Accrington, and 173 in Huddersfield; in the other towns it ranged upwards to 8.13 in Halifax, 8.28 in Stalybridge, 8.95 in Barrow-in-Furness, 9.07 in Edinburgh, and 9.92 in Derby, The high rates recorded in the last-mentioned towns were caused by the excessive prevalence of scarlet fever. Twenty-two cases of small-pox were notified in Birkenhead during December, against 32 and 30 in the two preceding months; scarlet fever was proportionally most prevalent in Barrow-inFurness, Derby, Halifax, Leek, and Rotherham; enteric fever in Salford, Bury, Derby, and Aberdeen; and diphtheria in Dundee, Edinburgh, and Greenock.

SPECIAL REPORTS.

2.

REPORT ON OVER-PRESSURE OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE OF REPRESENTATIVE MANAGERS OF LONDON BOARD SCHOOLS. THE sub-committee appointed to consider the question of 'Over-Pressure' (consisting of Messrs. Sydney Buxton, M.P., R. S. Doll, J. Faulkner, F. Fermor, Albert Rutson, Miss Gladstone, Miss Hickson, Revs. A. W. Jephson, J. H. Rose, R. O. Thorpe, R. J. Simpson, Lady Stevenson, and Major Wade) have obtained much information on the subject, and have carefully considered the question submitted to them. 1. They are convinced that the children are, as a whole, not only educationally, but physically, much the better for attending school. At the same time, there is evidence that under certain conditions (on the one hand, where the child is underfed, suffers from bad health, defective intellect, longstanding neglect or irregularity; and on the other hand, where the child is over-excitable, too eager or anxious) some overstrain does occasionally occur. But the cases of overpressure are proportionally not numerous, nor is the evil widespread. 3. They believe that much has been done, and more will in the future be done by the New Code to prevent over-pressure. 4. But they think that the New Code cannot produce the results intended, unless it is administered in spirit as well as in letter; and they do not think that this is always the case at present. 5. With this preface, the sub-committee beg leave to make the following recommendations:

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(i.) Home Lessons:-As a general rule they do not think home lessons desirable; and they recommend that their imposition should be left to the discretion of the managers and teachers jointly. The sub-committee are of opinion, moreover, that home lessons should be absolutely prohibited for children below the third standard, and altogether in schools of special difficulty.' (i.) Keeping in for Lessons in cases of backward children:-They endorse the recent circular of the Board on this subject, which absolutely prohibits 'keeping in' except for punishment. (iii.) Board Inspection:-They strongly recommend that the Board's inspectors should be more of inspectors' and less of'examiners.'

They also recommend that, except under special circumstances, the reassessment of H.M.'s inspectors' reports by the School Management Committee should be discontinued. (iv.) Returns, &c. :-They recommend that all returns, accounts, correspondence, &c., falling on the teachers, should be, as far as possible, minimised., (v.) Power of withholding children from examination, and

from preparation for examination:-By the Code, the managers have power to withhold children from examination, if they can satisfy H. M.'s inspector of the reasonableness of the ground for withdrawing them. Such withdrawals do not in any way affect the grant. Managers can also, for reasonable cause, present a child a second time in the same standard. The sub-committee find that these provisions of the Code are not generally understood. They recommend, therefore, that managers should be specifically instructed that they have the power, and ought to undertake the duty, of withdrawing from examination such children as are likely to suffer from the examination itself, or from the preparation for it; and that it should be pointed out to them that they cannot perform this duty unless these children are watched throughout the year. The withdrawal should be conse. quent on the managers' own observations and the recommendation of the teachers. (vi.) Managers :-The appointment of competent managers in sufficient numbers is a matter of the greatest importance, and the sub-committee recommend it as demanding the serious attention of the Board. It is impossible without the frequent visits of competent managers, co-operating with the teachers, that the discrimination required by the Code between those children who are fit and those unfit to be prepared for examination should be properly made; and it is obvious that in many other matters in the course of their school life, some of them bearing on over-pressure, children may be materially helped and befriended by the managers. (vii.) Underfeeding and Irregularity:-Though both these matters largely conduce to such over-pressure as exists, the sub-committee make no recommendation in regard to them. The first subject is now being considered by a council appointed for the purpose; the second is one largely depending on the administration of the compulsory powers of the Board, and on the personal influence of the teachers.

Signed:-ALBERT RUTSON (chairman Sub-Committee), SYDNEY BUXTON (chairman Committee of Representative Managers), R. S. E. DOLL, J. FAULKNER, F. FERMOR, F. M. GLADSTONE, E. H. HICKSON, A. W. JEPHSON, T. H. ROSE, R. T. SIMPSON, C. STEVENSON, R. O. THORPE, J. M. WADE. December 1884.

