and geographical reasons, neither a sewage farm nor even a filter ground can be obtained, or it may be that the isolation of the houses renders the cost of sewer-construction out of all proportion to the benefits received. Still there is the same proportional amount of excrement to be collected and slop water to be disposed of. In these cases the dry-systems come in as friends in need. All that is required with the closets is uniformity, get-at-ability, and systematic once a week, and the sooner the material collected is disposed of the better in every sense. There yet remains the slop-water, and this must be dealt with either locally or in combination. When there is ground attached to a house no difficulty need be experienced. On this point Dr. Cornelius Fox's little book on slop disposal may, with advantage, be consulted. collection. The collection should be made at least It must be remembered that the slop or sewage water made by a household is on the average no very formidable amount, and that when it cannot be utilised it may be collected in an iron cesspit or cesspits and disposed of by application to land. The great difficulty connected with sewage is the admixture of storm water. Keep this out and a little administrative ability only is required, and the sewage difficulty vanishes. It is quite possible, if not easy, to be healthy and cleanly, either with or without sewers; only thoroughness must be the motto whatever system of conservancy is adopted. Moreover some trouble and expense, both continuous, will be entailed whatever system be adopted. This is a tax and a natural consequence of the requirements and necessities arising out of civilisation. THE SANITARY RECORD. FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1877. The Editor will be glad to receive, with a view to publication, announcements of meetings, reports of proceedings, and abstracts or originals of papers read before the members of any sanitary or kindred association. THE FACTORIES ACTS CONSOLIDA- IN the present position of business in Parliament it is hardly safe to predict what bills will pass and what will not pass, but a measure introduced by the Home Secretary to consolidate and amend the Acts relating to factories and workshops is one of such extensive importance that it would be a great pity for it to be delayed a single month, much less a whole session, longer than was necessary. We have more than once in these columns dwelt upon the evils of having a single branch of statute law scattered over a great number of Acts, and when we mention that Mr. Cross's Factories Bill repeals sixteen Acts of various dates and replaces them by one, it will be obvious how greatly will the convenience of those concerned in working the Factory Acts be promoted. The bill consists of 100 clauses and several pages of schedules, and occupies altogether fifty-eight pages of print. It is subdivided into four parts each, with several subdivisions. Part I. lays down the general law relating to factories and workshops, and Subdivision I thereof is headed 'Sanitary Provisions.' Every factory and workshop is to be kept in a cleanly state, and free from effluvia arising from any drain, privy, or other nuisance. A factory or workshop is not to be so overcrowded while work is carried on as to be injurious to the health of those employed therein, and it is to be ventilated in such a manner as to render harmless, so far as is practicable, all gases, vapours, dust, or other impurities generated in the course of the manufacturing process carried on therein, which products are likely to be injurious to health. There is what we may call an important medical provision in the bill. Where it appears to a factory inspector that any act, neglect, or default, in relation to any drain, water-closet, earth-closet, privy, ash-pit, water-supply, nuisance or other matter in any factory or workshop is punishable or remediable under the law relating to public health, but not under the Factory Act, the factory inspector shall give written notice of the default to the sanitary authority in whose district the factory or workshop complained of is situate. It is to be the duty of the sanitary authority to make such inquiry into the complaint, and to take such action thereon as that authority may deem proper for the purpose of enforcing the Public Health Law. It is further provided that a factory inspector may for the purpose of this section, take with him into a factory or workshop, a medical officer of health, an inspector of nuisances or any other officer of the sanitary authority. Part II. is entitled ' Special Provisions Relating to Particular Classes of Factories and Workshops.' This part also opens with a subdivision containing special provisions for health. Clause 31 enacts that for the purpose of securing the observance of the requirements of the Act as to cleanliness in any factory or workshop, and all the inside walls of the rooms thereof, all the ceilings, or tops of such rooms, whether such walls, ceilings, or tops be