WEST HAM.-The report of Mr. W. Horn as chief sanitary inspector of this enormous and ever-growing metropolitan district gives an excellent idea of the amount of detail work which the sanitary supervision of such a district necessarily entails. Mr. Horn is grateful to the 'cholera scare' for the impetus it gave to his work in securing the detachment of sinkpipes from drains, the separation of water-closet flushing pipes from cisterns for storing drinking water, and the removal of such cisterns from positions where the water was liable to be polluted with sewer gas. More than 8,000 houses were visited during 1883, and the total number of premises dealt with amounted to 1,192. Some of these premises had to be visited half-a-dozen times before the necessary work was done. Nearly 400 special complaints of nuisances were investigated, and 410 cases of infectious diseases were visited. The work of disinfection was lighter than in the two previous years; but 163 rooms and about 5,000 articles of bedding and clothing had to be subjected to the process of fumigation. Sixty-two samples of food (butter, coffee, tea, and milk) were submitted to analysis, and 14 convictions for adulteration obtained. A substantial share of the time of the West Ham sanitary staff is taken up in the supervision of the offensive trades that flourish in the district. It is satisfactory to find that Mr. Horn is fully alive to the importance of this department of his work.

NEW INVENTIONS.

MESSRS. BOYLE'S NEW ECONOMICAL SYSTEM OF VENTILATION FOR WORKMEN'S HOUSES. A SYSTEM of ventilation has been introduced by Messrs. Robert Boyle & Son, Ventilating Engineers, 64 Holborn Viaduct, and Glasgow, intended for workmen's houses and

ventilation could be produced at a cost that would enable it to be applied to even the poorest houses, it would tend very considerably towards the improvement of the public health, as it is a fact well known to all medical men and sanitary officials that the pestiferous atmosphere which generally exists in the houses of the poorer classes is one of the causes of many of the diseases and fevers which perpetually haunt the more densely-populated parts of all towns. This fact, and the necessity of some economical system of ventilation, was pressed upon Messrs. Boyle's attention as far back as ten years ago by Mr. Edwin Chadwick, C. B., but they were not in a position then to act upon his suggestions. They, however, did not lose sight of the question, and only awaited the time when the public mind would be fully alive to the importance of the subject and the neces sary attention drawn to it, which would enable them to submit the system with good hopes of it being adopted. That time Messrs. Boyle believe has now arrived, and the accompanying diagram shows the arrangement they propose to apply for the purpose of securing a constant extraction of the foul air and supply of fresh air to each apartment without the slightest draught being felt by the occupants, as it is a common experience that where ventilating openings are made which admit of draughts they are at once closed up and rendered useless as ventilators.

A (see diagram) is a Boyle's patent self-acting airpump ventilator, 16-inch diameter, fixed on the ridge of the roof. This ventilator continually extracts the foul air, and is entirely free from down-draught. B, main shaft, 8-inch diameter, with divisional plate in centre to prevent the currents from the branch pipes striking each other and creating a swirl which would be injurious to the ventilation. CC, 5-inch diameter branch pipes connecting ventilator with 4-inch flues in the walls. DD, 4-inch diameter pipes connecting upper rooms to branch pipes by means of 4-inch diameter holes cut in centre of ceilings. EE, 4-inch flues in walls communicating with spaces, FF,

K

GGGG, air inlet brackets, 10" x 5" x 3", one fixed in the corner of each room furthest from opening in ceiling, and about 6 feet from the floor.

Messrs. Boyle do not submit this system with the view of deriving a profit from it. It is introduced solely and exclusively for the benefit of the working and poorer classes, and with no other object, as the following figures will, we think, conclusively demonstrate, they being, we are given to understand, the net cost of the material and time making up same, nothing being allowed for other expenses incurred, Messrs. Boyle bearing those themselves. One 16inch diameter Boyle's patent self-acting air-pump ventilator, made of galvanised iron, and painted, 1 ft. 8 in. diameter pipe, with dividing plate, 30 ft. 5 in. diameter pipe, 8 ft. 4 in. pipe. Two 5-inch junctions, two 5-inch knees, two 5-inch flanges, two 4-inch junctions, two 4-inch knees, four air inlet brackets, 10" x 5" x 3". All the above, made of strong galvanised iron, is sold at four guineas complete. A plan and printed instructions is also supplied along with each set of appliances. The system can be adapted to tenements at the same rates, every room in the largest tenement being ventilated separately. It can also be applied to existing buildings at a trifling extra expense. We think the Royal Commission on the dwellings of the poor, of which H. R.H. the Prince of Wales is so active a member, could not do better than give a little attention to this practical solution of the problem how to ensure pure air in the homes of the poor which has as yet been submitted to the public, and we hope to see others follow in the footsteps of Messrs. Robert Boyle & Son in their laudable and disinterested endeavours to improve the condition of their poorer brethren, and make their existence more bearable than it is, or ever can be, under the present conditions. Such endeavours are doing good service to the State, of which Messrs. Boyle are useful citizens.