SANITARY MATTERS IN AMERICA.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

THE state legislature of New York, at its session last winter, provided for the appointment of a tenement-house commission, which should make an exhaustive investigation into the tenement-house question in the city of New York. The commission was liberally provided with money, and it was sincerely hoped by all sanitarians who recognised the extent of the danger from this cause, that the commission would find a remedy to propose to the legislature, which should ameliorate the condition of the people living in tenements, and abate the nuisances caused by the herding together of so many people. The commission, through its inspectors, began work last summer on a very extensive plan. One of their schedules of inquiry lies before me as I write. It contains 519 blank spaces in which to write information desired. The commissioners held a meeting recently, and it was reported that they began to realise that the amount of work demanded of the inspectors was so great that they could not hope to cover all the desirable territory in time to formulate their report which, by the organic law, they are compelled to make to the legislature during this winter's session. The trouble, it is thought, lies in the fact that the Commission tried to accomplish too much. One of the leading members of the Commission, Professor Felix Adler, delivered a lecture on the tenement-house question in New York, before a very wealthy and distinguished audience, gathered in Chickering Hall, in that city, on Sunday, Nov. 30.

From his standpoint the greatest evil to be feared is that which results from overcrowding, and he related the case of a man who, with his wife, children, and nine boarders, lived in two small rooms. He reproved the Health Department of New York, indirectly, when he stated that the law providing an allowance of 600 cubic feet of air for each person was constantly being violated. He recommended that steps should be taken to raise such a sum as was done in London, viz., 12,000,000 dols., for the purpose of erecting dwellings for 50,000 persons on 42 acres of land. He also urged that the public baths should be kept open continuously, instead of closing them during the winter months. The report of this Commission, and the recommendations it makes, will be awaited with much interest.

There have been some very sensational stories vigorously presented through our daily press, concerning the terrible ravages of an epidemic disease among the people inhabiting that mountainous region lying in Western Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. Members of the State boards of health of West Virginia and of Kentucky have been despatched to the scene, and, while their reports have not yet been made public, it is believed that the disease, which has been credited with the deaths of hundreds of persons, and is said to have resembled cholera, will prove to be nothing but an aggravated epidemic of dysentery, caused by contaminated water taken from wells with a very low stage of water, owing to a protracted drought.

From various parts of the States come reports of epidemics of contagious diseases, as diphtheria at Chicago, and measles at Cleveland, Ohio, where there have been 800 cases and 270 deaths since June last.

But the most alarming epidemic exists in the province of Ontario. Small-pox in a very malignant form is raging at two localities about 100 miles from Toronto. Dr. Bryce, the Secretary of the Provincial Board of Health, who has just returned from a visit to the township, writes that there have been over 100 cases there, with a large death-rate. In one place eight persons were found sick in one room. In the village of Stoco the disease had invaded nearly every house. The Board is doing its best to confine the spread of the disease.

There comes from Columbus, Ohio, this month, a tale of the worst derangement of ventilation and sewerage which could possibly exist. It is in no less pretentious a building than the State-house of Ohio. Two deaths from typhoid fever have occurred from among the clerks engaged in the office most affected, while the head of the department has just recovered from a severe attack of the disease. These are not the only cases, for some of the officers have lately been on the sick list nearly the whole time. The credit for determining the cause of the sickness must be accorded to a correspondent of the Cincinnati Engineer, who made a searching investigation, and has just published its results. The systems of heating, ventilation, and sewerage were originally satisfactory. Seven years ago the State treasurer desired a water-closet put in his own apartments, which was done. The soilpipe, however, instead of being carried to the common soil-pipe of the building, was conducted into one of the brick fresh-air flues. Last winter a ladies' toilet room, the waste-pipe from which was properly connected with the soil-pipe, was changed into a water-closet, the proper connection destroyed, and a new soil-pipe carried directly into the main brick air-chamber. There was no escape for the sewage from these chambers, unless it evaporated into the fresh air supplied the employés of the State. It is a good sanitary lesson to the legislature which may now be induced to pass a law creating a State Board of Health.

The past few months have been peculiarly unfortunate in that so many prominent sanitarians have died. Thirteen members of the American Public Health Association died last year, a death-rate of about twenty-six in a thousand. Four secretaries of State Boards of Health have died: Harris, of New York; Chamberlain, of Connecticut; Farquharson, of Iowa; and Hatch, of California. Lastly

comes the news of the death of Dr. Samuel M. Bemiss, of New Orleans, a prominent sanitarian and member of the National Board of Health.

The National Board of Health hopes to receive recognition and an appropriation from the Congress just assembled. The President of the United States, in his annual message to Congress, recommended that laws be enacted requiring that all rags be disinfected before being allowed to be entered into our ports. Otherwise, he failed to speak of the health of our people and the danger from cholera. However, the President's recommendation amounts to but little with our Congress, and we shall probably receive no sanitary legislation. The National Board of Health now existing without financial support, hopes to secure control of the fund which may be set apart to combat cholera should it come to our shores. It is probable, however, that the control will be given to the surgeongeneral of the marine hospital service.