plastered or not, and all the passages and staircases of every such factory or workshop, if they have not been painted with oil once at least within seven years shall be limewashed once at least within every successive period of fourteen months, dating from the period when last lime-washed; and if they have been so painted shall be washed with hot water and soap once at least within every successive period of fourteen months. The Secretary of State may, for sufficient reasons, dispense with the requirements of this section. Clauses 32-3 re-enact the provisions of the Bakehouse Act 1863,' which Act is to be repealed by the new Factories Act. By Clause 34, where any grinding, glazing, or polishing on a wheel or any process is carried on by which dust is generated and inhaled by the workers to an injurious extent, and it appears to a Factory Inspector that such exhalation could be to a great extent prevented by the use of a fan or other mechanical means, the inspector may require such a remedy to be provided within a reasonable time. The foregoing provisions are all those which in a strict sense have reference to public health or medical matters, and it seems hardly necessary for us to extend our review of the contents of the bill, the Factory Acts as such being more or less familiar to the public, and there being no very important new features in Mr. Cross's measure. All we need say, therefore, in conclusion, is that we hope nothing will prevent it becoming law this session. THE SANITARY COLLAPSE. IT is self-evident that, so far as the present Government is concerned, we have heard the last of Sanitas sanitatum, omnia sanitas. Their much-vaunted health policy is utterly abandoned, and what at the best was but much cry and little wool has now ceased even to be a cry. In no single feature or respect has state or preventive medicine been advanced since Lord Beaconsfield's memorable Glasgow speech. Some may point to the Public Health Act of 1875, and the Rivers Pollution Bill of last session, as at least partial fulfilment of the Premier's pledge. The 1875 Act is merely a consolidating Act very badly strung together, and the Pollution of Rivers Bill is rightly named, for it is not only thoroughly retrograde, but actually legalises pollution, and hampers prevention in a hundred ways. It ought in all fairness to be printed on red tape. And here it should be noted that the great majority of the drainage works executed by sanitary authorities during the past five years discharge directly into rivers and water-courses without the slightest attempt at purification. A return of all new drains or sewers, or additions to existing drains or sewers, and the locality and nature of their outfalls, would furnish a curious commentary on the Rivers Pollution Bill. Perhaps some member will be bold enough to ask for such information? We had well nigh forgotten to include the Adulteration Bill on the credit side of the Government, but while this bill is not regarded in the most favourable light, it is a dead letter in many parts of England. In some cases no analysts have been appointed; in others analysts have been appointed, but the fees have been fixed at a prohibitory figure, and the inspectors have not been instructed to procure and submit samples for analysis. The Adulteration Act was intended to protect the poor especially, but of what use is a public analyst to a poor person if a fee of 7s. 6d. has to be paid with each sample submitted? Here again we suggest that some inde pendent member of Parliament should move for a return (1) of the places in which no analysts have as yet been appointed; (2) of the number of analyses performed by each analyst, when such have been appointed, since their appointment; and (3) the fees payable in the various districts. It will be found that in a large majority of cases the appointment has been worthless so far as results are concerned; the Act has been a farce, and the utmost diversity rules with regard to fees and salaries. Common sense would say that at least the fees should be alike throughout all England, and also that the fee should be as low as practicable. When the fee is fixed at a high figure it is obvious that it is so fixed to prevent applications to the analyst. In all such cases inspectors should be directed, as the Act itself contemplates, to obtain and submit samples to the analyst. It is, however, in the Health Department of the Local Government Board that the collapse has been the most complete. By collapse is meant collapse of professed intention. When the Government came into power the Health Department was in a disorganised state; in fact, it had never been organised, but confusion was made worse confounded by placing all the medical officers of health in the kingdom directly under the control of the lay officials. The medical side or department was entirely ignored, and in no way whatever was any communi cation established between Mr. Simon and his staff and the newly established army of health officers and inspectors. All the returns and communications made by the medical officers of health were, and are, handed to the district poor-law inspectors, and by them read or pigeon-holed as the case may be. This cannot but be galling to the medical officers of health, especially when the antecedents of some of these inspectors are remembered. We refer, of course, only to antecedents so far as they relate to sanitary and similar scientific or technical experience. Another feature of this collapse is the neglect, on the part of the Government, to avail themselves of the power of enforcing combination amongst sanitary authorities. Now and then combination is urged, but in the majority of cases it is hardly ever recommended, and the result is that money is wasted and efficiency weakened. Administrative sanitary reform, even under existing Acts, is not only possible but simple in the extreme. Such reform would be economical, and that alone would render it palatable to the ratepayer, and it would increase efficiency, and that should render it attractive to all sound sanitarians. In the first place the Health Department of the Local Government Board should be a department to itself, and not as now a very subdepartment of the Poor Law. Secondly, either combination amongst sanitary authorities should be made the rule, and the appointments be, as the 1875 Act really directs, during good behaviour, or combination should be entirely disregarded in favour of local appointments. In this case, again, as the Public Health Act permits, the inspectors for health purposes employed by the Local Government Board should be medical inspectors. In either case the medical officer of health to a combined district, or the medical inspector over a non-combined set of subdistricts, should be responsible for and perform all matters relating to health supervision. At present there may be three medical officials at work in the selfsame district, when one would suffice, viz. the medical officer of health, the vaccination inspector, and another medical official holding or making a special inquiry. Thus often three salaries and three sets of travelling expenses may be incurred where one would suffice. In the short space at our command it is of course impossible to enter into minute detail, but we hope we have advanced enough to show the necessity for inquiry to be made into the disorganised and unsatisfactory state of the Health Department of the Local Government Board. THE GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN IRELAND. IN the SANITARY RECORD of March 24, we called attention to the defects in the Public Health (Ireland) Bill, and on May 11 gave extracts from the report of the Commissions on Local Government and Taxation of Towns in Ireland, showing that the sanitary administration had broken down almost everywhere. It is quite manifest that the bill now before Parliament will not in any way alter the system of administration, improve the position of the officers, or provide supervision. With a view of bringing these administrative defects under the notice of the Irish Government, a deputation from the Irish Medical Association, consisting of Dr. Jacob, chairman; Dr. Grimshaw, secretary of the council of the association, with Dr. Speedy, waited on Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, at the Conference Room of the House of Commons on Thursday 17th ult., at 5 o'clock. The deputation was introduced by the Hon. David Plunket, M.P. for the University of Dublin, and was accompanied by Drs. Playfair, Cameron, Lush, and Brady, and Messrs. Bruen, Beresford, Butt, Gore Hunt, Hamilton, Delahunty, Collins, Brooks, Mitchell Henry, and S. Moore, members of Parliament. Dr. Hudson, crown representative for Ireland; Dr. M'Namara, representative of the Irish College of Surgeons on the General Medical Council; together with Dr. A. P. Stewart, secretary of the joint committee on state medicine of the British Medical and Social Science Associations also attended. Drs. Grimshaw and M'Namara announced that the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in Ireland had made representations to Government similar to those which it was the function of the deputation to put before Sir Michael, and that therefore the two great medical corporations of Ireland were quite in accord with the deputation. Dr. Jacob, chairman of the council of the Irish Medical Association, addressed Sir Michael, and after telling the well-known tale of how the present unsatisfactory state of things had come into existence, proved in a conclusive manner by quotations from the report of the Commissioners on Local Government and Taxation in Ireland (from which we gave an extract on the 11th ult.) that the present system was not working in the town districts of Ireland, and from the petition signed by 626 of the 803 medical officers employed in the service, that the officers were disunsatisfactory state of things was owing chiefly to want of satisfied with their position. Dr. Jacob showed that this supervision by the central authority, and also in a great measure to the present position and pay of the medical officers. Dr. Jacob then suggested the remedies which are obvious to sanitarians. We have (on March 24) put before our readers all the points touched upon by Dr. Jacob in his able address. Dr. Grimshaw followed Dr. Jacob, and quoted from the report of the Irish Local Treasury to Sir Michael, and stated his (Dr. Grimshaw's) Government Board for 1874 a letter addressed by the opinion that the Irish board had not followed out the intentions of the Lords of the Treasury, who had specifically stated that the board should take into consideration the proportion of the medical officer's 'new salary to his new duties.' Dr. Speedy then gave examples from his own experience as an officer under the Act, of the unsatisfactory and unjust working of the present system. Sir Michael, in reply, admitted that the deputation had made out a good case, and stated that the scale of salaries fixed at the time the Act came into force, was tentative' and that his 'opinion had been much influenced by the report of the commissioners,' quoted by Dr. Jacob. He promised his favourable consideration of all the points raised, and expressed a hope that the defects would be remedied, subject to the co-operation of his colleagues and the Treasury. It is unnecessary again to impress upon our readers the truth of the above statements, which have been constantly illustrated in our columns, but we would urge upon Sir M. Beach that it is time for him to use his position as head of the Executive Government in Ireland, to put a stop to the wretched administration of the Irish Local Government Board. No one looks upon Sir Michael as a bonâ fide member of the Irish Board, but all do look to him to act the part of the well-educated sanitarian which he is known to be. It must be still within the recollection of many of our readers that so long ago as May 22, 1868, the Duke of Marlborough, when Lord President of the Council, when addressing a deputation from the British Medical and Social Science Associations, admitted the necessity for the improvements which have persistently been pressed upon every Minister since that date, and have now again been brought under the notice of the Government by the Irish Medical Association. The then President of the Council is now Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and his Chief Secretary acted as a member of the Committee from which the deputation emanated in 1868. We call upon the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and his Chief Secretary to act up to their opinions, disregard the red tape of the Dublin Office, and give to Ireland a workable system of sanitary legislation and organisation. PLANS submitted by Mr. J. L. Stothert (of the firm of Stothert and Pitt) for the irrigation and disposal of the Bedminster Workhouse sewage, have been adopted by the Board of Guardians. Notes of the Week. THE Vestry of Chelsea unanimously resolved on the 22nd ult. to reconstruct the sewers in the streets, as recommended by Mr. G. H. Stayton, C. E., their surveyor, and to apply to the Metropolitan Board of Works for a loan of 10,000l. for the execution of the works. AN inquest at Liverpool on the body of a man who died after having had some of his blood transfused to another person, has resulted in a verdict of death by misadventure,' to which was added an expression of opinion by the jury that sufficient inquiry had not been made by the medical men who performed the operation as to the deceased's habits and physical condition, and that he had not been sufficiently cautioned as to the risk he ran. AN ANALYST FOR BATH. WE are glad to hear that the citizens of Bath are at length deriving benefit from the Act for the prevention of adulteration. The appointment of Mr. Gatehouse as public analyst having been ratified by the Local Government Board, the sanitary committee of the council has not been inactive. During the past month some twenty samples have been tested by the public analyst, and it is satisfactory to learn that the majority of the articles were found pure. PROPOSED SUPPLY OF SEA-WATER TO MR. J. FULTON, the borough engineer of Newcastleon-Tyne, has reported to the sanitary committee of the Town Council in favour of the provision of a supply of sea-water to the town. He says: 'I feel quite satisfied that if we had pure sea-water instead of fresh water for street-watering purposes, we could save at least half the labour and cartages, as well as the fresh water at present used in such portions of the town as salt water could be made available in.' Mr. Fulton enters into details to show that the scheme is thoroughly feasible. THE BOARDING-OUT OF PAUPER CHILDREN. A MOST gratifying report was submitted at a recent meeting of the Glasgow City Parochial Board regarding the results of the boarding-out system. Baillie Thomson announced that there are fully 340 children on the roll, amongst whom not a single death has occurred during the past nine months, and so satisfactory has the moral and family training of the little boarders been in the past that it has been found scarcely one of them come back to the board as paupers after they have been given a fair start in life. HYDROPHOBIA. A RETURN has just been presented to Parliament giving the number of deaths from hydrophobia which have occurred in England and Wales during the ten years from 1866 to 1876, as respectively-36, 10, 7, 18, 32, 56, 39, 28, 61, 47-total, 334. In Scotland there were no deaths from hydrophobia in 1867, 1868, 1869, 1871, or 1872, but in 1870 there was one in Forfar. With regard to 1871 the return says, 'Four deaths, of which three occurred in Lanarkshire (Glasgow), and one in Kincardineshire, were placed in the Registrar-General's detailed report under the heading "Hydrophobia.' On examination of the returns, it has, however, been ascertained that three of these deaths were due to glanders, and the fourth to farcy.' Under the years 1873, 1874, and 1875 appears the following note: In these three years, so far as can be at present ascertained, no death from hydrophobia occurred, but the returns applicable to the whole country have not been yet thoroughly completed for these years.' DRURY LANE GARDEN. THE Churchwardens of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (Messrs. Chambers, Eames, and Meyer) reopened this garden to the public on the 10th inst. It will remain open to the poor, under a new code of regulations, daily from 10 till dusk. This is the garden referred to in Miss Octavia Hill's article on Open Spaces' (SANITARY RECORD, May 18). FLOWERS FOR HOSPITALS. MR. HEINTZ has sent from his conservatory at Bootle six dozen pots of plants of various sorts, comprising roses, fuchsias, geraniums, musks, etc., with the request that they might be accepted for the use of the medical and surgical wards of the workhouse belonging to the West Derby (Liverpool) district hospital. They were appreciated by the poor inmates, and were therefore very acceptable. Acts of this description show a kindly and refined appreciation of our duties towards our poorer fellow-citizens, and are no less useful than donations of a more material description, since 'man liveth not by bread alone.' IMPORTATION OF DEAD MEAT. THIS subject was incidentally touched upon at the last annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society. Expressing his satisfaction at the manner in which the council had dealt with the cattle plague, Mr. J. K. Fowler remarked that he thought the introduction of dead meat into the metropolitan markets was beginning to enable the public to understand the question. Cattle might be slaughtered at Harwich, Southampton, Hull, Deptford, and other ports of debarkation, and contracts had been entered into for the supply, during the next six months, of 50,000 sheep and 3,000 or 4,000 oxen, in carcase, direct from the slaughter-houses of Vienna. The meat would be brought over in from 54 to 60 hours. He contended that there was absolutely no necessity for bringing live animals from abroad, with the risk of their spreading infection amongst the flocks and herds of this country. Colonel Kingscote, M. P., in adding a few remarks on the subject, expressed his opinion that foreign cattle should be slaughtered at the port of lading, not of landing. THE LEIPZIC ANALYTICAL BUREAU. IN 1875 the Leipzic Pharmaceutical Society founded a bureau for the analysis of articles of food, and for hygienic purposes generally. Its sphere of useful action has gradually increased, and the following are now declared to be the objects it holds in view :-I. The analysis of articles of food for detection of adulteration, more especially of adulteration by addition of deleterious substance. Special attention is given to the investigation of beer, bread, butter, spices, meal, milk, water, wine, and similar articles. 2. The analysis of articles of daily use for detection of injurious substances present in them. Under this heading are included dyes and colours, clothing materials, carpets, wall papers, etc. 3. Analysis of substances used in agriculture, with a view to the determination of their value, as feeding-stuffs, manures, etc. 4. Analysis of substances used in arts, manufactures, and trades generally, for determination of their composition and market value. Besides this the bureau undertakes the special investigations of hygienic questions generally, and the thorough study of various methods of disinfection, as applied to dwellings, clothing, house refuse, and similar chemical and physiological problems of the day. The systematic and exhaustive plan of this bureau is worthy of consideration and imitation. DR. THURSFIELD ON HARD WATER. In his last report on the health of the borough of Shrewsbury Dr. Thursfield remarks:-'There are moreover other results of contaminated waters from certain strata, which, because their extreme results are only developed at rare intervals, are overlooked altogether. I allude to "calculous disease," or stone, and it is safe to assume that for every case in which this malady is induced by drinking water there are some hundred cases in which from constitutional predisposition, more or less suffering and ill health result. I am not justified in saying that calculous disease is common in Shrewsbury, but I believe that some of the less prominent constitutional results of contaminated hard water are not uncommon. In an investigation which I have been engaged upon for some time to ascertain the connection between local conditions and calculous disease and stone in the bladder in some limited areas of my district, where such disease is and has been very common for ages, I have found the constant presence in water of that species of excessive hardness, which over and above the natural hardness of the water of a locality, is the direct result of the water having passed through a contaminated subsoil. This is just the condition of the Shrewsbury well water; it is very hard from this cause, often between thirty and forty degrees, and sometimes as high as seventy degrees and even more.' HALIBUT AS A FOOD. THIS fish (Hippoglossus Americanus, Gill), which abounds in the waters of the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Cape Hatteras, is highly valued as food in certain parts of the United States. The flesh is of a fine white colour, is delicate and tender, and resembles that of the whiting (Merlangus vulgaris), to which the halibut is allied. Chittenden has recently (American Journal of Science, 1877, xiii. 123) analysed the fresh flesh of this fish, and below are given his results, side by side with the result of Payen's examination of the fresh flesh of the whiting: tages.' In the SANITARY RECORD of May 4, we called attention to sanitary defects of sewerage and watersupply at Bromley, Kent, as the probable cause of the recent epidemic of diphtheria in that neighbourhood. The records of the Brentford and of the Histon and Isleworth local boards conclusively prove that the cesspool nuisance in its worst forms, in conjunction with a watersupply derived from polluted surface wells, also exists in this part of the Outer Ring. At a recent meeting of the local board of Histon and Isleworth (Hounslow), Dr. Bullock, the medical officer of health, reported that he had analysed about a hundred samples of the water used in the district, and only two samples proved to be harmless waters. Dr. Bullock urged that the time had now arrived when the board should consider the propriety of establishing a pure water-supply, and notice was given that at an approaching meeting a member would move that the whole board should form a sanitary committee for the purpose of considering the question of water-supply. The Rev. R. Price, in a recent local lecture on the 'Simple Laws of Health,' declared that Hounslow ought to have been drained twenty years ago, and it is to be hoped that this sanitary want will soon be supplied; the want of pure water is one, however, of still more urgent necessity. The most dangerous evil arising from the cesspool system will have been removed, when a supply of pure water shall have been substituted for that drawn from the polluted surface wells. Special Reports. THE COFFEE TAVERNS COMPANY. ON the 15th ult., the Right Hon. W. CowperTemple, M.P., presided at the opening of the Glass House Tavern, 344, Edgware Road, the first of a number of temperance taverns which the 'Coffee Tavern Company' hope to be able to establish in various parts of the metropolis. The object of the company is to open clean and bright-looking buildings for the sale of all refreshment that is not of an intoxicating nature. Tea, coffee, lemonade, and all temperance beverages are to be sold; a smokingroom is provided, where the games of chess or dominoes can be played; there is a kitchen, where a working man who brings his own dinner can have it cooked or warmed up for him; and, in addition, there is a bright, clean parlour, the privilege to enter which is obtained by paying double for all refreshments. The company hope, by means of these attractions, and by an exceedingly reasonable tariff-a small cup of coffee or cocoa, for instance, can be obtained for a halfpenny -to gradually wean the well-intentioned of the working classes from the public-house, and so to make a step towards the mitigation of the now widely increasing evils of intemperance. A number of ladies and gentlemen interested in the movement having assembled, the doors were thrown open, and Cowper-Temple and Canon Duckworth having ada number of the general public admitted, and Mr. dressed a few words to those assembled, explanatory of the objects of the 'tavern,' and expressive of their belief that if it succeeded the movement would do an immense amount of good, the building was formally declared open. Since the opening of this coffee tavern it has been continuously crowded with customers eager to avail themselves of the accommodation provided. After the inauguration the house was immediately crowded with the people of the neighbourhood, and next morning, at 5 o'clock, when it was opened to supply |