In

RAYNER & CO.'S LIME-FRUIT SYRUP. THE business of Messrs. Rayner, Farringdon Road, the manufacturers of Rayner's Lime Juice-which is one of the best of the preparations of the lime as a syrup-is about to be formed into a company for the purpose of extending the operations of the firm; the intention of the company being to acquire lime groves of their own in the West Indies, and SO become growers of the fruit as well as manufacturers of lime juice. connection with the Lime Fruit Syrup made by this firm, a letter appeared in the columns of the British Medical Journal of June 14 last, from Dr. John Thompson, M. D., F.R.C.S., who has been a great sufferer from psoriasis. He has found Rayner's Lime Juice the best remedy for the disease of any that he has tried, and says that he now prescribes it to all his patients suffering from this distressing skin disease, and that he is satisfied that the Lime Fruit is a valuable remedy. Doubtless Rayner's Syrup is not the only one suitable for the cure of psoriasis; but this preparation has a freshness of flavour that contrasts favourably with many others, which is probably the reason why Dr. Thompson selected it in preference to other makes.

A NEW FIRE EXTINGUISHER.

MANY inventions taking the name of 'Extincteurs' and Fire Annihilators, are now manufactured, and each of them can lay claim to different merits, but while useful for public buildings, large mansions, and generally speaking, the wealthier classes, the price of them is prohibitive to small householders. What is required is a simple and reliable appliance that shall be at all times ready for use, not requiring any supervision to keep it in working order, and that can be sold at a price the working-man can afford to pay. Such an invention, of American origin, is now under consideration; and perhaps no one but an American would

have conceived the idea of making such an appliance of an ornamental character, so that it may stand upon a sideboard or bracket in a sitting-room, without attracting special notice. The Harden Star' Hand Grenade Fire Extinguisher, of the Company bearing that name, whose London address is Southwark Bridge Road, supplies the desiderata already enumerated. It is simply an ornamental opaque glass bottle hermetically sealed, containing one pint of a chemical fluid which when broken over a fire, if in not too advanced a stage, is sufficient to completely extinguish it. It may happen that one bottle will not always have this effect; that must depend upon the progress the fire has made; but from what the writer recently saw at a public exhibition of the capabilities of this Fire Extinguisher, he was astonished at what was accomplished by the contents of one bottle, and when it is pointed out that the price of this ingenious invention is only three shillings and ninepence, it may well be asked who will so neglect their own safety as to be without a fire extinguisher? A new danger is now amongst us; for whatever advantage mineral oils have provided in the shape of a cheap light-giving medium, it is none the less a fact that they are constantly productive of fires, and even loss of life. During the winter months the newspapers constantly record accidents arising from the use of mineral oil lamps which, unfortunately, are mostly confined to the homes of the working classes. Last winter a great deal of space was devoted in the SANITARY RECORD to this question, and the makers of the lower-priced kinds of lamps were asked to endeavour to introduce some contrivance by which, if a lamp was overturned, the light should be automatically extinguished. Publicity was given at that time to an invention in this direction, which there is reason to hope will be properly placed at the service of the public during the coming season. In addition to the advantages of the Star' Hand Grenade for temperate climates like our own, it is equally useful in any climate, as it withstands the changes of atmosphere to which it is likely to be subjected, is said not to deteriorate with age, and will not freeze 20° below zero. In the experiments witnessed, which took place in the open air, a wooden chimney about one foot square by 14 feet high, well coated inside with Stockholm tar, was set alight by a fire ignited in the lower part. When thoroughly in a blaze with about 4 feet of solid flame emerging from the top, one of the bottles was broken over the fire at the lower part, and in a quarter of a minute it was entirely extinguished. A small hoarding similarly coated with tar, and afterwards soused with petroleum, was also ignited and allowed to become one mass of flame. This was extinguished by the contents of one bottle in about six seconds. Extraordinary as this may appear, the probability is that had the fluid been used for a fire in a room or covered building, it would have accomplished its work in even less time, as it must be quite evident that a large portion of the gas generated must evaporate in the open, which would be retained in a closed apartment. A further advantage possessed by the fluid contained in these bottles is that fabrics of any kind are not injured by coming in contact with it, neither does it affect the flesh injuriously. Thus every safeguard appears to be provided for in the 'Star' Hand Grenade, and, with one of them always standing in the principal rooms of a house, the danger of a fire proving disastrous is likely to be reduced to a minimum.

THAT excellent organisation, the New York St. John's Guild, which has been in existence since 1866, hopes to continue its excursions this summer for the benefit of sick children. Last summer the floating hospital made thirtytwo regular excursions and twelve extra excursions, carrying 29, 189 children and mothers or guardians. The seaside nursery also did good work in keeping children for several days or a week in the country. Many children with diarrhoeal diseases had their lives saved by this

means.

REVIEWS.

Ambulance

International Health Exhibition-Handbooks. Organisation, Equipment, and Transport. By SurgeonMajor G. J. H. Evatt, M.D., Army Medical Department. London: William Clowes & Sons, Limited. 1884.

DR. EVATT has written a very excellent handbook upon a subject of great practical importance. He has understood his commission in a wide sense, and, while giving an admirable and condensed account of the military ambulance systems, and War Ambulance Aid Societies of various countries, he has not failed to devote some space to ambulance systems for civil life. For any complete system of civil ambulance relief we must look abroad, especially to the great cities of the United States, for in England we have no organisation by which help can be quickly rendered in case of accident in streets or factories, only the most rude methods of transporting the injured and sick, and nothing like a complete system of hospital relief. We may perhaps as yet regard with some natural suspicion and dislike the scheme which Dr. Evatt believes to be inevitable, namely, to make the rates responsible for all deficiencies in hospital finances, a scheme which, we apprehend, would quickly end in making hospitals municipal institutions supported entirely by the rates; but most would agree with him in believing that it would be very much better for the patients if existing hospitals were turned into receiving hospitals where only severe cases would be retained, the less severe cases and the convalescent cases being drafted off by ambulance trains to linked hospitals on well-chosen suburban sites. The account given of the Railway Ambulance and Sick Transport systems is exceedingly interesting, and the luxuries of Dr. Baron Mundy's ambulance train, the property of the Souveranen Malteser Ritter Ordens Gross-priorat von Böhmen, will be a surprise to those whose ideas of railway comfort for the sick have never risen above one side of a compartment; this train, besides the engine and guard's van, consists of a sleeping carriage for the knights and medical officers, a store-waggon, a kitchen-waggon, with every requisite for cooking on a large scale, a dining waggon, ten ambulance sick transport carriages, each carrying ten patients lying on comfortable suspended stretchers, and a magazine waggon containing the linen store, and dispensary. Such a train is of course the extreme of ambulance luxury, but Dr. Evatt carries the reader step by step from the most simple contrivances to arrange ments more and more complicated, until Baron Mundy's train ceases to be so entirely unprecedented as might seem from our description. Dr. Evatt speaks in terms of well-deserved praise of the admirable organisation of the Metropolitan Asylums Board for conveying small-pox cases to the floating hospital at Long Reach, and gives a plan and section of the ambulance steamer Red Cross, now running on the Thames. (See EXHIBITION RECORD for July 26.) We can speak in high terms of this handbook; no subject is neglected, none treated at inordinate length, and all are illustrated by helpful drawings.

THE following recipe for making rice-water will be found useful at this season. Take a dessert-spoonful of rice for each pint of water, let it boil three or four hours, strain, and flavour with lemon-juice and sugar. This drink will at once arrest such diarrhoea as proceeds from improper food or from slight internal irritation or inflammation, and is likewise sufficiently nourishing for persons suffering from such derangement in hot weather.

ACCORDING to the returns of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, the consumption of spirituous drinks per head of the population is still on the decline. In Scotland, however, the returns of duty on spirits consumed as beverage, show, on the contrary, an increase amounting last year to 212,233 gallons, or over 3 per cent. as compared with the previous year.

CORRESPONDENCE.

[All communications must bear the signature of the writer, not necessarily for publication.]

SEWAGE DISPOSAL.

I have lately read several articles in the daily and other papers with reference to the fouling of the Thames by the solid matters contained in the sewage which is discharged into it.

In the year 1878 Sir Joseph Bazalgette estimated this quantity of solid matter at 88 tons each tide, or 64,240 tons per annum. Assuming an increase to 136 tons at each tide, or 100,000 tons per annum, is the drying and disposal of this quantity such an arduous task that the Corporation of the richest city in the world should hesitate great; but nothing in comparison to the cost of conveying the whole of the sewage to the German Ocean, as well as losing 100,000 tons of such valuable material, with the certainty of its being driven back to pollute the shore.

to undertake it? No doubt the cost of works would be

The only article of value which science has hitherto succeeded in extracting from the sewage is the sludge itself, which, when unadulterated with chemicals, contains 2 per cent. of ammonia, and has an analytical value of 30s. to 35s. per ton. This analytical value can be easily converted into a commercial value, leaving an ample margin for profit even upon a small undertaking. Sewage sludge can be reduced to a dry powder, and be mixed with other ingredients and put into bags ready for the market at less than 7s. 6d. per ton.

There are several ways in which it can be treated and turned to profitable account. Either of the following processes could be carried out on the banks of the Thames, instead of saddling the ratepayers with a burden, which can never be removed if the alternative scheme of conveying the sewage to the ocean be adopted. The first process consists in adding sulphuric acid to the dried sludge, putting the mixture into an ordinary kind of purifier and then passing through it the gas generated from the distillation of ammoniacal liquor. The product will contain 40 per cent. of dry sulphate of ammonia, and at the present price of the materials used, inclusive of labour, the cost of production will be several pounds per ton less than the market value of the article produced.

In the second process, the dried sludge may be distilled to furnish the ammonia, in lieu of purchasing gas liquor; the cost in either case will not vary more than a few shillings per ton, the latter being, in all probability, the cheapest on account of the large volume of gas (nearly 5,000 cubic feet per ton) which would be generated and used for heating purposes, and other bye-products not yet ascertained.

In other words, 100,000 tons of dried sewage sludge can be so manipulated as to produce 26,000 tons of manure, analysing 10 per cent. of ammonia and 18 per cent. of re-precipitated phosphates, at a price that will leave a clear margin of several pounds per ton, to pay for depreciation, management and profit, when sold in competition with other manures of the same analytical value.

If any of your readers are at all sceptical on this point I shall be pleased to give them convincing proof of the accuracy of my assertions. JOHN HOWARD Kidd. Westminster Buildings, Wrexham.

THE COMMUNICABILITY OF ENTERIC FEVER

Though, I fear, no longer young, as it is now fourteen years since I anxiously watched the surgeon whose pupil I was, through a fatal attack of typhoid, I am in a position similar, though not identical, with that of the young doctor' alluded to by M. S. E. in the SANITARY RECORD for July 15.

I entered into a friendly discussion with our sanitary inspector on an interesting and important question. I

have always repudiated the epithet 'old fogies,' which he attempted to put into my mouth, and I do not sneer at those who happen to differ from me, as I think it wrong to enter into a serious discussion in the spirit of M. S. E.

To show with what respect I treat those who hold an opposite opinion, I cannot do better than to quote the letter I addressed to the Lancet, together with the editorial reply.

Sir, I lately saw two cases of enteric fever under treatment in the general medical ward of a large metropolitan hospital. I have always understood that, provided the excreta were immediately disinfected and removed, this practice was absolutely free from danger to the other occupants of the ward. Bristowe says: 'It is admitted by probably all physicians that enteric fever is not, in the usual sense of the term, contagious; that it is not conveyed from one person to another by the touch or by the breath; and that attendants on the sick rarely, if ever, take the disease from them.' In private practice I have always acted in accordance with this belief, and though I have placed before the friends the advisability of removal to a fever hospital, I have never urged it as a necessity. I have, however, heard that theory as to the mode of communication warmly disputed by men who have every opportunity of forming a decision. I should be glad if you would tell me what opinion is held by the majority of the profession on the subject. I have never seen any ill consequences arise from my procedure, even amongst the very poor; but I would gladly abandon it if I were convinced that it was fraught with danger. An authoritative statement would relieve me of much anxiety, as our medical officer of health holds a different opinion from mine. I am, sir, yours truly,

DILEMMA.

June 23, 1884. We should say emphatically that the majority of hospital physicians agree with Dr. Bristowe and our correspondent.-ED. L.

I am glad to see that Dr. Collie apparently agrees with me when he says:-

'And when one thinks that the infective matter of the enteric fever patient is for the most part contained in his stools; that these are passed into vessels which are immediately removed from the ward and emptied into the drains, there remains nothing to infect the non-enteric patients in a general ward.' [The italics are mine.] July 22, 1884.