The Conference of State Boards of Health, which met in Washington, December 10 and 11, transacted a good deal of business, and listened to several reports relating to the sanitary condition of various states and cities. The chief work of the session was the adoption of the report of the Committee on Federal Legislation, which consisted of a draft of a Bill for a new National Board of Health. As finally adopted and presented to the Public Health Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives, the Bill provides that a National Board of Health shall be established, to consist of one member from each State Board of Health now established, or which may hereafter be established in the United States, to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and whose compensation, when actually engaged in the performance of duty, shall be 10 dollars a day and reasonable expenses. The Board will meet annually in Washington, and, in cases of emergency, upon the call of its chairman and secretary, or upon the extraordinary call of the President of the United States. The duties of the Board shall be to make investigations at any place in the United States or at any foreign port or place, and to collect information upon all matters relating to the public health, and to frame necessary rules and regulations for the government of the quarantine service, the rules and regulations of the Board to be carried out by such departments of the Government as the President shall direct. The Board shall co-operate with and aid State and Local Boards of Health in the enforcement of their rules and regulations in preventing the introduction of contagious diseases. The Board shall also make rules and regulations to be observed by vessels at ports of departure, where such vessels sail for the United States. The penalty for any vessel which enters the ports of this country contrary to the regulations established by the Board is 1,000 dollars. The Board is to maintain a weekly exchange of reports of sanitary conditions of domestic and foreign places. There is mentioned the sum of 500,000 dollars, as being the proper amount to appropriate in order to carry out the provisions of this law.

The Conference, after adopting the Bill, of which the above is a brief abstract, adjourned for one year. It now remains to be seen whether Congress will pass the Bill. If so, it will be a satisfactory solution to the vexed question as to which department of the Government shall have charge of our health administration.

As an illustration of the difference in the average deathrate of the several districts of one town, it may be noted that during the fortnight ending January 6 the number of deaths in the South Ward of the borough of Gateshead exhibited a ratio of 12.95 per 1,000 per annum, whilst during the same period the West Ward of the same town showed a ratio of 37.16 in the 1,000 per annum; the other wards of the town also showed a marked difference in their average death-rate. There is no serious epidemic, and the excessive mortality arises principally from the frightful infant mortality which seems indigenous to certain localities.

NEW INVENTIONS.

THE COSY PATENT SMOKE CONSUMING AND VENTILATING GRATE.

THIS is the outcome of an appliance shown in a very crude form (mainly as an attachment to existing grates) at the Smoke Abatement Exhibition, South Kensington, in 1881-82, and although at that time in a very imperfect state, its performance in the testing-house was so satisfactory, that a prize medal was awarded it. Since that time the proprietors, Messrs. Reeve and Ratcliffe, Little Marylebone Street, have made several improvements on the original idea, and a sectional and elevated drawing of the 'Cosy,' as a complete grate, is appended, although the patentees still claim that they can alter existing grates with advantage as to cost, &c., to their system. The

the residuum entering a small flue at either side, when they are carried upwards, and eventually meet in the chimney proper, which comprises the syphonic action before alluded to. The effect of the ventilator under the fire-basket is to draw in fresh air, a portion of which, after passing through the heated passages it has to traverse. is emitted into the apartment, and the other portion is carried up the side flues, this action tending, in combination with the other effects, to promote combustion. The advantages of this grate are considerably enhanced by the length of time the fire is in force. The effects of many good grates are considerably reduced by the short time they are in daily use. The system of allowing fires to go out at night too often interferes with the best points in their construction, and in one like the Cosy,' the advantages of banking up at night, which may be done with perfect safety, would soon be realised. In the asbestos Jumps in the filter we have an indestructible fuel that

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principle carried out in this grate is that of filtration of the smoke or products of combustion before they enter the chimney-a somewhat novel but admirable idea-and ventilation by the withdrawal of the vitiated air of the apartment by mild or almost draughtless syphonic action, as distinguished from the great rush of draught or cold air inseparable from an ordinary or direct action open grate. A large portion of the heat that usually passes up the chimney is here arrested and utilised as it should be for warming the room, economising fuel at the same time, the combined arrangements being decidedly conducive to the prevention of smoky chimneys. As shown by the engravings the bottom and sides of the fire-basket are of fireclay, with a ventilator underneath communicating with the chamber at the back. A range of louvres at the back of the fire-basket carry the products of combustion into this chamber, which communicates with the chimney by means of a direct acting valve, which, when opened, assumes a vertical position, and is actuated by a knob in front of the grate. This valve is, however, only opened when the fire is being lighted, after which it is closed, and the products, when reaching this chamber and finding their access to the chimney closed, are drawn downwards through the filtering chamber composed of small asbestos lumps, which rob them mainly of their unburnt particles,

quickly becomes red hot, and remains incandescent so long as a fire of ordinary proportions is kept in the grate, and one that only loses its heat when the fire is allowed to go out altogether. It must be palpable, then, that the more the heat is retained in the asbestos filter the better will be the effects obtained from this grate. The fire is lighted with little trouble, is of the most genial character, easily kept up, and remarkably free from smoke, while considerable heat is diffused throughout the apartment. Owing to the syphon action obtained by means of the side flues, the thorough-exhaust ventilation of the room can be effected by the addition of a tube at the sides of the chimney-breasts communicating with them.

Wherever the 'Cosy' grate has been fixed it has met with the most unqualified praise. It can be made in any kind of design, and, should a large demand arise, at what may be termed popular prices.

HOME GYMNASIA.

AN illustration of the capability of combining in one simple apparatus, arrangements for exercising every muscle in the body, such as hitherto has only been attained by the use of a variety of appliances, is shown in the new 'Excelsior' Health Exercising Apparatus recently intro

duced into England by the Chadborn & Coldwell Manufacturing Company, 223 Upper Thames Street, London. It will be universally conceded that a portable gymnasium, capable of being used in a house of the most moderate dimensions, suitable alike for the child, the adult, and even those in declining years, at a cost within the means of persons with limited incomes, is a very useful hygienic invention.

The apparatus in question is made in three sizes, each of which is sufficiently large for the use of an adult; the smallest occupying a ground space of only 2 ft. square and the largest 4 ft. by 2 ft. and 7 ft. 6 in. high; yet in this limited area over one hundred different combinations or exercises are provided for. Here the athlete can keep himself in constant practice by exercising on the horizontal or parallel bars, the trapeze, or, if he be a rower, take his position as in a boat, and, with either sliding or fixed seat, go through a course of exercise so apparently real as scarcely to differ in its minutest effect from the actual pastime. The child can enjoy the pleasure of a secure swing, the tilting board, or 'see-saw,' and juvenile trapeze; and besides these, there are innumerable exercises for promoting the cure of certain surgical diseases, effected by a mere change of position, and readjustment of the ropes

Rowing Reverse Movement.-Ex

pands the Chest and Strengthens the Legs and Arms.

of many provided by the machine for this disease. The apparatus is constructed from maple, hickory, and bass wood, securely bolted together, yet capable of being taken to pieces in a few minutes. A variety of small appliances for carrying out some of the exercises are sent with it. It has already attracted considerable attention amongst the medical profession, gymnasts, and private individuals, and a very flattering testimonial to its merits has been received from the Instructor-General of Gymnastics to the Army at Aldershot, who anticipates a more rapid physical development of recruits by its use.

IMPROVED DISINFECTING APPARATUS.

AN apparatus for the disinfection of wearing apparel, bedding, and other materials has lately been patented and put to practical use by Mr. Thomas Jennings, of 46 York Road, Lambeth, S. E., and this apparatus bids fair to prepared for the destruction of contagia viva. cause quite a revolution in respect of contrivances specially

The heat is produced by gas-jets placed below the bottom of the apparatus, and the dispersed heat penetrates through the openings, producing in the interior of the apparatus a newly-formed current of heated, but nevertheless, unburnt air. In order to prevent the production of smoke, atmospheric burners are made use of instead of the ordinary ones. We give a view of the interior and a section of the apparatus. It is composed of an outer casing, A, which is at present of iron, covered with asbestos, or some other suitable non conductor, and in this outer case an inner box, B, of less depth and somewhat tapered at the bottom, is fixed. The top of this inner box is secured to the top of the outer box, and a number of holes are

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and weights. Four small illustrations of a few of the exercises are appended. Further examples of this Home Gymnasium of an unique character will be given in future numbers of the SANITARY RECORD.

Each of the exercises is clearly set forth with illustrations on a chart, enabling any one to perform them without further tuition. In the rowing illustration the operator is seated on a fixed or sliding seat. In his hands he grasps two handles attached to ropes passing through pullies over the top of the machine, and connected with weights (dumb bells), regulated according to the power of the user, and which slide up and down a pair of tramway frames. In fact, this system of weights is the main feature running through all the exercises. The curved board is an excellent and pleasant mode of performing the exercise mentioned at the foot of the illustration, and the exercise for curvature of the spine (the movements being shown by dotted lines) is only one

formed through the upper part of the side of the inner box as shown at G. The burners for the ignition of a mixture of gas and air are placed at C, below the bottom of the inner box. By taking advantage of the natural law of the circulation of heated air, a complete circulation is main.

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