be discussed at pathological societies, and when the truth of any theory is clearly established then publish it to the world. If it be understood that dissertations, such as we are speaking of, and purely technical papers are to be the order of the day, the audiences whom it is sought to benefit will soon cease to attend, and the first objects of such congresses be frustrated.

Notes of the Week.

THE Salford Corporation have decided to obtain an engineer's report on the best method of preventing floods in the Irwell.

THE Middlesborough Guardians and Rural Sanitary Authority have been invested with urban powers within the contributory place of Thornaby.

THERE were sixty-three applicants for appointment as Surveyor and Inspector of Nuisances to the Kirkleatham Local Board and Urban Sanitary Authority, at 120/. per

annum.

6

OUR lively contemporary Figaro says: Aberdeen is already convalescent, thanks to its granite constitution, from its late severe attack of Social Science. The local Lord Provost is also as well as can be expected.'

THE local board of Southborough, between Tunbridge and Tunbridge Wells, is experimenting with Dietz's patent lamps for burning paraffin oil, as a substitute for gas. The pecuniary saving is estimated at 17. per lamp per annum.

LORD KINNAIRD, at a meeting of the Perthshire Commissioners of Supply, according to the Glasgow News, objected to the employment of an analyst for the county on the ground that the appointment was only made in order that the gentlemen of the county might be enabled to get good whisky.

THE Leith Town Council are about to undertake a scheme for the improvement of one of the old parts of the town, which includes an area inhabited by about 7,000 persons. The first outlay is estimated at 274,000/., and after re-sales it is expected that the net cost to the town will be 100,000/.

THE following have been elected the first Local Board and Urban Sanitary Authority at Wirksworth, Derbyshire -namely, Messrs. William Shaw, Philip Hubbersty, Thomas Newton, Benjamin Street, G. H. Wheatcroft, Thomas W. Hunt, W. H. Watterson, Richard Wall, and John S. Hall.

THE village of Southborough, together with the adjacent ones of Berdwell and Blacker, have been supplied with water by an extension of the mains of the Barnsley Waterworks Company, the water being furnished to every house. The contract has been carried out by Mr. Skelton, of Sheffield, and the pipes were supplied by the Staveley Iron and Coke Company. The total cost has been about 3,000/.

THE following is the list of those who have passed the Cambridge University examination for sanitary science certificates :-F. W. Barry, M.D., Leith; J. Brown, M.D., Fraserberg, Cape of Good Hope; C. A. Cameron, Dublin; A. H. Downes, M.D., Shrewsbury; A. Genders, M.D., Normanton; R. P. Taaffe, M.D., Brighton; S. J. Thomson, M. R.D.S., Indian service; W. N. Thursfield, M.D., Shrewsbury; J. N. Wilson, M.B.C.M., Rochdale.

THE City Lands Committee have recommended that the executors of the late Mr. Alderman Besley should be allowed to remove the two obelisks at the northern end of Aldersgate Street, and erect in lieu thereof two drinking fountains, combining therewith obelisks to mark the boun dary of the City's jurisdiction.

THE dispute between the Worksop local board and Mr. Foljambe, M.P., as to the disposal of sewage, has now been settled. Mr. Foljambe agrees to allow the sewage to be pumped on to certain of his lands free of cost to himself and the board, and to indemnify the latter against any indictment for nuisance. He will then himself dispose of the sewage. Each side had incurred about 300/. costs in the dispute, and the local board have now agreed to pay the whole of the expenses.

PRACTICAL USE OF THE TELEPHONE.

AT the late meeting of librarians, Mr. Justin Winsor said that for the purposes of interchange between head libraries and their branches in America, the telephone is already largely used. It is no longer a mere toy in that country. The branch librarian asks for a book through the telephone, and the volume is sent up by express.

LEAD IN AERATED WATERS.

A SCOTCH chemist has been convicted of having sold citric acid adulterated with lead to a considerable extent.

Possibly this may explain how it is that some makers of artificial waters, and especially of lemonade, have been unable to get rid of the poisonous ingredient of lead in their aerated waters, notwithstanding that they have taken some trouble to exclude the use of lead pipes and fittings from their factories.

A MALIGNED PARISH.

AT a vestry meeting at Bermondsey, on the 1st inst., one of the vestrymen called the attention of the vestry to the medical officer's report, in which it was pointed out that the death-rate of the parish during the past fortnight was only 14 per 1,000, whilst that of the metropolis was 18 per 1,000. There was a general impression abroad, and especially by travellers on the railways passing through the parish, that it was a very unhealthy one, whereas the reports of Dr. Dixon showed that it was one of the most healthy in the metropolis. Mr. Sharpe, the gentleman who made the above remarks, thought it would be well if the medical officer would bring up a report showing how the death-rate of the parish compared with others in the metropolis, and moved a resolution to that effect. Mr. Sharpe would probably endorse the sentiment of the immortal tanner who enunciated the now 'household word,' that there is nothing like leather.'

SCARLET FEVER IN STAFFORD. SCARLET fever is still prevalent in Stafford, but not quite to the extent it had reached a week ago. It is principally confined to the poorer classes, and where proper sanitary measures are quite impossible. Isolation is out of the question in this case, in consequence of whole families being ill at the same time. Disinfectants are supplied by the sanitary authorities gratis, on application, but unfortunately many will not take the trouble to obtain them. The type of disease is severe; most of the cases are children, and out of about 120 cases now in Stafford, eleven only are adults. Scarlatina anginosa is the form it takes five times out of six. Many of the patients die from the simple fact that, in consequence of their surroundings, very little can be done for them in a medical point of view; consequently the mortality is very high. There are very few cases amongst the well-to-do artisans, and it is only in the lowest parts of the town where the disease is at all prevalent. The town authorities have orders to cleanse and whitewash all houses where the disease has prevailed, if they can ascertain the localities.

filtered river water, has for some time past been steadily improving; from 24 parts per million of albuminoid ammonia it has dropped down to 09. It is not improbable that this improved condition of the river water is due to the borehole. The many millions of gallons of water pumped into the river clos to the intake must necessarily make a marked improvement in its condition. Of the private wells I can say little or nothing that is good. Out of 139 analysed by me during the last two years, 104 wells were so bad that they have been closed by the authorities. Last Christmas I reported to the Town Council the analysis of 100 wells taken from various parts of the town by the sanitary inspector. These waters were sent to me labelled only with a number, so that I was ignorant of their locality till after the analysis was completed. The results of these were as follows: First class waters, I; second ditto, 29; dirty waters, 70. I do not find, however, that Leamington stands alone in being possessed of filthy wells. In other districts, where I hold the appointment of analyst, I find the same result. The fact is, the ordinary house wells are emphatically bad, and I would reiterate the advice given by Dr. Hill to the people of Birmingham last Saturday. If you are unfortunately obliged to drink well water-boil it! The portion of the rain that does not find its way to the river after fertilising the land, filters through the soil to the strata beneath, and, as I have before shown, is the source of our deep water-supply. Now, in chemically examining waters, the water-butt would give us a large quantity of organic matter, with little or no mineral matter, except soda salts, which are always present in the atmosphere. The lake, or stored waters, would present a little more mineral matter, dissolved from the side and floor of the lake. The river water still more, but in the deep well we should expect to find the greatest quantity of mineral matter, and that its composition would differ, as to the strata it passed through, 1. As to the total amount of the mineral matters; 2. As to the composition of their contents; 3. As to the amount of organic matter; and 4. As to the amount of nitrogenous matter. The gases dissolved in the water would form an item in a more elaborate analysis, but practically it is sufficient to know that the water is well aerated. Such a complete analysis as this is, however, too great a tax on the time of the medical officer of health, who may not have had the opportunity of making himself practically acquainted with the intricacies of analysis, nor be possessed of the necessary implements - for its performance. Some few salient points in the constitution of a drinking water may, however, be safely arrived at, and from these we may form a fair opinion as to the wholesomeness of the water examined. The total solids, by some called mineral impurities, should not exceed 30 grains to the gallon, and I do not consider, myself, a water with less than 15 grains to the gallon a wholesome water, though it be a pure sample. These mineral matters should consist mainly of lime salts, in the form of carbonate or sulphate; magnesian and soda salts should only form a small proportion. Iron is not unwholesome in small quantities; but lead, copper, or arsenic, even in very minute quantities, would be sufficient to condemn the water. In this district most of the deep waters contain silica. Now the analysis of the mineral ingredients of the artesian supply in Leamington gives the following results :

Total quantity of mineral solids, 27'7 grains per gallon.