X. Y. Z.

HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES.

'How best to help the slender store, How mend the dwellings of the poor?'

He

WILSON'S BUILDINGS, CITY OF LONDON.-In consequence of some remarks made by a jury when investigating the circumstances of a suicide at Wilson's Buildings, Lower Thames Street, Dr. Sedgwick Saunders has recently made a special inquiry into the condition of the houses. reports that they are a portion of an old hotel, and were purchased by the Government for the accommodation of some of the employés of the Custom House, fifty years ago. When no longer required for this purpose the dwellings were leased to a private person, upwards of thirty years ago, and had been let in tenements ever since. There are nineteen tenements in the block, in holdings of five of three, nine of two, and five of one room respectively, in all thirty-eight rooms, occupied by persons varying in number from fifty to sixty; the rooms are of fair size, and as a rule are, and have been, kept fairly clean. The owner is a respectable solicitor, who holds possession from the Crown, and who, Dr. Saunders reports, has never failed to fulfil the requirements of cleansing and repairing for which the sanitary department has, from time to time, served official notices. The buildings are principally built of wood and plaster, the back walls only being of brick. They comprise four tiers of apartments, approached by one

Four tenements

very steep, narrow wooden staircase. only have back or through ventilation, and although the cubic contents per person of the whole of them are not far below the necessary limit, the back rooms are devoid of light, and so entirely without ventilation, that Dr. Saunders thinks them unfit for human habitation. He advises that the case should be referred to the Sanitary Committee for them to view the premises and determine what further steps should be taken either to render them fit for healthy dwellings, or to insist on such structural alterations as may be recommended. - -The new town, for such it deserves to be considered, which the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company are erecting in Soho is now rapidly approaching completion; so large a portion indeed is already prepared to receive its future inhabitants that the twenty-first anniversary of the society's foundation was recently celebrated by an opening ceremony, at which the Prince and Princess of Wales presided. The precise spot is that which was very lately known as Newport Market, together with Porter Street and adjacent courts and alleys-the whole closely abutting on the line of the projected new street from Charing Cross to Oxford Street. The company acquired the land on which Sandringham Buildings stands from the Board of Works last September, since which time their official surveyor, Mr. Borer, and his foreman, Mr. Hickie, have been busily engaged in directing the operations of an army of workmen. The blocks of buildings, including the shops, will provide altogether about 1,000 rooms apportioned in separate tenements of two, three, and four apartments, the three-roomed holdings being found to be in most request, as being best suited, if not to the wants, at least to the means of the classes for whom they are intended. Although as yet only 124 sets in Sandringham Buildings are completed, Mr. J. Moore, the secretary, has already had 400 applications for them; while others are coming in at the rate of forty or fifty a day. Each set, not excepting the two-roomed tenements, is absolutely complete in itself, and provided with an outer door, neatly painted and Between this grained, with a knocker and letter-box. and the inner door is a useful space, in which is a little washhouse, with sink, cupboards, and sanitary conveniences, including a very ingenious dustshoot, which compels the inmate to burn vegetable refuse, paper, and so forth, instead of hoarding it up to breed fever, and this for the simple reason that only dust and fine ashes will go down. Inside, the apartments are prettily papered. Each kitchen has a copper and a kitchen range, and it is an invariable rule that no room shall be without one of the fireplaces, with their really artistic little sides and chimneypieces, which the association manufacture for the purpose. The windows are each divided into three sashes, instead of the ordinary two, the short lower division being fixed for the safety of little children. Over every door, moreover, is a swinging fanlight, so that draught is maintained at the ceiling level 8 feet 6 inches from the ground throughout every tenement. It would not be easy to give an intelligible description of the double current atmospheric system of ventilation of the closets; it is important, however, to note that every pipe throughout the blocks connected with the sewers is carried some distance

above the roofs and open. The success of the horizontal system' of ventilation in the rooms is sufficiently attested by the fact that in no one of these vast buildings have the company ever known a case of infectious disease being communicated from floor to floor. From the health point of view it is an important fact that, precious as space is, no less than half an acre is set apart for playgrounds, not to speak of nearly a quarter of an acre more in the shape of odd bits, which are distinct additions to the breathing spaces. The company give preference to families that have been displaced by the pulling down of houses in the neighbourhood. The height of the blocks is 62 feet. All staircases are of a fireproof material, formed of consolidated coke-breeze and Portland cement, manufactured-like nearly all other materials used-by the company itself.