1876. METEOROLOGICAL TABLE No. 2. Great or sudden changes of Temperature at Philadelphia, Pa. January 9. Thermometer fell from 54° at 9 P. M. to 24° at 9 P. M. next day. Change 30 December 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, = 5 days. 8 Extract from the Report of the Board of Health of the City and Port of Philadelphia for 1875, Descriptive of the Disinfecting Annex to the Municipal Hospital. The building contains a hot-air chamber, a fumigating chamber, a bath-room, and a dressing-room. It is intended to add suitable apartments in which to keep articles before and after being disinfected, so that the establishment shall be complete in itself. Ꭺ chamber heated by gas, such as the improved disinfecting apparatus of S. Leoni & Co., of London, or the gas stove of Dr. Ransom, of Nottingham, would probably have been the best adapted for the purposes of the hospital, on the ground of economy, if for no other reason, could the supply of gas have been obtained. A steam disinfecting chamber, such as that proposed by Dr. Esse, and in use in Berlin, has its advantages where steam is already in use. In the apparatus determined upon the heat is obtained from a cast-iron cockle situated in a cellar immediately under the hot-air chamber. The building is constructed of stone, pointed, and is one story high with a basement. It contains on one floor a bath-room, supplied with hot and cold water, six feet by eight feet, communicating with a dressing-room, eight feet by ten feet; a fumigating chamber, six feet by eleven feet; and a hot-air chamber, eight feet by eleven feet. The fumigating chamber is made perfectly tight, so as to completely confine the gases liberated for the purposes of disinfection. The articles to be purified are suspended, and exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur, or other gases, for hours, the length of time being regulated by the character of the substances submitted to the process. The hot-air chamber is eight feet wide and eleven feet long, and eight feet to the spring of the arch. The interior wall is built of brick, arched at the top, and is nine inches in thickness. Between it and the outside wall is an air space for the object of economizing the heat. The door is made of wrought-iron set in a cast-iron frame, so that the chamber is perfectly fire-proof. The furnace is placed in a chamber immediately under the floor, which is laid in tiles of stone, supported on an iron frame-work. The heated air passes directly through an adjustable grating near the centre of the floor, over which a soapstone screen is placed to protect the clothing from the direct rays of heat. The smoke flue passes around the chamber under the floor before entering the chimney. At the top of the chamber there is an opening provided with a valve for the escape of air into a shaft leading into the chimney. Cold air is admitted from below into the space around the furnace. Valves control the openings for entrance and exit of air, which can be managed without entering the chamber. The thermometer can be examined from the bath-room through a slit in the wall, covered by glass. A temperature of 280 degrees Fahrenheit can be maintained for any length of time. A temperature of 344 degrees Fahrenheit has been reached; but above 250 degrees there is danger of scorching the clothing, and there is no necessity for a higher degree of heat. "The temperature at which infectious matter is rendered inert has lately been a subject of keen controversy, chiefly in relation to the temperature at which the vitality of living germs and minute infusorial creatures is destroyed. The late Dr. Henry, of Manchester, demonstrated experimentally that the vitality of vaccine matter is destroyed at a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and that the virus of scarlet fever is inert after being exposed to a heat 204 degrees Fahrenheit; but some of the lower organisms appear to be more tenacious of life, for, according to Dr. Crace Calvert, the common vibrio will bear a temperature of nearly 300 degrees, and his black vibrio, which appears to be a very salamander of animalcules, is not killed by a heat of less than 400 degrees Fahrenheit. After a long investigation, however, before the Académie des Sciences of Paris, it was unanimously agreed by all parties to the controversy of spontaneous genesis, that none of the lower organisms or their germs would resist in air a temperature of 130 degrees C. (= 266 degrees Fahrenheit), and in liquid a temperature of 110 degrees C. (= 230 degrees Fahrenheit). This, indeed, was the temperature fixed by Pasteur himself, although many of the members thought that 100 degrees C. (212 degrees Fahrenheit) was sufficiently high to destroy all vitality. In most cases, in fact, a temperature of 180 degrees Fahrenheit is sufficient to destroy infusorial life, for that will coagulate albumen, of which they are made. Assuming, however, that it is desirable to use as high a temperature as possible for disinfection, it is important to know what is the effect of heat on textile fabrics. Up to a temperature of 250 degrees Fahrenheit most of these fabrics are unchanged, unless the exposure is maintained for many hours, when they become discolored and slightly brittle. Above this temperature the change is more marked, and with a dry heat of 300 degrees Fahrenheit cotton fabrics are slightly charred, and, therefore, spoiled. At 400 degrees they become dark brown, and crumble into powder when rubbed. At 500 degrees gaseous hydrocarbons are produced, and at 600 degrees all vegetable and animal tissues are converted into charcoal, with the evolution of empyreumatic oil and gas. It would seem, therefore, that, for practical purposes, a heat of 250 degrees, aided by a jet of steam, for the purpose of diffusing the temperature and helping its action, may be safely applied to textile fabrics."" In using the chamber, care must be taken that none of the articles are in contact with the walls or floor. Small articles are placed upon a wire grating; mattresses and more bulky articles are suspended from the ceiling by means of clips composed of iron rods. The introduction of the disinfecting apparatus supplies a want that has long been a source of embarrassment. Not only is such an establishment needed for the proper treatment of the clothing of 1 The Right Use of Disinfectants, by Dr. H. Letheby, London. patients, and articles in use at the hospital, which cannot be thoroughly disinfected by the ordinary process of washing, but it is also of great service in the management of clothing, beds, bedding, etc., sent to the hospital for the express purpose of disinfection. Heretofore it has been necessary to burn many articles which might otherwise have been preserved and returned. To prevent the spreading of contagion, the patients, before leaving the hospital, are compelled to take a bath, and are then supplied. with non-infected clothing. As a public health measure it is important that greater facilities for disinfecting articles of clothing, etc., be provided for citizens, and for this object one or more disinfecting chambers should be established in other parts of the city. The charges could be regulated so as simply to cover the expense, or the work might be done gratuitously, for the same reason that vaccination is offered to the people free of charge. APPENDIX B. United States Centennial Commission. INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876, Philadelphia. Owing to the very large number of persons who contemplate a visit to Philadelphia during the coming summer, it seems important that the utmost publicity should be given to the facts bearing on the sanitary condition of the city. The following statistics, which have been obtained from the most authentic sources accessible, represent the mortality in some of the chief cities of the world during the past four or five years : While thus showing an average rate of mortality more favorable than that found in any other city containing over 500,000 inhabitants, Philadelphia has recently (1874) attained a degree of healthfulness almost unparalleled, viz., with a population at that time of 775,000, the number of deaths was but 14,966, giving a death-rate of only 19.3 per thousand. These very favorable results are largely due to the abundant and cheap water-supply, and to the opportunities given, even to the poorest citizens, for the enjoyment of pure |