Nearly the whole of the lime exists in solution in the condition of bicarbonate, and is deposited on boiling, forming what is known as the furring of kettles and boilers. There is no trace of organic nitrogenous matter in this water. It will be seen, therefore, that the water fulfils my ideal of a wholesome water. The well at the brewery, in the Rugby Road, contains rather less sulphate of lime in proportion to the carbonate; the total solids being 28 grains per gallon. It is also entirely free from organic nitrogenous matter, there being only one-hundredth of a millionth part of albuminoid ammonia. Both these waters are derived from the same sandstone formation, and bear out each other's reputation for purity. The chlorides are easily estimated, and become an important item in many waters. Where saline waters do not exist, a large amount of chlorine will inevitably point to sewage contamination. Here the amount for a sandstone water is small, 18; being equivalent to 3:22 grains of chloride of magnesium and soda. The amount of nitrates is considered by some authorities to be a very important item, one school of chemists quoting them as previous sewage contamination.' Now it is perfectly true that nitrates in a river water are mostly formed from oxidised nitrogenous matter, and that this nitrogenous matter is derived from sewage pollution, yet deep wells contain nitrates where the sewage contamination must have been previous' to many hundred thousand years. Certainly, if these nitrates in the Leamington artesian well water were derived from the sewage of the Labyrinthodon, the monster frog of the sandstone era, the jaws and skull of which found at Leamington may be seen in the Museum at Warwick, we may drink our new water without much fear of the previous sewage contamination' doing us much harm. It is more probable, however, that the nitric acid was formed by some electrical decomposition of the atmosphere, which may have been, to support the life of these frogs, even more diluted with nitrogen than it now is, without rendering necessary the hypothesis of sewage contamination to account for its presence. By far, however, the most important determination the sanitarian has to arrive at in water analysis is the estimation of the nitrogen as derived from organic matter. This has been greatly facilitated by the investigations of Professor Wanklyn, who has taken advantage of the method of what is called Nessierising the ammonia, first introduced by my old fellow-student, Mr. Hadow, of Bristol, into the laboratory of King's College. The Nessler test consists of corrosive sublimate dissolved in iodide of potassium, and made strongly alkaline with caustic potash. This will strike a deep brown colour with very minute quantities of ammonia, so that even the presence of a five-thousandth part of a million may be made apparent. This process is performed by distilling from a known quantity of water an aliquot part, and testing it with the Nessler test. The colour produced is compared with a standard solution of ammonia, so that the number of parts per million may be easily read off; this is called free ammonia-that is to say, ammonia existing as such in the waters, and produced almost entirely by direct pollution of sewage or animal matter. The sample of water in the retort is then mixed with a solution of permanganate of potash, with caustic potash to break up the component parts of organic matter containing nitrogen, and form them into ammonia. The distillation is again proceeded with, and the ammonia this time read as albuminoid ammonia. It is so called because albumen or white of egg treated in this way will form ammonia, and because any other substance containing nitrogen, animal or vegetable, acts in the same way. It is called albuminoid, or like albumen. Tobacco, tea, sewage, etc., will thus give off ammonia, which is again estimated by the Nessler test. It is found that one-tenth of a millionth part of such ammonia is prejudicial to health. And if from sewage then there is the increased danger of disease germs being carried by the sewage into the drinking water. Polluted water is a fertile cause of typhoid, diarrhoea, and even cholera. looking, at the present and future supply of water at Leamington, the town water contains 40 grains of solids per

Now,

gallon, no free ammonia, and at present '09 of albuminoid ammonia, but is more frequently 15. The wells show I per cent. of waters, with the total solids under 50 grains per gallon, the free ammonia below 02 and the albuminoid under I; 29 per cent. where the free ammonia is under 02 and the albuminoid I, but where the total solids exceed 50 grains to the gallon; 9 per cent. where the free ammonia exceeds 02 and the albuminoid I, which are suspicious waters; 29 per cent. where the free ammonia was '05 and albuminoid over 10, being bad waters, and 32 per cent. where the free ammonia exceeded 'I and the albuminoid 15. I think, then, we must see that the present water-supply of Leamington is far from satisfactory, whilst the future is that of a good, wholesome, and sparkling water, and copious in quantity.

Correspondence.

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

OVERCROWDING.

(To the Editor of the SANITARY Record.) SIR,-In reply to your correspondent 'B,' page 207, I may state that in my district the following by-law (with others) made under the Public Health Act, 1875, section 90, is in force :

'Every lodging-house keeper shall allow a clear space of 350 cubic feet at least in each room for every person, whether man, woman, or child, so occupying it, and in cases where the same room is used as a living and sleeping room he shall allow an air-space of not less than 450 cubic feet for each such person.'

We

And that, when the inspector is visiting private houses, he measures their capacity according to this scale. act on the assumption that, as the Local Government Board have allowed this scale for a lodging-house, it cannot be unreasonable for private houses. M.

THE WATER-SUPPLY OF SEASIDE WATERING-PLACES.

(To the Editor of the SANITARY RECORD.) SIR,-I fear that if I replied fully to Mr. Jackson's letter in your number for the 12th inst. my reply would almost amount to writing a new treatise on water analysis, and it does not seem to me that this is at present requisite. My own opinion is strongly in favour of the mode of statement of the results of analysis which I adopt, and I am glad Mr. Jackson agrees with it, but it is only fair to say that this opinion is not shared by all, and, with your permission, Sir, I shall, when my series of papers are finished, try to explain clearly why I prefer this mode.

I certainly do use Professor Wanklyn's mode of estimating albuminoid ammonia; no other process known at present can in my opinion satisfactorily replace it for the determination of this factor in the analysis, because, even supposing that the organic nitrogen yielded by the Frankland and Armstrong process were a positive quantity, instead of a quantity needing a heavy correction for personal equation and for impurities in the chemicals used; yet the danger of error involved in the process, and the risk of contamination by atmospheric impurities, are in my opinion sufficient to prevent it from ever coming into general use, and unless generally used it is undesirable for reports which appeal to public sense and public under standing.

I differ, however, a little from Professor Wanklyn in the way in which I conduct the Nesslerising, as I consider Mills's new colorimeter, as described in The Analyst for June 1877 (i.c. since the last edition of Professor Wanklyn's 'Water Analysis' was published), is an improvement on the old-fashioned Nessler glasses; its use saves time, and enables the relative intensities of colour of two

different solutions-that is, the standard solution and the distillate to be read off more quickly and with greater

accuracy.

I am sure that the importance of the determination of nitrates in shallow well waters has been underrated. The Indigo process is quick and readily available, and, after trying some scores of samples by this process and the Crum process, side by side, I have come to the conclusion that, with proper manipulation, the indigo process is the more accurate of the two. Nitrates in a deep well water represent fossil excreta, but nitrates in a shallow well water represent recent excreta, and therefore the strong probability that drainage matter, in some form or other, has recently passed into the well. Nitrates, therefore, are not so much the actual measure of the present injurious quality of the water as of the risk which is inevitably incurred in allowing any drainage matter whatever to enter a well which is used for drinking purposes. It is quite possible that a man in perfect health might drink filtered sewage for a time without positive harm-and I have, indeed, known of such cases-but directly any predisposition to disease exists the poison acts and acute illness sets in.

Following the same train of reasoning, nitrites are still more objectionable, for the contamination has been more recent, and oxidation is consequently less complete. Therefore there are many cases where a sample of water must be condemned on the evidence of nitrates, nitrites, and the microscope only.

I do not think I over-estimate the importance of the presence of large quantities of salt in drinkingwater. Water is used as a means of quenching thirst, but I think if Mr. Jackson puts a oz. of salt in a gallon of water and uses that water as his drink for a few

days-not only when he wants water alone, but for whisky.

and-water or tea-he will find his thirst increased instead of diminished. The taste of a liquid containing even 30 grains of salt per gallon-i.e. one quarter of this quantity -is perceptibly saline when the liquid is warmed. I think also I need hardly remind Mr. Jackson that the analysis does not show whether the salt is derived from sea or sewage.

As to the oxygen absorbed, I consider this in some cases an important factor in reporting on the results. I estimate it by a standard solution of permanganate of potash, allowed to act for three hours, and titrated back with hyposulphite of soda. The process was published some ten years since by the late Dr. Miller, and was, if I remember rightly, devised by Mr. Vernon Harcourt. Permanganate applied in this way is often a valuable guide, but in my opinion permanganate alone used in the ordinary rough-and-ready way is a delusion and a snare.

Replying to Mr. Jackson's last question, I prefer to use a deci-gallon for the distillation, but this must not by any means be held to imply that I think that quantity essential, as good results can be obtained from half that quantity. G. W. WIgner.

79, Great Tower Street, London, October 15, 1877.

HOUSE DRAINAGE IN RELATION TO HEALTH. (To the Editor of the SANITARY Record.) SIR,-In his address upon the above subject lately delivered before the Domestic Economy Congress, recently held at Birmingham, I observe Dr. Alfred Hill stating: "The peculiar dip and arrangement of the pipe were, I believe, originally suggested by Dr. Buchanan in his report on the epidemic of enteric fever at Croydon in 1875. Now so far as I can judge, that is a mistake. Dr. Buchanan at page seventy of the annual report to the Local Government Board, published in 1876, did, indeed, give a drawing of a ventilating trap with a dip, but the sketch is rather rude, and a little faulty, the details, from defective practical knowledge I suppose, not being properly worked out. Dr. Buchanan, in fact, states that he leaves constructive details to others.' It so happened,

however, that I had the constructive details all worked out and the trap in actual working, and also patented in April 1875. So Dr. Hill will perhaps excuse me remind

9

Dr. Buchanan's sketch.

ing him of the old Latin phrase, Palmam qui meruit ferat.' While writing upon this subject I may mention that I have lately introduced a new idea in connection with outside ventilating traps of drains or soil pipes, etc. In this case two defects are remedied in a very simple manner, viz., the stoppage of the ventilation when the grating is covered with snow, and a blow out from the drain of foul air by the passage of wind across the ventilating grating. The same cure that serves for the one fault serves for the other, viz., the insertion of a small pipe carried up about eighteen inches or two feet from the surface of the ground, as shown in the

accompanying sketch; where A is the small pipe referred to, which admits air when the grating is closed up; or when the grating is open, instead of the wind passing across the grating sucking air down the soil-pipe, it sucks fresh air from the small pipe A owing to its being nearest the opening. This, which I consider the latest improvement in the ventilation of house drains, was lately patented by me, partly as an official memorandum and to secure the free use of my own inventions. It is already applied at the residence of various gentlemen, including Dr. Fergus.

In another part of his address, Dr. Hill, in speaking of the kitchen sink, says it is protected by a non-removable bell-trap, and it would be an advantage to further protect

it by a siphon bend.' Now I see no use for the bell-trap whatever; the proper plan is to have a siphon bend attached close to the sink, right under the grating, and the water to discharge outside either over or into another siphon bend with ventilating grating. As a whole, Dr. Hill's address was a most able one, and is likely to bear good fruit. In fact, none stand higher in the apostleship of social progress in the nineteenth century than our medical officers of health-they point the way and apply the spur where it is much needed. W. P. BUCHAN. 124A, Renfield Street, Glasgow.

BATHING AT DIEPPE.

(To the Editor of the SANITARY RECORD.)
'O wad some pow'r the giftie gie us

To see oursels as others see us!'

SIR,-Towards the end of the bathing season I was induced to visit Dieppe with my family, the bains mixtes of that place offering advantages for bathing en famille and teaching my daughters to swim, unattainable in this country.

We found Dieppe very full, and, in ignorance of local sanitary geography, engaged rooms at a tourists' hotel on the quay; as the harbour is the great sewer of the town we suffered at each ebb a dread purgatory of horrible smells. Our host, however, assuring us in reply to our complaints on the subject, that, we laboured under a delusion, there were in fact no bad odours, what we objected to was 'the smell of the waves of the sea.'

Changing quarters to an hotel on the 'place' with pure air, excellent cooking, and comparatively moderate charges, we proceed to contemplate the mode of dipping in front of the 'établissement.'

We note firstly, that the jolting abominations called 'bathing-machines' in England, are altogether absent. Along a shingly beach, abruptly deepening like that at Brighton, are ranged a row of framed canvas bathingboxes or cabanes. Those on the extreme right and left of the line, for males and females respectively, being styled petits bains, and charged at reduced or second-class rates. Those in the centre, identical in make, are styled grands bains, limited to subscribers to the casino establishment, and charged at higher rates. They are divided into three groups, for gentlemen on the right, ladies on the left, and family parties, bains mixtes, in the centre.

During the bathing a crowd of spectators line the parapet of the 'établissement' and the beach, conversing freely with their friends in the water. All bathers wear the regulation costumes, that for ladies being ample and becoming if well made, but the gentlemen's Union' looking quaint, not to say queer, on the obese figures of some middle-aged bathers.

We observe that out of several score in the water, there are four ladies who can float, one only can swim, 'slowly and indifferently,' as we opine, 'excellently well,' as her compatriots assert. Of the gentlemen none swim well, according to English ideas of the art; five are performing with a redundancy of arm-waving and very little progression, within easy reach of the shore, while now and then a portlyMossoo' of some forty to fifty summers, his form divine' arrayed in the limp, loose but skimp suit of coloured stripes, places his hand with a lamblike trustfulness in that of a guide baigneur, who leads him knee-deep into the water, and there, 'O, ye whales and little fishes,' he dances ponderously up and down until he is led back to his cabane. Groups of four and five share the dangers of this performance hand in hand. Suddenly a Mossoo, who has ventured up to his arm-pits in the sea, is fired with a desire for distinction, he forces his head under the waters, he is lost to the sight of his friends for several seconds, he emerges again spluttering but radiant, for he holds aloft to the admiration of all, a handful of shingle, which shows he has reached quite to the bottom. and reprove a tendency to giggle on the part of my two boys. Strangers should respect the customs of the country,'

I note