mediately adjoining a rural district to be included in such last-mentioned district; and thereupon the included area shall, for the purposes of the Public Health Act, be deemed to form part of the district in which it is included in such order; and the remaining part (if any) of such Local Government district or rural district affected by such order, shall continue subject to the like jurisdiction as it would have been subject to if such order had not been made unless and until the Local Government Board by provisional order otherwise directs.

2. In the case of a borough comprising within its area the whole of an Improvement Act district, or having an area coextensive with such district, the Local Government Board, by provisional order, may dissolve such district, and transfer to the council of the borough all or any of the jurisdiction and powers of the Improvement Commissioners of such district remaining vested in them at the time of the passing of the Public Health Act. 3. The Local Government Board may by order dissolve any special drainage district constituted either before or after the passing of the Public Health Act, in which a loan for the execution of works has not been raised, and merge it into the parish or parishes in which it is situated; but in the cases where a loan has been raised, the Local Government Board can only do this by provisional order. -(P. H., s. 270.)

Disputes with regard to the boundaries of districts are to be settled by the Local Government Board after local inquiry.(P. H., s. 278.)

Where districts also are constituted for the purposes of main sewerage only, in pursuance of the Public Health Act, 1848, or where a district has been formed subject to the jurisdiction of a joint'sewerage board, in pursuance of the Sewage Utilisation Act, 1867, such districts or district may be dissolved by provisional order, and the Local Government Board may constitute it a united district subject to the jurisdiction of a joint board. (P. H., s. 323.)

For expenses of joint board, see EXPENSES. The Local Government Board may also declare by provisional order any rural district to be a Local Government district. See LOCAL BOARDS.

The Local Government Board has also the important power of investing a rural authority with urban powers, as follows:

"The Local Government Board may, on the application of the authority of any rural district, or of persons rated to the relief of the poor, the assessment of whose hereditaments amounts at the least to one-tenth of

| the net rateable value of such district, or of any contributory place therein, by order, to be published in the 'London Gazette' or in such other manner as the Local Government Board may direct, declare any provisions of this Act in force in urban districts to be in force in such rural district or contributory place, and may invest such authority with all or any of the powers, rights, duties, capacities, liabilities, and obligations of an urban authority under this Act, and such investment may be made either unconditionally or subject to any conditions to be specified by the board as to the time, portion of its district, or manner during, at, and in which such powers, rights, duties, liabilities, capacities, and obligations are to be exercised and attach: provided that an order of the Local Government Board made on the application of one-tenth of the persons rated to the relief of the poor in any contributory place shall not invest the rural authority with any new powers beyond the limits of such contributory place.”—(P. H., s. 276.)

Powers and Duties of Sanitary Authorities. -In England, urban sanitary authorities have very extensive powers and duties under the Public Health Act, 1875; and in addition, they have to carry out the Bakehouse Regulation Act, and the Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act.

They also have power to adopt the Baths and Wash-houses Acts, and the Labouring Classes' Lodging-Houses Acts; but where adopted or in force, the powers, rights, duties, &c., of these Acts belong to the urban authority. The powers of any local Act for sanitary purposes (except a River Conservancy Act) are transferred to the urban authority.

The powers of an English rural authority are exercised principally under the Public Health Act, but they have also to carry out the Bakehouse Regulation Act.

The powers given by the Irish Public Health Act to Irish sanitary authorities are similar. The Local Government Act is not in force there, and equal powers are given without distinction to urban and rural sanitary authorities.

The duties of sanitary authorities are to carry out the Acts which apply to them, and appoint certain officers, such as medical officers of health, inspectors of nuisances, clerk, treasurer, &c.

Speaking generally, all sanitary authorities have ample powers for health purposes. They can carry out, and it is their duty to do so, works of drainage, sewerage, and water-supply. In towns they have the control of the streets and houses, both private and public; in all places they have ample powers to re

odoriferous principle. He also detected in some specimens lime, potash, and salt. It is highly probable that the fibrine undergoes slow changes perfectly analogous to that of the caseine in cheese, so admirably investi

gated by Blondeau, and detailed in the article

on cheese. See CHEESE.

The composition of adipocere is not constant, and it is liable to vary according to the nature of the medium to which the body has been exposed.

Neither pure fat nor pure fibrine, when kept apart, will become saponified; for the formation of adipocere it is indispensable that the animal fat should be in contact with substances containing nitrogen.

Every part of the body may undergo this transformation, and when the change is complete the body maintains its condition for many years. This process takes place most readily-(1.) In the bodies of young persons, the fat being chiefly external and very abundant. (2.) In those adults whose bodies abound in fat. (3.) In bodies exposed to the soil of water-closets. (4.) In those immersed in water, but somewhat less rapidly in stagnant than in running water. (5.) Readily in humid and fatty soils, especially in graveyards, where numerous bodies have been piled in contact with each other, those situated at the lowest level becoming soonest saponified. -(TAYLOR.) The period required for saponification varies greatly. A body floating in water has been found converted into this adipocerous state in a little more than five weeks, but four or five years may elapse before the process is completed, all depending on the conditions under which the body is placed.

Sardines-The pilchard (Clupea pilchardis) is the sardine of commerce.

The fish are preserved in oil in hermeticallysealed tin boxes. The process is conducted on a large scale on the coast of Brittany. The fish are first washed in sea-water, then their heads are taken off and the intestines removed; they are then again washed, dried, and next immersed for a brief period in boiling oil; and lastly placed in tin boxes, which are exposed to a steam heat, and hermetically sealed. Sardines are characterised by fatty matter incorporated with the flesh, and are consequently highly nutritious.

Sprats and other small fish are frequently substituted for or mixed with sardines.

Sauerkraut -The leaves of white cabbages, deprived of their stalk and midrib, cut into small pieces, and packed in a tub or vat in alternate layers of salt. They are then pressed and allowed to remain until lactic fermentation is set up and the mass becomes

sour. Sauerkraut is used by the Germans and other northern nations of Europe extensively, instead of fresh vegetables, in winter.

on

Sausages-Diseased and unwholesome employed for the manufacture of sausages; meat is frequently, especially in large towns, and quantities of putrid and diseased pork, beef, &c., are weekly seized in London" all, for many of the more enterprising of the the way to the sausage-maker." Nor is this manufacturers add horse-flesh, which practice cannot be too strongly condemned; although it must be allowed that good healthy horseflesh is certainly preferable to diseased pork or decomposed beef.

health of Newton Heath, near Manchester, in Mr. Richardson, officer of the local board of mittee of Adulteration, said: "We have in his evidence some years ago before the ComNewton five knackers' yards, and there is only have so much toleration in Newton; and it one in Manchester. The reason is, that they has been a source of great profit to them, because they have the selling of the best portions of the horse-flesh to mix with potted meats. particularly, and the best portions (such as I can say for a fact that the tongues of horses the hind quarters of horses), are generally sold to mix with collared brawn-or pigs' heads, as they are called with us-and for sausages and

polonies. I understand also, from those who horse-flesh materially assists the making of have been in the habit of making them, that sausages; it is a hard fibrine, and it mixes better, and it keeps them hard, and they last

longer in the shop window before they are

sold, because otherwise the sausages run to

water and become soft and pulpy. I believe horse-flesh also materially assists German sausages; it keeps them hard."

Sausages bought in large towns in the usual way can never be depended upon, and it is surprising, considering the cheapness of sausage. making machines, and the ease with which they can be prepared, that such articles are not more generally manufactured at home.

Sausages, and more particularly the large sausages of Germany, frequently become poisonous from the development of a peculiar substance, the nature of which is at present unknown. Many believe it to be a rancid fatty acid produced during decomposition of the meat; others, that acrid pyrogenous acids are produced during the drying and smoking of the sausages; and some, again, that a poisonous organic alkaloid is developed during the decay of these articles.* Liebig ascribes the effects to an animal ferment; and M. Vanden Corput, one of the latest observers,

*This is not improbable, see note, p. 365.

Dr. Taylor, however, carefully examined a slice of a sausage which had caused the death of a child, and did not detect a poisonous principle of any kind; but he does not state whether fungi were looked for.-(Principles of Jurisprudence, vol. i. p. 341.)

With regard to the symptoms of sausagepoisoning, in sixty-six cases which occurred at Kingsland (British and Foreign Medical Review, January 1860, p. 197), the symptoms were those of a narcotic irritant poison. One man died comatose, but the post-mortem inspection only showed inflammation of the lower end of the small intestine and distention of the gall-bladder. Nothing of a poisonous nature could be discovered in the food or the body.

The disease in question has been more often observed in Germany than in England. Four hundred cases of sausage-poisoning are stated to have occurred in Wurtemburg alone during the last fifty years, and of these 150 have

been fatal.

A writer in a popular journal, speaking on sausages, recently affirmed that in London the best sausages were obtained from shops the proprietors of which did not object to selling to their customers sausage-meat; and that sausages obtained from those places where a request for a small quantity of such meat was met with a refusal were invariably bad.

A pea sausage was largely used by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian war. It was made by mixing pea-flour and fat pork with a little salt; and contained in 100 parts, 16-2 of water, 7.19 of salts, 12:297 of albuminates, 3365 of fat, and 30 663 of carbo-hydrates. It is ready cooked, but can be made into a soup.

Savin-The fresh and dried tops of Juniperus Sabina, collected in spring from plants cultivated in Britain. These tops owe their activity to the volatile oil (C10H16), specific gravity, 915; besides which, a resin, gallic acid, and the ordinary ingredients of young tops are present. The fresh tops consist of the young branches enveloped in minute imbricated appressed leaves, in four rows of a dark green colour, strong and peculiar disagreeable odour and taste. The tops can be detected when in coarse powder by means of

This substance is used as a popular abortive, and has on several occasions proved fatal. It acts by producing violent pain in the abdomen, vomiting, and strangury. After death the gullet, stomach, and intestines, with the kidneys, have been found much inflamed or congested. It acts as an abortive by giving a violent shock to the system, under which the uterus may expel its contents. The means relied upon for the detection of savin are the odour evolved when the powder is distilled or boiled with water, and the microscopic characters.

Scammony-The gum resin emitted from the cut root of Convolvulus Scammonia (Linn.), or Aleppo scammony plant. It occurs in masses irregular in shape and size, of a blackish-green colour, covered with a fine powder, porous, brittle, with a shining frac ture. It is easily triturated, and forms an emulsion with water. It has a musty odour, and makes a lather when rubbed on the surface with water. The taste is nauseous and acrid after a few minutes. Hydrochloric acid dropped upon it emits no bubbles, nor does the powder digested in water at a heat of 170° F. become blue when iodide of potash and dilute nitric acid are simultaneously added. Out of 100 grains, 78 should be soluble in ether. The tincture of pure scammony is not turned green by nitric acid.

Scammony consists chiefly of a resin, some times in the form of a glucoside, sometimes in part as a resinous acid; the latter is soluble in ammonia. Scammony resin is soluble in alcohol and ether, but precipitated from its solution on the addition of water.

With water or saliva, scammony yields a milky fluid. It readily takes fire and buros with a yellowish flame. The following are the results of three analyses of the same number of samples of scammony by Dr. Christison: