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In the following pages the author has endeavored t'» draw personal and general attention to the hygienic condition of the people among whom he lives, with a view to sanitary improvement in their towns and cities, as well as in the homes of all classei^. The pressing duties of professional life would not allow him to enter at greater length on the details of the subject at present, but the short hints which he has endeavored to put in possession of the public, will, he hopes, be found of some value ; and if so he feels himself amply rewarded for his labor. R, S. Brock Street, Peterborough, March, 1882. .. » HEALTH AND HEALTHY HOMES IN CANADA. CHAPTER I. LAND OR SOIL, NATURE OP, ETC. From dust we have all, we are told, sprung, and to dust we must all most undoubtedly return when our course has been run and the race of life is over. From mother Earth we draw the means of our sustainance ; on her pampering bosom we confi- dently repose ; wound her and she smiles plentiously upon us, insult her by our thousand scars and tunnels and she turns not round on us again; she isbountious and all-forgiving, nor wots she how or where wc live upon her — whether amid the dank dens of fever and disease, or on the invigorating slopes of her sunny hill sides; enough for her that to herself she will in her own good time receive agnin the dust which she of herself had lent the soul to clothe it for a space. She smiles to see us, her children, happy, and bids us choose for our habitations what site our hearts desire. Let us then consider what will best benefit ourselves in living, and to this end examine her fair places, nor sink thoughtlessly in the quagmires of distemper and return to her again sooner than she expected us. The face of Nature is pleasantly diversified in most places by hill and dale, and in this country, too, by forest, stream and lake. We have not always got it within our resources to locate in the most suitable positions, but we can select the most eli- gible site in our power to build upon ; let us then see what are the advantages to be looked for and if possible attained, or as many of them as comes within our capabilities. ; 6 Location, First then in the list comes a healthy situation, and to ffccnre this prospect need not in ninety-niue oases out of a hundred be sacrificed. Some years atro, in ohosing a site too often every other advan- tage was seemingly lost in consideration of shelter from the severe winds of winter. Now, perhaps, we look too much to the appearance a house will have and where it can be most prominently placed. This simply, is commendable enough, but health, and comfort, should not be made subservient to show. An elevated position not to much exposed to galea, and pre-emi- nently sheltered from unhealthy and easterly winds should be sought. -^ ' What winds are unhealthy we will notice hereafter more particularly when we come to speak of fens, swamp, and marshes ; here it may be sufficient to state that any wind blow- ing uninterruptedly from swamps or marshes is unhealthy, and as a rule loaded with miasma. Large bodies of water, and notably salt, or moving water, are credited with the virtue of intercepting malaria, and so are foliage trees, though with a few exceptions in a less degree, absorbing as it were the poison- ous vapors or whatever the disease-inducing element may be. And this remark holds good, thoujrh in less degree, to the poison of cholera, typhoid, typhus and other fevers. In a direct ratio to the proximity of swampy or marshy ground wiU a habitation be presumably he;»lthy or sickly, and other circumstances being proportionate, as indeed they very often are, we will have a desirable home to live in or otherwise. An undulating country is of all others the most generally salubrious, and one in which the hills and valleys do not con- trast too prominently, is best. Where deep valleys lodge, stag- nant pools and towering hills seem to meet the clouds, the southern slope of the hill is the best to build on, and in all in- stances the very summit and the depth of the valley should be avoided. A house should never be built in a situation from which th^re is aa imperfect wj^terfall. Location. t In a g'^ntly undulntinj? country where the hills are not too much exposed an elevated site should be selected, bearing ia mind that the very summit of a hill is not always the best position, and that some attention should undoubtedly, in a country as cold as Canada, be given to shelter from north and east winds ; bearing always in mind the poisonous eflfects of marshes on the air, and the position the^ would bear to the proposed location with regard to the prevailing winds. In a flat country a sli};ht elevation is to be taken advantige of, and facilities for drainage particularly atten led to. And here, more then ever, are stagnant pools and marshes to be avoided. The neighborhood of a running stream is in all instances a good one, but dwelling houses should not be built on the banks of streams, as heavy vapors are likely to hang about where pools form. A good running stream is always a great advantage to a house. These remarks do not of course applv to towns, where, as a rule, the site for a house is governed by pecuniary advantages or business position. In buying property, however, it would be well to bear them in mind. In choosing the site for a manoeuvering camp, or for men camping on the march, a little more shelter should be sought, taking care that the camp is pitched on dry elevated ground with a plentiful supply of good water handy, and good drainage facilities, if the ground is to be occupied for any time. In hunting and fishing camps a clear, open, dry. space, should be chosen as far from swampy ground and thick jungles as possi- ble, and convenient to good water; not on the immediate brink of a lake or river but fifty or one hundred yards from it. We next come to the nature or kind of soil or foundation on which habitations should be built. Let us presume that several eligible sites exist and we have to choose the best and healthiest. It will be seen hereafter that decaying organic matter is always a source of disease, and prominently of diarr- hoea, dysentery and various fevers. In warm climates may be add^d fermenting morasses, and sour swamps, and in colder 8 Location. temperatures clayey bottoms which have long lain fallow and are imperfectly or not at all drained. In Canada we have all the vaiieties, thou«j;h of course in a modified dagree, from the sour and fermenting morass to the pporc laden heavy fen. The^e we have, and unibrtunately to no small extent, but as will be presently seen, when we come to speak of soils and sub- soils more particularly, we have reason to congratulate our- selves on our good fortune otherwise. * • = '• Many locidities are well known to be unhealthy and the nature of the poison which renders them so not being suffici- ently understood they are allowed to remain. • ■"< The vicinity of marshes, or of a district that has at some recent time been under water; the banks of great lakes and the shores of great rivers and seas, whero the water flows slowly, and in some pbices stagnates ; in shallow rivers over land alluvial, low and flit ; extensive flat tracts of woods where much moisture is constantly present; where the processor dry- ing is uninterrupted, and yet ♦he surface constantly exhaling hun)idity ; — these are some of the terrestrial physical con- ditions in which the paludal and the littoral fevers are found to abound. We are aware th it the range of the paludal di-eases lies between 40° of north and 45 of south latitude of the earth's surface, or at least that part of it which is not covered by the ocean, and that their prevalence and intensity increase as we approach the Equator. We in C;mada, then, are within the range, though fortunately removed from the great virulence of these poii^ons. By a judicious selection of building grounds and the adoption of ordinary sanitary principles, we may, how- ever, place ourselves almost beyond their pale ; nay, many among us may by these means be so protected as to pass our lives free from a species of ills which, none save those who have been so unfortunate as to contract one of them, can adequately appreciate. Nor are the diseases fostered in such districts, if not propagated in them, confined to fevers of the periodic type, or indeed to fevers at all j but this we will hereafter have occasion Location, • ' 9 to treat at more length ; for the present it is enough to kno^ that such is the case. The malarious influence is sufficiently powerful to imprint a periodic character on local disorders^ and occasionally to give rise to apparently distinct fevers, dropsies, and forms of ulceration. ' Low swampy grounds and extensive rice fields, are well- known sources of malaria in India and other tropical latitudes, and to an undoubtedly great extent in all countries where the meteorological conditions are also favorable, and more especially within the degrees above named. It is now-n-days recognized that the number of insects and some reptiles and animal life of tiie bactrian kind with which a place abounds, are more sig- nificant of its insalubrity than almost any other circumstance. So much, then, ibr conformation and locality ; and ju.st briefly to recapitulate before we pass on to the consideration of the soil itself geologically, as applied to hy«;iene. 1st. Selpct for a building site, elevated ground with facilities for efficient drainage, and not to much exposed. 2nd. Let it be dry. 3rd. Well removed from swamps, marshes, sluggish streams and stagnant pools. 4th. A southern aspect if possible ; avoid a nci'thern aspect. ' 5th. A cheerful prospect. ' The evidence regarding the geological nature of soil as a cause of disease is very clear. It is a fact that the usual lo- calities in which fevers abound, are those in which the soil con- sists of mineral, vegetable, and animal matters, mixed together in such proportions and of such constituents chemically as tend to absorb moisture and retain it, and subsequently to de- compose. Such soils are known as alluvial. Fevers, however, abound where soils of a different nature predominate, and cer- tain aff'ections are peculiar to soils other than these — goitre for example. Soil composed of tenacious or stiff* clay, argillaceous soil, is highly retentive of moisture, is difficult either to dry or to drain, Such clays often form the subsoil or bottom of dis- to Locatioriy Soilsy etc, tricts which are notably unhealthy, the surface soil being either a lijiht vegetable mould or alluvial deposit. Experience has taught us that such bottoms are invariably more or less un- healthy, the degree of insalubrity greatly depends on the sur- face coating. A vegetable mould is not in itself an unwhole- some fioii if dry, but when moisture is ret?«ined by a heavy gubsoil it becomes highly so — still more when we have a state of constant exhalation going on. On the other hand alluvial soil as above described is always uuwholef^ome and even pestil- \ ential when subjected to the process of continual dt ssication. Virgin soils undisturbed by the process of tillage or other works io which the surface soil is thrown up or broken are not as a rule unhealthy, if dry, but the turning up and ex- posure to the air of clays for the first time, or which have long been fallow, give rise to fevers usually of the aguish type; such soils containing the sources of disease concealed and de^ veloped beneath their surface. Ancient and almost forgotten cities when exhumed are, under favorable circumstances, terrible reservoirs of fever material, and the beds of former rivers, lakes, and seas, are also, as might be expected, very unhealihy. Such situations are unhealthy because the whole soil is saturated with animal and vegetable debris of another age, which perhaps fr centuries has lain dormant, but on being dihturbed ana the process of dessication set up, the disease germs are liberated, or whatever the poison virirs ;;onsists of, and seek a suitable Didus for their reproduction in some instances as in the case of cholera, typhoid, and yellow fever, or further development as in the case of ague, remittent and simple continued fevers. But it is not always in our power to select a soil having every sanitary requisite that science and experience have dic- tated. What then are the generally accessible points to be looked for in selecting a building site in reference to the soil itself? First, then, a light, porous, sandy, or better still, a gravel- ly foundation should be if possible chosen, and for many reasons. Water or sewage are not lodged in stagnant recesses about the . Site and foundation. .. 11 dwelling. The ground is always dry, rains do not saturate and ferment the unavoidable purface matter which more or less ac- cumulates about every dwelling. Surface water which may filter accidentally into wells will to some extent be purified by passing through sand or gravel, which as will hereafter be seen, exercise an oxydizing and therefore purifying effect on organic debris. A course gravel is the best. Next to this certain rocks make good fcundations — igneous rocks for instance. Chalk is not quite so good, though better than argillacious clay, and magnesian limestone should be avoided owing to the un- doubted influence it posse^Fes in giving rise to goitre and cre- tinism. The micro.^copical examination of washings from certain soils in many cases may give us some insight into their true character as well as an examination of thp soil itself. In doing this we should look for various organic remains and forms of animal life, notably the presence of minute vegetable spores and bactaria. It is a well established fact, that while the drying and conse- quent admission of air into a soil enables it to exert that chemical influence necessary to neutralize all organic com- pounds, and purify the foulest sewage, the stagnation of both air and water in the soil establish the conditions most favor- able to putrefaction and decay. Where the subsoil is water- logged, the surface soil must naturally be teeming with putrify- ing matter and saturated with foul gases, which latter circulate in the soil itself and permeate every portion of the foundation and under every apartment of the dwelling erected upon it, spreading disease and discontent to the inhabitants. Hereafter, when we come to speak of winds and ventilation, it will be seen in the table of the penetrating power of gases how easily this is done. The class of diseases most frequently noted in connection with subsoil water per se, as revealed by damp cellars, are phthsis, pulmonalis or consumption, inflammatory diseases of the respirfttpr^ organs, especially broucbitis and pneumonia, 12 Waterlogged Soil, Consumption^ rheumatism, more especially of the chronic order, chronic per- version of digestion, also a lessened power of resistance to all diseases when contracted. The number of deaths from con- sumption in towus which are naturally dry is so much smaller than in towns situated on a waterlogged soil, that many authorities hold the ground-water alone responsible for the production of the disease. Another important factor in the matter under consideration is capillary attraction. All soils are more or less subject to it. In the chalk formation, water will rise from the level of complete saturation to a very considerable height above it. while a bed of sand will be completely dry only two or three feet above the water standing in it. It may be taken as a rule that wherever ground is waterlogged, whether the soil be a dense clay or an open gravel, it is unfit for the site of human habitations. It should always be borne in mind in selecting the site for a dwelling that the soil greatly influences the qual- ity of the water supply, if this item is to be procured by sink- ing a well. In the chapter on water and water-.?upply this subject will be di. the influence of free air and winds, and every facility for stagnation present, anf^ the result is a hot-bed of malaria, than which few places will be found more vigorous in its disease promoting abilities. The extensive marshes of Europe, Italy and Austria, the fens of Asia Minor, and the dense jungles of India and Africa in the old world are good examples ; and in America none better can be found than in the wide tracts of jungly swamps, which skirt our numerous lakes and rivers for many a mile. In these reptiles and insects abound, and minuter organisms of the most notorious character throng. In Canada nature has fortunately to some extent counteracted the fell influence of the swamps by planting them with trees, exhaling a disinfec- tant and health giving principle. Cedar and the allied species of spruce, fir and hemlock, etc., all secrele a resin in itself very wholesome and purifying to the air, and this not only from the trunk, but from every twig and green leaf, disinfecting to some extent the foul effluvia which is constantly oozing from the sour waterlogged soil and putrefying organic matter beneath. Time alone can remedy this, in the course of which the swamps will be cleared up and effectually drained, the sun's rays will then soon dry up and turn to better account the waste material with which the ground has been for centuries loaded, amply rewarding the husbandman for his toil in abundant crops. But woe to him who, regardless of salutary warning, takes up his abode there, be the ground ever so well drained. The poison is still there, though for a time latent, and will some day break forth in an attack of typhoid, diphtheria or even cholera it&elf| while the insidious a^uo and periodic levers will be his Treeif Foliage] dkc. 17 constant visitors. Should necessity compel us, as it sometimes will, to build in such situations, every precaution should be adopted to render the site as healthy as possible, and under the present advanced state of hygiene this can be done to a very great extent by isolating the building from the soil beneath and proper drainage, which will be amply explained in the chapters on dwellings and drainage. The ground should be well cleared all around the dwelling to some distance, and a free circulation of air promoted. We have seen that any circumstance which tends to keep the soil damp and constantly under the process of evapor- ation is detrimental to health, and we will now see how far this is aiFected by trees, and more especially by great numbers of trees together. We do not now speak of pine woods and forests, these we will hereafter have occasion to consider, but of the woods generally termed hardwoods and swamps. The leaves of trees both exhale and attract moisture, and this to no small extent. Again, the foliage obstructs the sun's rays in reaching the ground, and thereby prevents effectual evaporation and dessication, keeping the ground in a constant state of saturation, and this, in degree, as the subsoil water is near, or far from the surface. Trees then both accumulate and retain water. Again, it is well known thi;t they attract rain or clouds, and when there is no perceptible rain falling in open tracts the trees are dripping rain in the woods. It may be said that they absorb a great deal of water out of the ground, but this in no way counterbalances the quantity that they are the means of bringing to it ; to this rule there are of course some excep- tions, but they do not exist in this country to any extent, if at all, excepting in the case of pines. In Australia and other quarters where they may be made grow, the blue gum tree, or eu- calyptus globulus, and other trees of the same family are said to have the effect of draining or rather drying marsh land to an astonishing degree when growing in numbers, not at all what would be suppose*^ equivalent tQ ^h^ extent of worl^ 8 Eucalyptus, done ; in fact these eucalyptus trees in many parts of the east are looked upon as a direct antidote to miasm and the diseases resulting from it, nor do their benificent ofl&oes end here, for they are in some way used as a remedy for almost every disease and injury t j which the natives of such countries are exposed, but more of this anon. We have now to draw attention to a very diflferent attribute of trees, one which is nevertheless firmly established as an in- con testible fact. We refer to their power of intercepting miasmatic and littoral poisons or rendering them inert, and this appears to have been known to the ancients, who are sup- posed to have surrounded their temples with groves on account of their protecting influence. Pope Benedict XIV ordered a wood to be cut down which separated Viilatri from the Pontine marshes near Rome, and for many following years there raged throughout the whole country, and in places never before attacked, a most severe and fatal fever. The same effects were produced from a similar circumstance in the environs of Campo Santo. In the West Indies it is quite wonderful how near the marsh the planter, provided he is pro- tected by trees, will venture to place his habitation. This neu- tralizing influence on malarial disease effluvia is possessed in very different degrees by various trees. The eucalyptus is the most powerfully intercepting of any, but it will probably not grow in this country, owing to the severe winter frosts. Pine is of all others the healthiest tree to plant about houses in this country, for not only is it a deodorant and disinfectant, but in certain forms of diseases of the respiratory organs it seems to exert a curative influence, as for example, in some stages of consumption and in asthma. It is the presence of her extensive pine forests which renders France in a great degree the favorite resort it is as a winter residence for consumptives, and the author can testify to its efficacy, of course a mild climate is also combined and the effect of the two on diseases of the lungs is often mar- vellous. Eucalyptus, 19 ' Tlie conclusions then are that where it is necessary to build in the vicinity of marshes, or places known to be Tualarious, a belt of trees of eucalyptus, if they will grow, and if not, of pine and hardwood both should be planted between the proposed residence and the marsh. Miasmatic winds are purified in this way. It is this neutralizing effect of trees on ' malaria which renders our woods and swamps not the intoler- able hotbeds of disease that such localities would be if, under the fcvoring influence of heat and moisture, they were covered " with a grassy or reedy jungle, as they are in India and many other parts of the world. We will give one more example of the efficacy of trees in rendering places, well known to be dangerous, from the presence of malaria, healthy, which came under the notice of the author a few years ago. He was in Kome, and visited the edifice which covers the site of the exe- cution of St. Paul. For many years it had been deserted and the earth had accumulated round the walls and buried them to the depth of twenty feet or more. Not many years ago a band of eight or ten enthusiastic monks, most of whom were present when the story was related by an English father, who was one of the number, undertook, with their lives in their hands, for they expected to survive but a very short time ia so pestiferous a place, to exhume and repair the sacred ruin, and beautify its surroundings. They planted the courtyard and the entire enclosure with the eucalyptus globulus, which has the additional value of being very rapid in its growth, and now the place is comparatively healthy, and these men seemed as robust and healthy as members of their order (Capuchins) usually are. What now are the conclusions to be arrived at from the foregoing considerations in this chapter ? They are, that trees are decidedly conservative and beneficial in the economy of health, that their oxydizing and purifying influence on air otherwise pestiferous are necessary, that their presence in swamps renders them tolerable to human life, that if these ewamps wer^ covered by any other species of jungle they woul4 20 Conclusions, K be much more dangerous than they ct present are. On the other hand, thatjun<^les of all kinds are unhealthy, and that trees tend to keep the ground damp and exhaling moisture, and that they supply abundance of organic matter for putres- cence and attract water. That pine forests are salubrious in a very high degree, and that trees intercept littoral and mias- jiiatic poisons. That houses should not be built in places which were once the site of swamps, and when compelled to do so, that every part of them should be isolated as explained hereafter. It has been often remarked that forests alter the climate of a country very materially. They do, perhaps, increase the amount of moisture which reaches the ground in their vicinity, but there L not sufficient data to justify us in stating that climate is altered by them. That the planting of trees which are known to be wholesome is beneficial. We give the following in extenso from the Lumberman's Gazette on '•^Tree Culture and Its Effects on Rainfall "; — . "The rapid denudation of the forest lands of the country has been the subject of much thought and study, not only on the part of those interested in a pecuniary sense, but has called forth numerous lengthy discussions in regard thereto on the part of literary and scientific men, whose motives may be less sordid than those of the former class, and whose only object apparently has been the prevention of the wanton waste of one of nature's great donations to humanity, in order that future generations may reap a portion of the benefit thus lavishly be- stowed, but of the value of which many people of the present day and generation appear to have a very faint conception. Forest culture, to supply the present use and waste of timber, has been urged upon .'he Government, and has received such serious consideration on the part of our national legislature that the commissioner of agriculture has been induced to form a distinct division in] that department, to be devoted entirely to the investigation of this subject, with a distinguished professor Tree Culture. 21 at. its head, who has been to Europe for the sole purpose of the investigation of this subject, and who is at present engaged in the preparation of recommendations to Congress, having in view the planting, preservation, and maintenance of forests on the prairies of the west, the principle object of which, of course, is to supply the future demands of that country, in re- gard to lumber. " But another and very different motive for the consideration of this subject has lately attracted the attention of writers thereon. Not only do forests supply a necessary want — the supply of the material on which such a vast number of the in- dustries of the country are based, but the influence of the forests on the rainfall of a country is receiving at the present time thoughtful and serious consideration. That they do exert such an influence there is no possible room for doubt. Not only is the view sustained theoretically, but the actual practi- cal experience of thoughtful and observing men, whose inter- ests and occupation have led them to an investigation, coincide precisely with the views of scientific men in this connection. ■ *' The writer remembers several years ago, during a trip through Iowa, Kansas and Dacota, having his attention called particularly to this subject, by the pioneer settlers, some of whom had so far succeeded pecuniarily that they were en- abled to make practical tests, in order, if possible, to demon- strate the correctness of the theory, that tree-planting or forest culture, systematically carried out on the prairies of the great west, would supply the much needed and anxiously coveted rainfall, the lack of which was the only obstacle to the im- mediate pecuniary prosperity of the pioneers of civilization, whose influence on the development of the resources of that country has never yet been properly estimated or recognized. So serious consideration had this subject received at that early period in the history of those territories that very many of the settlers were already carefully watching, and noting, the re- sults of their tree culture^ and its influence, and the invariable 22 Tree Culture, testimony was that in proportion to the extent to which it was carried on, the increase in the amount of rainfall kept steady pace. Of course when pressed for an explanation as to the manner of this influence, they were unable to give any very definite ideas, but the fact was there nevertheless, and that was satisfactory to them at lea^^t. ** IMiat forests do therefore induce and increase the rainfall to no inconsiderable degree is indisputable, but as to the man- ner or methods by which their influence induces such a result it is not quite so comprehensive to ordinary mortUi . Experi- ments not only in this country but in Europe, pi: v. beyond a peradventure that tree planting is beneficial in mere directions than one, but especially in regard to the increase of the humid- ity of thv«< atmosphere. " The Cincinnati Commercial of a recent date, in a well writ- ten article on this subject, in a measure explains the influence of tree culture on the atmosphere. It says : — * Forests in- fluence the atmosphere, though, more powerfully by their effect on its general humidity than in any other way. An evaporation of moisture from both earth and trees takes place constantly. The evaporation is greater from open soil thaa from woodland, but the difference is far more than made up by what is called ' transpiration ' of leaves of the trees. This corresponds in a degree to the insensible perspiration of animals. Some conclusive experiments have been made with growing pot plants, going to show that leaves do not absorb moisture, but that, on t'lie contrary, they give it out. The moisture is absorbed throu-h the roots. The quantity of in- sensible vapour that Is given off" through leaves is immense, amounting to one and a quarter ounce to the square foot of leaf surface. The world-old metaphor of counting the leaves of the trees has a new significance in the light of science. Painstaking experiment has enabled those studying the matter to make an approximate estimate of the comparative amoijnts of vapor given off by earth surface and leaf surface. They Tree Culture. 23 have calculated that a square foot of soil sets free about six times as much moisture as a square foot of leaf. The leaf surface is, however, many tinies greater than the soil surface — twelve times greater the scientists put it — so that twice as much evaporation takes place from forest as from open land. When the wood of the country is cut away, therefore, other things being equal, two-thirds of the moisture- giving material of the atmosphere is gone with it. Hence the long, fearful droughts on lands bare of trees.' " A writer to the American Naturalist also says in this con- nection : — * From the data obtained it would seem safe to infer that when the percentage of woodland is fair (25 to 30 per cent.) at least twelve inches of water is transpired in the course of a season in r:ild or temperate climates, or, in other words, twelve inches of the total annual terrestrial evaporation. All this vast amount of water is transpired in ^bout six months, or during the vegetative period. Under these circum- stances an equivalent of nearly half the rainfall during the warm period may be accounted for by the transpiration. These are striking facts, and tell in indisputable terms of the happy effect of plant life upoa the humidity of our atmosphere, as this substance in due proportion is very essential to an equable and salubrious climate. V^ere it not that the atmosphere was properly moistened so as to intercept nocturnal radiation from the earth, uur cereals and other products of husbandry as well as vegetation generally, would greatly suffer if not bo entirely destroyed by the resulting frost.' " 24 CHAPTER III. FENS, MARSHES, STAGNANT POOLS, TIDAL MUD BANKS AND CESS PITS. Passing op from the consideration of woods, forests, etc., we meet, so to speak, the heading of the present chapter half way. We have seen that decaying vegetation is a source of disease ever present before us : if then we add animal matter to this, and mix the two in a seething pit or fen of rotting water we will produce the place generally termed a cess-pit, than i^ hich there are few more disgusting or fouler. The intimate connection between marshy districts and cer- tain forms Of disease is established by a great amount of direct and indirect testimony, and the two questions arise, namely : What is the nature of the noxious agent in malarious distiicts ? and, what circumstances are necessary to its formation or extrication ? It seems certain that the deleterious agent is neither heat alone, nor moisture alone, nor any known gas ex- tricated from the iiiarsh. It cannot be heat alone, for many of the hottest places are free from fevers and miasmatic dis- eases, dropsies, certain forms of ulcers, debility, etc. It can- not be moisture alone, for no persons enjoy greater immunity from this form of disease than the residents in Ireland, which has a notoriously moist climate and soil. It cannot be heat and moisture alone, for the crews of men-of-war when cruising in tropical climates, even the very worst of them, as long as they have no communication with the land, ar3 comparatively healthy. On the other hand the gases collected after stirring the bottom of marshes, viz.: carbonic acid, azote, oxygen and carburetted hydrogen have ail been breathed without produc- ing a disease of the paludal type ; it seems to follow almost as Marsh Qases. - 25 A necessary consequence then, that the remote cause must be miasm, poison, or malaria, whose presence is solely detected by its acJon on the human body ; the hypothesis which seems to account for its origin most satisfactorily is that it is an exhala- tion from the earth favored by the conditions of marshiness and vegetable decomposition, and this theory expresses itself in the piesence and rapid development and growth of minute fungi or spores of the nature of smut, rust or mildew, but this will be more particularly noticed when we come to speak of sewers and sewage. Here we will simply state that these germs may be demonstrated vary plainly with a good micro- scope, and to facilitate their comprehension we give the subjoined plate whi^h represents fungi collected in the air over an unhealthy marsh by the author in West Africa, and very well illustrates the malaria germs as met with in all countries within the 45th degrees of north and south latitude under favorable circumstances. Several theories ex- ist regarding germs, and the part they per- form in the propaga- tion and spread of disease. It is enough for the purposes of thi.s little work, being as it assumes, a practical guide iji hygiene, for the r 'llion, to under- stand that, practically speaking, we have to thank these minute organisms for many of our most distressing fiq. i. and dangerous forms of disease, and this belief is year by year growing stronger in the minds of scientifio men. We may 26 Marshes, Germs, dec. refer those who would like to enter more deeply into the theories of the present, regarding the nature of disease, and con- tagion, to the works of Virchow, Pettenkofer, Burden Sander- son, Liebermeister and Beale. Marshes are in general healthy till the summer's sun or other cause has diminio.;ed their Waters and bared a greater or less portion of their bed. Tne part thus exposed almost always contains a large portion of vegetable matter, which, running into rapid decomposition, generates other vegetable growth, of a fungoid nature especially, which may be the originator of disease or may convey the poison which gives origin to this class of disease. Such fungoid growths are seen in Fig. 1, drawn with the camera lucida, and arc not visible to tb,^ naked eye. Understanding as we now do the origin and pr pagation of disease by disease germs, if we adopt thut hypo- thesis, and whether we do so or not, knowing the poisonous characCer of most marshes, let us go a step farther ^nd see how far they are influenced by co-existing phenomena. It is during the period of the year when the drying process is in greatest activity that unhealthiness prevails with greatest severity in marshy districts, and particularly so in countries having a high thermal range and in all others in a modified degree. If we consider the paludal poison to be a product of vegetable de- composition or of vegetable growth, it follows that heat and moisture, quantity of vegetable matter and nature of the soil, though not the essential agents, must have a sensible influence on its formation, must vary its intensity or quantity and also must' limit paludal disease to particular localities, seasons and latitudes. A certain temperature then, under certain conditions of moisture, are necessary for its development. It is very certain that a given quantity of moisture is also necessary, that if this quantity be reduced to an insufficiency, so as to allow oxidation to freely take place, the poison is not developci, and on the other hand if the quantity of water be io excess the particles are separated and air totally excluded, and in conse- Salt Marshes. 27 quence putrescence either retarded or altogether put a stop to. It is evident from these data that the swamp on its approach to dryness is the source of disease and death, while an excess of water has a preservative power so long as moisture is in excess. We then conclude that marshes should be particularly avoided while under the process of drainage. It is not intend- ed that people are to avoid such places to the neglect of im- proving them, but to the extent of pleeping in their vicinity or about them, for it is well known that a man may walk across a swamp or work in it with impunity, while lo sleep in it or even lie or sit down in it will be followed by disease. Salt marshes are exceedingly maligant, and it has been supposed that a mixture of salt and fresh water renders a marsh more perni- cious than either of them alone ; but this is not the case. T\.^ great pestilence of such places is rather due to the fact that the mudbanks are frequently exposed and constantly kept in a state of saturation by the tides, and any means adopted by which the water can be kept at a constant level will render it healthy. Many examples of marshes which have been drained with the most happy results to the surrounding country exist in ancient and modern history. Hippocrates tells us that the city of Abydos had been several times depopulated by fever; but the adjoining marshes bavins: been drained it became healthy. Ancient Rome was once the seat of so ma^y fatal epidemics that the Romans erected a temple to the Goddess Febris. These epidemics were known to arise from the great masses of water poured down from the Palatine, Aventine and Tarpeian hills, becoming stagnant in the plains below and converting them into swamps and marshes. The elder Tarquin ordered them to be drained, and led their waters by mcins of sewers to the Tiber. This system of drainage which was continued as late as the Caesars, rendered Rome healthier than it ever has been before or since, and the seat of the l^rgedt population that has ever been collected within the walls of any city. In estimating the healthiness of a country by its surface 28 - Subsoil Water, « dryness, appearances are often deceptive, as districts which ap- pear to be dry and sandy are often waterlogged, having merely a covering of sand to the depth of a couple of feet or even of a iew inches. This can only be discovered by digging, when the sub- soil waters will be immediately discovered ; such places are examples of the very worst :brms of fens. The subsoil generally consists of organic detritus, which heated by the sun's rays falling directly on the surface sand causes the dis- engagement of immense clouds of marsh miasmata. The death rate from consumption in such districts is very distress- ing. Tn the Registrar General's report, Vol. 13, Session 1881, we find the following remark referring to Canada : — "As wet- ness of soil is unquestionably an important factor in causing consumption, the difference in the mortality from this disease in the various counties may be to a certain extent traced to it, one part of the country, for instance, being better served by natural drainage than another." Thorough drainage by means of efficient drains or sewers is the only remedy for fens and marshes in this country, and the proper clearing up of swamps and draining of the subsoil will do more good than anything else in eradicating disease. Nothing, however, should induce us to choose such a place as a residence, for even with the very best sanitary arrangements disease will constantly creep in and carry suffering and death to our dearest ones. The sub- soil should always then be examined in low sandy plains and indeed in every situation, before deciding on a site. It has been before stated that certain trees have the power of drying, or as it were draining marsh lands, and of these the best ex- amples are trees of the eucalyptus family. Pines also have this virtue, though not to such a great extent. Stagnant lagoons, the deadly emanations from which, wer^ such a fruit- ful source of disease among our troops during the late African wars, but which do not fortunately exist in Canada, owing to its geographical conformation, call only for a passing notice here. ••' 'j'' -r. ^-'^^ '^u ■■ ■ :*.:- ■' i-.- -^ Bacteria, '. 29 - Pools of stagnant water, often full of putrifying animal and vegetable matter are not uncommon, and are fruitful sources of disease, principally diarrhoea and choleraic disorders. These pools are often allowed to accumulate in inconvenient places about farms or even yards. The vicinity of stables is often a favorite situation. Such ponds swarm with animal and vegetable life, to the population of every drop with myriads of organisms. Figure 2 represents a drop of such water highly magnified. It swarms with bacteria, which, whatever their office in disease may be, are always present. The forms'of life found in stagnant pools are some thousands in number, but the presence of fungi and bacteria are always looked upon with dread, as they are ever present in disease. In these pools, too, are found amphibious animals of the batracian kind, cephala- podouB moUusca, of notor- ious character, and others of equally bad repute. Some of the minuter forms are so light as to float from the slimy sur- face in myriads on every i Fio. 2. : ' breath of the hot and disease-laden air, bearing suffering and distemper to all who come within their range. Such pools should be drained rather than filled up, as they often are, and thus the whole mass got rid of, instead of adding addition- al matter for putrefaction. It is useless to attempt to disinfect such masses, for even if it were possible to do so, the germina- tion of these fungi or algse is so persistent as to render it almost useless. , ... .,,...« .. j ,,,.., 30 Stagnant Pooh, - " . Stngnant ponds often cause contamination of the surround- ings to an alarming extent by the water permeating the soil and setting up on its surface, and in every little pool, a miniature focus of disease, just as '* a little leven leveneth the whole lump." Stagnant pools of grer*^er extent, and corners of lakes and dead waters of rivers accumulate great quantities of animal and vegetable matter, which decaying, give rise to putrid con- tamination of the water and infiltration of the surrounding lands ; sometimes to a dangerous extent. Many examples of of this exist in Canada, with her hundreds of lakes and rivers, along the banks of which are erected great numbers of mills and factories of many kinds, the debris and refuse from which lodge in the stagnant places of rivers and lakes, the ground often being very porous the contaminated water permeates it to a considerable extent, rendering the surrounding country fever stricken and unhealthy. Often, too, the wells are contaminated and the drinking water rendered impure. Such pools should be cleared out, and the water, if possible, made to flow through them so as to carry matter on with the stream, and in respect of the contaminated wells the best remedy is to sink them beyond the reach of surface drainage, as in the case of artesian wells. Cellars, and indeed the entire building, should be protected in placcjs where this subsoil water is known to exist, and this is best done by placing a layer of some waterproof material beneath and around the cellars and foundations, so as to thoroughly exclude the moisture. This isolation of buildings from damp foundations will be discussed in the chapter on dwellings. Various gases are given oflp from stagnant and putrid waters, some of them are very offensive, but when chemically pure are not known to produce the diseases which we meet with in such vicinities. These are ; 1. Nitrogen : is inert and harmless to the human system. 2. Carburetted hydrogen (coal gas) • has an ethereal, disa- greeable smell, but it can be breathed in great quantities Marth Gates. 31 with impunity. Light carburetted hydrogeD, or marsh gas, is odorless ; it explodes if a flame is applied to it as it is liberated into atmospheric air, but it is also harmless as obtained in the laboratory, though it is accused, with what foundation no one knows, of producing malaria when generated in marshes. 3. Sulphurated hydrogen : has a bad odor, produces vertigo and vomiting, but otherwise, harmless. - ' 4. Ammonia : has a pungent odor, in a concentrated form it may burn exposed surfaces, such as the conjunctiva and the larynx, but it is also harmless. 5. Sulphide of ammonium : has a bad smell, may produce r immediate asphyxia if inhaled in large volume, but, unless it kills, it produces nothing but nausea and headaches. 6. Carbonic acid : has a pungent, musty odor, it kills if breathed in sufficient quantity for a sufficient length of time, but like sulphide of ammoiium, unless it kills leaves no other after effect than vertigo and slight debility. Such is the experience of a thousand would be suicides. 7. Carbonic oxide : is odorless, and still more poisonous, but precisely in the same manner as the acid, it either kills or does no harm. When ytxs speak of these gases as harmless we do not mean that they can be substituted for atmospheric air, oxygen 21, nitrogen 79, as this no gas can, but merely that they may be breathed in combination with atmospheric air for a rea- sonable time. No typhoid dysentery, diphtheria, scarlatina, ierysipelas or anything similar to these conditions has ever been produced by the inhalation of these gases when generated in the laboratory in the process of the arts, in mining opera- tions, etc., yet when liberated from ponds and sewers they act as positive infections^ and their physiological effects are unlike those which follow the breathing of any other gases. The most rational explanation then, which occurs to us, is that of the germ theory of Virchow, and which will be suffi- 32 C«i« Pits. oiently elucidated in speaking of sewer gases. The light etherial nature of these germs has already been hinted at. But we have already taken up as much time over this pirt of our subject as space will permit, we will then proceed to cess .pits or garbage reservoirs. In rural districts these are very useful as they collect a quantity of very valuable manure which would otherwise be wasted, but they should be well removed from dwellings, and efficiently ventilated to be safe. Of course they should not be permitted in towns or in the vicinity of water supply under any circumstances. We will not here enter into the subject of how house drains and stable sewers should open into these pits, or rather how they should discharge their contents into them, as that belongs properly to the next chapter. The site for the dwelling, it will be assum- ed, has been chosen in a suitable place, perhaps somewhat on an elevation. The cess pit should be excavated and properly built with stone or brick, and lined with water-tight cement. It should be of sufficient capacity to accommodate the entire sewage of the establishment, together with the outhouse sewage, but of course not the water of the yard or that used for wash- ing. Soil drains, stable drains, &c., should empty into it, not directly, but through efficient traps, &c. An important item, in this country, is to prote: it from the frost, though, if it is properly constructed, frost will not damage it. The fol- lowing cut shows the most approved form of cess pit and the arrangement of the entrance of the drain pipes. It should be placed at a convenient depth below the surface, and should be provided with a well or slight hollow about a foot deep at one end into which the floor dips, and in which stands the pump for emptying the pit. This pump is best constructed of buck- ets or caps fixed on a chain which passes around two puliies, one above and one below in the well, like an elevator, and should be of a convenient height for a sewage cart to back under the spout and receive the discharge. It will be seen that the pit is covered over and has two manholes in it for venti- Ceis Fits, etc. lation, through one of which the pump may be made to work. Fio. 8. 1, Body of pit. 2, Well. 3, Pump. 4, 4, Manholes. 6, Feed pipe from gewer. 6, 6, 6, Brick lining. 7, Cast iron cover which should be covered with straw, etc., in winter, though this form does not render it necessary. It will be seen that the sewer enters the pit near the bottom, this is to allow the fluid in the pit to stand above the pipe and prevent the entrance of air. The manholes should be covered with openwork iron lids, like those used for ventilating sewers, etc. Manure by exposure loses much of its value, and the fluids are very often not collected at all where pits are not in use, but they should be well protected and under no circum- stances should they communicate with the dwelling, as even with the utmost care there will still be some fluid or gaseous leakage. We have only now to consider the storage of solid manure before we pass on to sewers, etc. Stable manure should be kept in a pit somewhat in shape like the cess pit, but air may have free access to it, A drainage pipe should pass from it to the cess pit, to catch any liquid manure before it has had time to evaporate. These pits should be removed a sufficient dis- tance from the dwelling, to prevent infection, and should be on A )pwer level. Manure heaps are much more unhealthy than 3 34 Military juration 8. pits, as they allow a more free escape of foul gas. House gar- bage should be deposited in the manure pit, if not otherwise utilized. In military operations or manoeuvres men should be marched as rapidly across marshes or past stagnant pools as possible. Halts should on no account be made in their vicinity for rest- ing troops or to await baggage, and a night should never be spent there. When such places are to be crossed the medical officer in charge should represent the advisability of resting the men before euterini^ the marshy or low ground, to avoid having to do so in it. The sick and wounded should if pos- sible be conveyed round marshes, even of considerable extent, and when compelled to cross them the transport should be as rapid as it can. The subsoil should always be examined for the presence of water before a camping ground is chosen, and if found near the surface it should be rejected. Three feet would be considered near the surface, but beyond this, if the camp is only to be occupied for a night or so, it will do no harm ; however, in ground which it is intended to occupy for Fome time the sub- soil must be dry, and this can only be ascertained by diggiug a well to the depth of six or seven feet. Hunting camps and pleasure camps should be chosen with equal caution, as many have received the seeds of a shattering disease from negligence in .i.6 matter. The immediate vicinity of ricebeds is notoriously un- healthy, and where camps are pitched at rapids it is better to find out if the subsoil is waterlogged as it very often is, and more frequently so above the rapids than below them, strange as it may seem. Subsoil water should always be boiled if used for drinking, etc. 35 CHAPTER IV. SfcV/Eas, SEWAGE, BEWEft GASES AND HOUSE DRAINAGE. Leading an individual existence, man, removed from the habitations of other men, readily finds the three things essen- tial to his maintenance. Pure air, pure water, unadulterated food. He s>?atters the waste products of his intrinsic and ex- trinsic economy upon the soil around him, where vegetation at once feeds upon them, nourishes itself with them, elaborates them, returns them to him re-converted into pure air, pure water and wholesome food, and thus the simple commerce be- tween animal and vegetable life goes on uninterruptedly. But as men congregate vegetable life is banished, the return to the earth of what is earthy is retarded, the cycle is interrupted. The presence of the waste products of the animal economy is fatal to animal life; their prompt removal from human contact be- comes therefore a question of vital importance, and sewers are constructed for that purpose. A perfect system of sewers is one which will carry the waste liquids from the basin to the terminus, be that a river, pumping station, or irrigation field, at the rate of from 150 to 270 feet per minute, and whatever system fails to do this ceases to be a sewer and converts itself into more or less of a receptacle for decomposition and foul gases. 311 Si ewers. That sewers may fulfil their end their size must be pro- portionate to the area they have to serve, their inclination and shape that best suited to favor the required velocity. The material of which they are constructed must be hard, that they may have the required resistance; be impervious, that there may be no soakago; sm)oth on their internal surface, that there may be the least friction. They must be constructed in straiojht lines, with water tight joints, gentle curves when necessary on immovable foundations, at sufficient depth from the surface to insure proper connections with the house drains and at a convenient level at the outlet. They must be provid- ed with means of inspection, be well ventilated, kept clean and in good repair. The size of the sewers must be proportionate to the water supply, of which it will be equal to about four-fifths. In Lon- don the sewage is from five to eight cubic feet per head per day, but this varies greatly with the wealth of the district and does not include the rainfall. This would be considerably below the requirements of this country. Perhaps an allowance of sixteen cubic feet per capita per diem would be about right, allowing for the spring flushes. The water supply of ancient Rome was as much as 300 gallons per head a day, and its sewers must have been in proportion, as indeed we know they were, for the same sewersexist to this day and serve modern Rome. A velocity of two and a half feet per second is generally aimed at, and may be taken as sufficient, and this may be secured with the following inclinations : — For a 12 inch pipe a grade of 1 1q 200 feet do 15 do do 1 " 250 " do 18 do do 1 '* 300 " The shape to secure the greatest velocity at all times in sewers, which are necessarily intermittent in flow, is the egg shape, as in this when the quantity is small it also occupies the least space and therefore causes the least friction. Bricks, stoneware and concrete pipes, cement, hydraulic Oornrr Jhislur, 37 lime and iron pipes are all used in the constructioo of sewers. In all sizes below 18 inches, pipes either of stoneware or cement are perhaps the best, and above that diameter brick should be used. Iron, when the sewer has to be taken through unsound ground or under rivers, should always be used. Rosendale cement seems to make a very good sewer, and the reports where they have been used are that ** there is no sign of disentegra tion or wearing away of these pipes." A good firm foundation at a proper depth should always be laid of cement or stone or brickwork, and carried along at the proper inclination. In the main sewers manholes and lamp-holes should be arranged at suitable distances, and in this way the whole system is, with the use of proper tools, brought under complete control, and any obstruction can be cleared out with- out breaking the ground. The corner basins for receiving the fctorm water should be properly trapped, and have cess pits to contain the detritus from the streets, which should be frequent- ly examined, and emptied by hand every five or six days. Figure 4 represents corner basins for receiving' storm water, properly trapped. 1 , is the grating from the street ; 2, pipe leading to sewer; 3, body of corner basin ; 4, '^leaning hole, with bolt to fasten in bottom. There are several different shapes of corner basins, but this is one of the best, and it is in very general use both here and in Europe. Bends in the mains should have a radius of at least twenty feet, and should b3 made of properly manu- factured curved sections, and not as Fio. 4. is frequently the case by cutting aid adjusting sections of 38' Sewer Pipes, straight pipe, mating the curve a succession of straight lines at obtuse angles, instead of a gentle and uniforna curve. Figure 5 represents the straight pipes let into each other to form curves. Fio. 5. Fig. 6. Fm. Figure 6 shows the gentle curvejof the pipes, each pipe being a settion of the curve. Figure 7 shows a bend in one pipe, having straight pipes running at right angles. This form is objec- tionable as solids are apt to lodge at the angle and obstruct the sewer. We set then that Figure 6 represents the best form of curves in pipes. Branch pipes should fall into the main pipe drain to the rignt and left, and never at the top, even those from above, but should descend to a level with it and then enter. Right angle joints (should never be used (Figure 8), as a deposit is very likely to accumulate at a, causing sooner or later a stoppage which is diffi- cult and expensive to remove. All junctions should be those known as Y shaped junctions. Figure 9 represents the Y junction, but the angle of junction should be as obtuse as possible, to facilitate the flow of sewage. The ventilation of sewers is accom- plished by means of man holes, ^''^ ^• Fig. 8. Ventilation of Sewers. 39 which should be covered with openwork iron lids, having trays under them to catch dust, etc. This is effective enough as 'ong as the system is carried out throughout the entire works, and the manholes are placed sufficiently near each other. For many reasons the rain water pipes should not be used as sewer ventilators, nor indeed are they so ia- tentionally, though accidentally they sometimes act as such, in which case they very often give rise to severe illnesses by con- veying impure air to the apartments of the dwelling, from leaking near a window. The smaller sewers, which serve dwellings are called the " house drains," and the pipe which collects the water, excreta, etc., from a house and discharges it into the street sewer is called the "drain pipe," the pipe which discharges the excreta into the drain pipe is called the '' soil pipe," and that which empties the bath and waste water into the drain pipe is called the " waste pipe." As houses are now generally connected with the main sewers in the streets, a danger arises from the force with which the air is driven along the sewers at those times during the day at which they are most fully charged, a pressure upon the air in the house drains is thus caused, continuing thence to the traps in the houses. The " drain pipes " should therefore be trapped outside the premises by a stoneware syphon trap, the full size of the drain, and for the purpose of flushing it, in case of stoppage, there should be a stand pipe to the surface of the ground. The inner and highest point of the drain pipe should be run up to a point «bove the roof, and removed from any wmdow, as also from the chimney, to avoid a down-take in the flue, carrying foul air down into the rooms. No waste pipe from a bath, sink or lavatory should on any account em ty into a soil pipe or into the trap of a water closet. The waste pipes should be well trapped, and empty into the drain pipe at a point quite removed from the entrance of the soil pipe. In climates less nevcre than ours, and where there is no danger 40 Water Closets, etc. of the gullifco being choked up by ice, the wacte pipe should empty into a gully outside of the house, which would itself empty by means of a trap into the sewer direct, having no con- nection with the drain pipe of the house. In choosing a water closet apparatus, one in which the pan and trap are in one piece of earthenware, and washes well out at the side is to be preferred. House cisterns are best made of galvanized iron, and should be divided into two compartments, one of which should be used exclusively for the water closet. In the case of country houses the house drain should be led into the main drain from the stables, etc., which in its turn empties into the cess pit in the manner before described. The main drain from the house to the cess pit should be frequent- ly ventilated on its way. The manure may be used with perfect safety for irrigation, and will be found remunerative. Earth closets are now frequently used in rural districts, where there is no water supply, but they require great atten- tion and are apt to be dusty. When, however, they are prop- erly attended to and kept clean they answer all the purposes very well, and are immensely preferable to privies ; it is not quite safe, however, to have them in the house. There are several very good forms made in this country, the best, per- haps, is the self-acting. Drain pipes, or any part of the sewers whatever, should not be made of unglazed earthenware, as this allows fluids and gases to permeate it, and escape into or under the dwelling. There are several varieties of traps made, most of which accom- plish the object for which they were constructed very imper- fectly or not at all. Sewage consists, in addition to human excreta, both solid and liquid, of the water from kitchens, containing vegetable, animal and other refuse, the water from washing, containing soap and organic and various matter, the liquids from stables, cowhouses, pig-stys, slaughterhouses, and the refuse from factories, stores and the streets, containing material of all sorts. Composition of Sewage. 4\ The chemical composition of sewage of towns using the modern water-closet is on an average to : 1 gallon of water, ''^' ' ' ^ *'' ' ' ' ' ■'' ''"- 20 grains of organic matter, ' '' ^ 6 " " nitrogen, ; . -.. u; . r. . f- ]J " " phosphoric acid, --'"^ i ' -■ 2 " " potash. - ' - : -■^; In towns where water-closets are not used the difference in organic matter is not as great as might at first be supposed, being only from one to ten parts less in one hundred thousand. Day sewage also contains more than twice as much organic matter as night sewage. In the following tables the composition of the sewage, taking an average of 18 cities where the modern water-closet is in use, and 15 cities and towns where water closets are not used : AVERAQB OF 54 SPECIMENS AVBRAQE OF 37 SPECIMENS : OF SEWAGE FROM 18 CITIES PROM 15 CITIES AND TOWNS WHERE WATER CLOSETS WHERE WATER CLOSETS /: WERE IN USB. WBRB NOT IN USE. Total -lolid matters in solution 72.200 82.400 , . , Orgai io Carbon 4.696 4.181 Organic Nitrogen 2.205 1.975 .' Arimonia 6.703 , r.435 I/itrates and Nitrites 0.003 0.000 ' Total Combined Nitrogen 7.728 • 6.451 ,, ; Clilorine 10.660 11.540 Suspended Mineral Matter.... 24.180 17 810 ' Suspended Organic Matter 20.510 I 21.300 » Under the microscope sewage is found to contain a quantity of dead and decaying animal matter, and in addition multi- tudes of living bacteria, amoebeform bodies, ciliated infusoria, fungi, a few diatomes and occasionally rotifers and other higher organisms. ,, , y\. 42 Sewage. f*T' Figure 10 is drawn with the camera lucida from a slide in our poss- ession, which was mounted in winter from a sewage in a rural town. This is a fair specimen of the winter sew- age, or at least of the clear part of it, for it had been al- lowed to settle, and the drop examined seemed quite tran- sparont on the slide. The well known tendency of such a body as sewage to under- go decomposition need hardly be mentioned here, but from the fact that this decomposition gives rise to various gases, chemi- cally impure in themselves, and all more or less injurious to the health, individually, and very dangerous collectively, giving rise to a class of diseases, of a very virulent type. We have seen that marsh gases, when chemically pure of their kind and dealt with individually, have very diflferent effects from those produced by inhaling the combination as marsh effluvia, and so it is with sewer gases. The individual gases are : 1, nitrogen ; 2, carburetted hydrogen ; 3, light carburetted hydrogen, called marsh gas; 4, sulphurated hydro- gen ; 5, ammonia ; 6, sulphide of ammonium ; 7, carbonic acid ; 8, carbonic oxide ; 9, carbo ammoniacal vapors. Let it not be supposed that any one of these gases is con- stantly being emitted from decomposing sewage, or that they are all present at any one time. Sometimes some are present, Fm. 10. ^ Sewer Gases. 43 and sometimes others, in various forms and combinations, ac- cording the composition of the sewage and the conditions under which it is placed with regard to heat; light, oxidation and velocity. • ■ If we seek the analysis of sewer gis, we may take the fol- lowing as a fairly good and reliable one : — v. , i . r Carburetted Hydrogen 72.88 i.v,.; Sulphurated Hydrogen 6.70 . :J: " Carbonic Acid 12.30 ^ Carbonic Oxide 2.54 Other substances 5.68 • ,„ In parts ...........100.00 By experiment we have ascertained that gases are liberated in stagnant sewage at the rate of one and a half cubic inches per gallon per hour, but this may be more than doubled by a high temperature, or vastly reduced by dilution and a high velocity. The lesson we are then taught, by these facts, is very patent, viz.: That sewage should be kept cool, that it should be as much diluted a.s possible, and that it should be made to flow rapidly from the dwelling or street, to the terminus, be that a river, the sen, pumping station, or irrigation field, for it is no longer a matter of doubt that the emanations from sew- age, either develop or favor the development of many forms of disease. And not only is the death-rate lowered in towns where sanitation has been properly attended to, and particular- ly the department of sewerage, but the average duration of life has been lengthened, and the books of many a general practi- tioner would show the dates of sanitary reform as plainly as the engineers' record, and much more forcibly, by the decrease of fever, diarrhoea, dysentery, and allied complaints ; yet, to their credit be it said, these men are among the first to extend to humanity, in a spirit of worthy disinterestedness, the boons which will make their own income visibly decline. 44 Sewer Gases. Of course ia endeavoring to analyze the death statistics of sewage polluted communities, we soon find that with regard to many of the separate cases, in the miscellaneous mortality, we cannot argue in exact scientific terms, partly because very large quantities are registered under names which have no definite nosological meaning, partly because certain diseases well known to be of the literal type, are, for some unaccountable reason falsely reported, but chiefly because our statistics are most im- perfect in this country, due, we are driven to proclaim, to eittier the grossest ignorance or culpable negligence ; so that in the majority of cases all we may be able to establish is the broad fact; that, within an area of sewer contamination, the deaths in total amount are greatly more numerous than they ought to be : that of children, especially, being twice, three times, and even lour times their fair rate of mortality ; and that the excess, or at least a certain share of the excess, can only be accounted for, as the effect of sewer gas poisoning ; and after all, perhaps, this is all that we require. In the Registrar General's (United States) report of Yellow Fever, he concludes ''That nothing is so important in the pre- vention of Yellow Fever, as proper water supply and sew- age." He further says ''That the disease cannot be taken in a pure air from persons, clothing, trunks, or black vomit ; but in aa impure air, other things being suitable, it can be taken from any of them." It is not our aim to attempt to give any exact statement of the total influence which sewer emanations exert upon health, for as a general thing it is only as far as diseases kill that their effect can be represented in numbers. Of the incalculable amount of physical suffering,the disablement which they occasion, the sorrows, the anxieties, the darkening of life, the strained means of subsistence, the destitution or pauperism which often attend, or follow such suffering, death statistics, and the health board reports, testify only by suggestion. It is in his profes- sional capacity alone, that the minister of the gospel, or the Sewer Gases. 4 5 physician, is brought face to face with these dismal and heart- rending realities. However, what we have said is sufficient to show that of the death-rates, which are registered every year, fully one-half are of the zymotic order, and of these the great majority are due to the effects of bad drainage. What then, are our deductions, and how are we to benefit ourselves and our neighbors by them. • We have seen that a poison exists in sewer gases, whose action is very different on the human system from that of any one, or of all, its chemical constituents together. The effects of any chemically-known poison are always the same, produc- ing the same disturbances, the same symptoms, the same organic lesions, the same mode of death, and the results are always proportionate to the amount of poison taken, and these effects cease with the victim ; sewage emanations act in a very different way ; they produce diseases of a very different physiol- ogical and anatomical value; very small amounts may develop fatal ailments, on the one hand, and on the other large amounts may produce but slight derangements ; and above all, the poison once emplanted in a human being, is capable of re- producing itself af? infinitum. It is a question of great moment, and somewhat a difficult one to solve ; does the effluvia of sewage per se give rise to the diseases which we find to accompany its presence, or is sewage the predisposing agent in their production, merely reducing the system to a state more easily vulnerable by the zymotic poisons. w / - " J ^ . And here we are thrown back on the mechanical or organic constituents of sewage, and these, besides the debris of various substances, animal, vegetable and mineral, are the presence of various minute organisms of living bacteria, amoebae, infusoria, fungi, etc. We may not be inclined to put much faith in fine drawn theories, be they ever so scientifically beautiful, yet when they filone explain physiological and pathological difficulties, other 46 Virchow^x Theory. wise inexplicable, we cannot help giving them at least an im- partial hearing, and if we do we are often forced, as in the case of the germ theory of Professor Virchow, to become believers at least in its feasibility. We have, then, first the unimpeachable fact that there exist in sewage multitudes of living germs. These germs are analogous to others, which experiments have shown to be capable of nourishment, growth, and self multiplication ; they are infinitely small, light, and capable of being lifted by the slightest current of air ; in fact their habitat is watery vapor. In pure, dry air they imme- diately perish. In pure air, charged with moisture, they live for a length of time yet undetermined. In humid air, charged with putrified animal and vegetable matter, they live, nourish themselves, and acquire the full vigour of their nature. If, now, they are deposited in a proper nidus (a slice of apple is one frequently experimented with) they reproduce them- selves by myriads. We noted that sewage, in addition to its organic matter aad its living things, is largely composed of water ; that water is constantly passing into the state of vapor. We have, therefore, that as it liberates its one and a half cubic inches of putrid gases per gallon per hour, it gives to the air around it its living germs, the humidity they need to live in, and the humidity and the food they require to thrive upon. All they now require is the nidus to hatch and multiply. Note now the diseases produced by the so-called sewer-gases. They are always of the infectious kind — one case may be the parent of a thousand. The first victim has taken the disease from the sewage vapor, through the mouth, nose or eyes, or the blood vessels may absorb it from the surface of an open wound or ulcer ; but the second victim need have nothing to do with the sewage vapor ; he may never have been near it ; he may take it directly from the first victim, from his mouth or his secretions. Does it not seem as though something had passed with the sewage vapor into the first victim, which had there multiplied and propagated its kind, and that its offspring Bacteria. 47 had passed from the first victim to the second, where the same phenomeDu had been developed and the same capability of reproduction. We wish to link ourselves with no especial theory, we have only stated facts, which any scientific man can prove for him- self; still we cannot help drawing conclusions, which, from the results of ten years' close study and practice, we have been satisfied in our own minds are correct. We take the bacteria as they are found, come whence they may, and give the facta concerning them, and their probable relation to the diseases caused by the so-called sewage gas, such as they are. Let us now see how the sewer gases enter our dwellings, it being presumed that our house drains are in supposed good condition, and that we are among those who do pay some little attention ^o sanitation. We often then have leaden and iron pipes joined, and if so, we may expect a loose joint, for lead and iron have different degrees of contractibility at the same tempemture. Again we know that sewage gas ifi a great solvent of metals, and we have therefore perforation of the pipe. Gases frequently perforate the upper side of the pipe, and there being no leakage of water, the circumstance is over- looked. Gases often corrode these pipes more readily than liquids. Still more, we have the permeation of water by sewage gas, and its ready passage through it. It only takes fifteen minutes for ammoniacal gas to react upon litmus paper through a trap sealed by a column of water two inches in depth. How then, are we to protect ourselves from these sewer gases ? The answer is, by so thoroughly ventilating our sewers that little or no gas will lodge in them, firstly, and by so thoroughly ventilating our house drains that they will convey no sewer gas, secondly, and lastly, by attending to the sewers and drains and traps constantly. We have hitherto neglected to mention grease-boxes, which 48 Grease Boxes. should be placed under kitchen sinks and places where greasy dishes are washed. The box should be sufficiently large to prevent blocking with grease, and easy of access, so as to be frequently cleansed. It should be ventilated, and the outlet pipe should be in the T form, the upper arm open for cleaning and the under one dipping at least six inches below the outlet pipe, to prevent surface grease flowing in and choking the pipes. Figure 11 shows a grease-box, and sufficiently explains itself. Fio. 11. A, House wall. B, Ventilation pipe. C, Inlet. D, Outlet. E, Grease floating. Sewerage in military camps is a matter of great importance if the camp is to be occupied for any time, as it is likely to saturate the ground and perhaps contaminate the water supply. LatrineSy dkc. 49 A large trench should bo. dug at some distance from the camp, into which refuse of all kinds may be thrown, and a few inches of earth thrown over it, or when circumstances do not allow of this wholesale measure, a number of pits may be dug about the camp, in which refuse may bs daily thrown and covered with a few spadefuls of earth to the depth of an inch or so. In camp life latrines should be one of the first things attended to, as it is wonderful how soon ground will become polluted by a number of men. The trench is perhaps the best system that can b3 adopted, but as this is not a work on mili- tary hygiene, and as perhaps under our present volunteer mili- tary scheme it becomes to a great extent unnecessary to lay down every little item of health according to rule, for such an intelli- gent body of men. We may merely suggest that perhaps of all systems where an abundant water supply is not availa' ' the dry earth is the best, and from our experience in actuai war- fare, we think that perhaps the trench is the best in camps, &c., but men on fatigue duty and prisoners should be detailed to cover each day's sewage at about eight o'clock every evening with fresh earth. Where a temporary camp for shooting, picn icing, etc., is established, it is always well, if the camp is a large one, to establish some rules with regard to the disposal of sewage, etc., similar to these, but it is hardly necessary to make such suggestions, as common decency will always prompt some ar- rangement of the kind, and one by which the sewage will b© buried always, is sufficient. - J, ' ' ' " L *« ■ , ; . . .-.,.■..» . !-■ 1 ' .:. ' . 4 : ,. J WATER AND WATER SUPPLY - r -ql-y CHAPTER V. . Water has beon from the time of the ancients divided under the heads of Public and Private. Public water is used for washing and watering streets, extinguishing fires, public fountains, flushin^jj sewers, and public baths. The private uses of water are for drinking, cooking and washing. We see then at a glance that many waters which might do well enough for public, would not at all be suitable for private uses. It is of the water which we employ for private purposes, and principally for the purpose of drinking and cooking, that we will have to speak in this chapter. A water then, to be a good potable water, should in the first place present the following qualities, roughly speaking : — >% 1. It should be transparent to white light. • 2. It should be totally without color. 3. It must have no particles suspended in it. 4. It must be tasteless and without smell. These, we notice, are all negative qualities. It must also be possessed of two positive qualities, viz., it must be aerated and cool to be fit for drinking. TV 1 Put water may be possessed of all these qualities and not Wattr, 61 be a wholesome water. It may tor instaDoe contain numerous substances in solution, which may be highly injurious to health, and, practically speaking, these are the waters that we have to beware of, since no one will attempt to use a palpably dirty or plainly impure water. In beginning this subject it might perhaps be as well to give some of the reasons for certain waters containing more impuri' ties than others, and this leads us to enquire ho^^ far per te water (that is chemically pure water) is a solvent of the sub- stances which we might call impurities. We find that without the addition of something else, water does not so readily dissolve many of the impurities which we find it in a natural state to contain, and we therefore conclude that i\', is this something that is the solvent, and not the water. There are many substances which are rapidly absorbed by water, and lodged, as it were, in the Interstices between its particles to an enormous extent, and one of these, carbonic acid, we know to be a good solvent of lime, soda, potash, etc., and these we find to a greater or a less extent in all waters, for water at once dissolves the product of the union of these bases with carbonic acid. A moderate amount of carbonic acid in water would be about seven cubic inches per gallon. 1q addition to this water also contains nitric, sulphuric and phosphoric acid, either pure or in combination, and the presence of some of these, as we will hereafter see, is very significant. Rain water abounds in gases, such as air, which is peculiar in containing about 35 per cent, of oxygen, and carbonic acid to the extent of 2|^ per cent, of the whole gases. It is also often loaded with such substances as ammonia, nitric acid, sulphuric acid, carbon, chlorides, and even iodine. Its solids average about 2J grains per gallon, nearly half a grain of which is organic matter. It is a comparatively pure source of supply, and in many 62 Hard and So/( Waters, countries the only one, and its softness or freedom from mineral compounds makes it a favorite with the laundress. All natural waters are said to be " hard " or '* soft," according to the amount of salts they contain, notably lime, magnesia, and iron, and thiu is tested by the solubility of soap in the water. Soft water, or chemically pure water, dissolves the compound of soda or potash and a fatty acid called soap immediately, and makes a lather ; on the other hand, hard water does not do so, because the salts just mentioned form insoluble precipitates with the soap. From this then we form a standard, and say that a water has so many degrees of hard- ness, I. e., that it will take for each degree of hardness as much soap as one grain of carbonate of lime would take to precipitate it in a gallon of water, and the importance of this is that we know water with a high degree of hardness to be unwholesome and bad for household purposes, and indeed objectionable, even if the hardness be caused by harmleis salts. A water is called hard if the degree of total hardness amounts to six degrees or more, and all under this is called soft water. We mean, by speaking of total hardness, the degree of hardness before the water is boiled or anything else done to it to reduce the salts held in solution. Boiling reduces the hard- ness of water by driving off the carbonic acid, which liberates the lime, causing it to precipitate, as we may often see in the coating of tea-kettles which have been used for some time. When we speak of the permanent hardness of water we mean its degree of hardness after boiling, and this is generally due to the presence of injurious salts. (The hardness which is lost by boiling is called temporary hardness.) Permanent hardness is chiefly due to the presence of magnesian salts, chloride of calcium, and sulphate of lime, which are all objectionable in a water. Hardness will hereafter in this chapter be expressed in parts in one hundred thousand, which Impurines in Water ^ 53 18 more convenient than using Clark's scale, which is the one just given ; however, there being 70,000 grains in one gallon, it follows that if we multiply the parts in 100,000 by 7 and divide by 10, we get the result in degrees of Clark's scale. If then we find after examination that water has a high degree of permanent hardness, we are suspicious of it. It contains probably sulphate of lime, chloride of calcium, and perhaps magncsian salts, and these last are especially objectionable in water, as we have seen in Chapter 1, they are liable to induce goitre and diarrhoea, and even cretinism. Even a slight trace of magnesia, then, condemns a water. Chlorides are also suspicious, if occurring to any extent, as they may have been caused by sewage pollution. Of course if there is good reason for their presence, otherwise, they are not be put down as so dangerous, but all sewage contains salt tu a considerable extent. There are about 10 parts of chlorine in 100,000 of sewage, while there is only 1 part of chlorine in 100,0(. of pure natural water. The amount of chlorine, then, is a very good test for the purity of water, except that we must always allow for the possibility of chlorides being present in the soil through which that water has gone. Nitrates and nitrites are generally taken as the test for " previous sewage contamination," i. e., that the nitrates and nitrites are due to the oxidation of organic matter previously in it, but they may be present in a very good water. Ammonia, too, should be in very small quantity in the second or third place of decimals in 100,000 parts. Sewage contains 6 parts in 100,000. Actual organic matters in a water may be there either in a state of suspension or solution, and the simple act of agitation, as in filtering it, may dissolve the organic matter, so that in either form it is dangerous. These two are represented in most reports as ''organic carbon" and " organic nitrogen." It is an inconvenient way, but since it is the official one in this country, it is necessary to mention it. 54 ^ Wanklyn^s Method, A more convenient way of expressing the quantity of organic matter in water is by what id called *' Wanklyn's method," and to understand it more readily we will explain that the chemical test for ammonia is one of the most delicate with which we are acquainted. Wanklyn then converted the nitrogen contained in organic matter in the water, or the greater portion of it, into ammonia and then estimates it as so much ammonia, or, as it is called, " albuminoid ammonia," and this must not, in a drinking water, be allowed to be ibove the third place of decimals, and should it appear higher m 100,000 parts, the water is bad. The albuminoid ammonia represents 10 times itiS weight of dry organic matter and 40 times its weight of moist organic matter. We now see that when we have an analysis of /rater before us, we must consider the different things together. (The author is prepared to give this analysis of any water submitted for his examination.) The nitrates help to condemn a water with much organic matter in it, so does the ammon:a and the chlorides, especially so if we have not good reason to believe that they come from some other source than sewage. The danger of organic matter in drinking water consists in the fact that it is organic matter in a state of rapid change, and that it may and often does contain the poison of specific diseases which may be imbibed in the drinking water, and give rise to an outbreak of typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, or diphtheria, &c. If now the water supply does not comply with the above conditions it must either be made to do so, or, failing this, be immediately rejected. . In order then to purify water, if practicable, and if past purification, to be able to reject it conscientiously as a water supply, we should be able, without the aid of very much analytical skill, to tell whether the water will do for a drinking water after filtering, or not, and we will therefore lay down a few simple chemical tests, which may be applied by anyone, Easy Analysis of Water, 55 not intended, let it be remembered, to supercede the reirular scientific analysis, for that is always necessary where a question of some importance arises, but, merely to give a general rule to guide us in selecting the best of a number of waters, which should then be submitted to the analyst. - < : •*?«.,. ,.> All the apparatus necessary, will be a spirit lamp, a few test- ing tubes, a wooden testing tube holder, and a glass rod or pipette. The following reagents are also required, and should be kept in well stoppered bottles. a. Baryta water, h. Goulard's solution. (Acetate of lead solution) c. Chloride of barium solution, d. Nitrate of silver solution, e. Oxalate of Ammonia solution. /. Sulphuric acid dilute, g. Solution of Indigo in Sulphuric acid. h» Condy's fluid (solution of permanganate of potash). The presence of the metals is tested with sulphuretted hydrogen, but this we will leave to the analyst. In testing, take each one of the test-tubes, and thoroughly clean and dry it, then fill about two-thirds with the water to be tested, and add the reagent carefully, with a glass rod or better still a pipette. 1. Carbonic acid is shown by whiteness, on adding baryta water, — . .: . 2. Sulphuretted hydrogen, gives a brown or black color with the Goulard's solution. . > . . • .■ .i . 3. Sulphuric acid, a whiteness is produced by chloride of barium i-i/^v-- -^^ -■ • ^ •■- ■ ;.. - r -:-:■.,,:. , 4. Chlorides, by nitrate of silver giving a white muddiness. 5. Lime, shown by a whiteness on adding oxalate of am- monia, r .:/. V ; n ;,f 6. Nitric acid — which sewage or graveyard pollution will introduce — by evaporating to a small bulk over the spirit lamp, adding a little sulphuric acid, and then a drop of solu- tion of indigo in sulphuric acid — on heating the blue color will disappear if nitric acid is present, 7i Organic matter, by the brown precipitate on adding 56 Purification of Water, Condy's fluid. If there is no organic matter, the solution on being added to the water, should only give it a beautiful bright magenta tint. The purification of water, before it is offered for human consumption, is a subject of the very highest importance, and yet one, which in many communities meets with very little attention practically. Some useful changes take place spon- tainously, if water is allowed 'to settle ; for instance, much of the suspended matter falls to the bottom, and sulphuretted hydrogen is given off from the surface ; settling pits and free exposure to the air then are to be advocated, and this the ancients appear to have been thoroughly acquainted with. Next in ease and importance, comes boiling of water for drink- ing purposes, with subsequent aeration ; this does very well on a small scale, but when we have to supply water to a town, or a large establishment, we can hardly practise boiling. The addition of lime to a water, already too hard, may seem some- what paradoxical, but such is the plan discovered by Dr. Clark, for rendering water soft on a large scale. The action of the process depends on the fact, that much of the carbonate is dissolved by carbonic acid, with which the additional lime forms a carbonate, and both this and the originally contained carbonate, are precipitated, with also some entangled organic matter. This process is sometimes adopted, and with very good results. Again, the addition of Condy's fluid most effectually removes organic matter, as well as the peroxides of metals. The manganese, which would enter the system if this process was adopted, would not be injurious, as it is similar in its medical action to iron. About two ounces of Condy's fluid will render a hogshead of very impure water safely potable, and at a charge of about two cents. i ■^- All water is originally derived from the sea, and being raised from this never-failing source as vapor, returns to the earth as rain, and this supplies our rivers, lakes or springs. In percolating through the soil, much of the organic and gaseous ^ Filtration, 57 impurity of rain water is oxydized, and therefore spring water issuing from depths, is most pure and wholesome, unless passage through limestone has rendered it too hard. The oxygen, which exists so abundantly in the soil, also serves the purpose of destroying organic matter, otherwise the neighbor- hood of towns would become intol'^rable from the soakage of refuse and sewage. River water and well water, vary much with the geological character of the district they come from, and in the case of wells, with the depth to which they are sunk. Shallow sur- face wells are very often contaminated with sewage and surface soakage, while on the other hand, the deep Artesian wells produce most wholesome water, but more of this here- after. '■ - ■ 1 ' , "•' * --.^ •;■'-, i-'-^i-. . We will now consider the best means of purifying our water supply, always bearing in mind that there are many waters which nothing less than distilling will purify, e. y., waters contaminated with sewage. The process of filtration is one of the greatest purifiers of water that we are acquainted with. Not only are the mechanical impurities removed by the filter, but it also exercises a chemical oxydizing influence on the dissolved organic matter, contained in the water. Filters are made of various substances, but are all reduceable to two kinds, viz., those which merely strain the water, and those that strain it and do something more. In the filters which merely strain the water, wc have a simple mechanical stoppage, or at most entanglement of the suspended debris, or, at least, as much of it as will not pass through the filter. These are made of wire gauze, flannel, or woven horse-hair, &c., they are not much in modern use, but at one time were the only kind known. < i? The other kind, which are generally called compound filters, in contra-distinction to the simple ones, which we have just seen, accomplish more than the mere process of straining, 58 Filtration and Filters. though they do this, too, most effectually. They oxydize much of the dissolved and suspended organic matter, and in addition to this thoroughly aerate the water. We will now see the process explained, but let us first say a few words about their construction, that what we have to say may be the more readily understood, and to be brief, we will confine ourselves to the principle on which compound filters are generally con- structed. Sand, or gravel, and charcoal, are the materials usually em- ployed, originally, because it was thought that they would more effectively strain water than cloth, &c., but it was soon found that the water passed through these substances, but especially through animal charcoal, had the two other changes supeir added. The action is thus explained — the water permeating the filter, becomes extremely divided in passing around the particles of sand and charcoal, and as these substances always contain a great quantity of air, entangled as it were in their meshes, the water in this minute state of division is exposed most thoroughly to its action ; organic matter becomes oxydized, and the purified water absorbs air. Again we know that charcoal, and som» other substances, are great oxydizing agents in themselves, and this is explained by the fact that charcoal has a great attraction for oxygen, which it seems to store up in its myriads of minute cells, and thus it will be seen, the water containing organic matter, passing through the lilter is exposed to pure, or nearly pure, oxygen, which oxydizes and purifies it. It is thus, too, that charcoal is such a powerful deodorizing agent. It is calculated that finely powdered animal charcoal will purify 600 times its weight of water, i. e., one pound of charcoal will thorough ly filter sixty gallons of water, but it must be always borne in mind that no kind or amou .t of filtration will ever render im- pure water quite pure, or even safe for drinking. Several very good forms of portable and house filters afe made. The best are made of alternate layers of pure cl^an Astringents a9 Purifiers. 5^9 sand and animal charcoal. A very good form also is the char- coal block enclosed in an earthenware casing. Filtration through sandstone or various mixtures of sand and gravel can only remove the coarse mechanical impurities, and therefore but little reliance is to be placed upon it if the original supply has been impure. Stone filters are sometimes made and sold, but they act only mechanically. Astringents of all kinds precipitate the coagulable albumin- ous matters, and in this way the atrt/chnos potatorum, or clearing nut of India acts, when rubbed upon the inside of ves-els in which water is kept. For a similar reason chips of oak are thrown into the drinking water in the country round Bordeaux, while the Chinese drink a cold infusion of weak tea, rather than the bitter, filthy water which their towns and cities afford. Compare these facts with what we read in the book of Exodus, when Moses cried to Jehovah at the well of Marah (bitterness), to sweeten the waters, as the Isrealites cried, " what shall we drink," and He indicated to him a "certain tree " on throwing the branches of which iato the well its waters became sweet and fit for use. Figure 12 gives a very good idea of how a filter for house- hold use may be made. There are very many kinds and forms of filters, some of which we are sorry to have to say are positively bad. ■■•■.' . V ' ' V , : , \:- ■ '■■- ' - ♦ . '? f .• f >* *-*r f- • 1 . f - ■ ■•■ • r r ■ r- . ■■' * '- ■•■- -•■■. ' >• ;* I ^ ,. f , > -1 ''...■•, ■•■ * ■- - ■ ,,■■ ' '•• ■ •- A . f ■* ' -vr;V„- \ -rl-pfj ■-•"'■^ -7-rr. ■ ~-r" - - T ■ - r '^ ' ■ ' r\': ,'' '■ ' '"■. '*'■'" *-'\ ':■■■» C> -:.h->r:.^ -•■ . • *. . /% . ^ > h i^'^ • - -A'f";' n^at' -9:nr;r rr^vf^?:^ 60 Author's Filters. 1, 1, 1, Outsiile case, the bottom o( which forms the Altered water reser- voir, below the rim on which the tray contain- Injf the unfiltered water and t'le filter beds. 2, 2, Th«^ tray containing the beds and unfiltered water. 3, 3, Layers or beds of sand. 4, 4, Layers or beds o( charcoal. 5, Filtered water reser- voir. 6, Unfiltered water reser- voir. 7 Perforated bottom of inside tray. 8, Perforated plate to brealc the fall of the water so as not to dis- turb the sand at 3 when fresh water is poured in. 9, 9, Rim or ledge on which the tray, 2, 2, rests in the tank or outside case, 1,1,1. 10, Cock for dcawinff fil tered water. 11, Cover of tank. Fig. 12. The outside case or tank should be made of hard glazed stoneware, or galvanized iron. The tray, which fits inside this and rests on the shoulder, 9, 9, should be made of well burnt glazed stoneware. The perforated tray, 8, should be made of stoneware. A very good form of pocket filter was devised by us and greatly used during the late Ashantee, Dahomey, Zulu and Indian wars. It is so simple in construction that almost any- one can make one for himself, and one can be used for filter- Pocket Filter, 61 ing water for a whole camp as well as for one person, as it can be fitted into a hole in a cask and the whole water run out through it. Figure 13 sufficiently illustrates its construction. Fig. 13. - . > ... . 1, 1, 1, Tube made of a piece of bamboo, tin or better still, glass, tho end at 2 is blocked with a piece of perforated bone or horn, and the tube for about half an inch is also bored to admit the water. 2, A small chamber where the water gathers. 3, A bundle of small quills or pieces of wire to give an equal distribU' tion of the water on the next layer. 4. Coarse sand. 5, Fine animal charcoal. 6, Fine sand. 7, Animal charcoal. 8, Coarse sand. 9, Cork perforated with 10, quill to drink from projecting an inch or so from the tube. This little filter need only be about eight inches or a foot long, and about an inch in diameter, to serve twelve men with drinking water. Other pocket filters were brought out with india rubber tubes, &c., but they generally failed, owing to the tubes melting with the heat. The author's invention can be applied to any purpose for which filtration on a moderate scale is necessary. One of them, well made, will filter a hogshead of water in three or four hours, but of course the sand and char- coal require to be changed frequently. Filtration on a large scale is necessary when towns are supplied with water. The filters for this purpose are generally made of coarse sand and gravel ; charcoal is generally considered too expensive for filters of this size, but it should, where possible, nevertheless, be used. It does not come within the province of this little work to enter into the construction of reservoirs, service tanks, or waterworks generally, these come more wHhin the scope of the sanitary engineer, we will merely mention a few points which ^all more especially for our attention. As regards, then, the employment of river water as a supply for a town, much confusion has crept into many minds regard- 62 Flowing Water,i ing the extent of purification which naturally takes place in a flowing river. Most people imagine that it is much greater than the facts ascertained hy experiment will substantiate. Dr. Frankland says, when examined before the Royal Com- mission on Water Supply, (London) ; " There is no process practicable on a large scale by which that noxious material (sewage matter) can be removed from water once so con- taminated, and therefore I am of opinion that water which has been once contaminated by sewage or manure matter is hence- forth unsuitable for domestic use." We will proceed to quote a little farther from a very valuable work on this subject : " Now the results of experiments are found to give the following facts : — In the first place it appears that in rivers that are well known to be polluted, and the water of which has a temperature not exceeding 64® Fahrenheit, a flow of between 11 and 13 miles produces but little effect upon the organic matter dissolved in the water. To remove all uncertainty from the variability of the composition of the river waters at different times of the day, experiments were made by mixing filtered London sewage with water, it was then well agitated and freely exposed to the air and light every day by being syphoned in a slender stream from one vessel to another, falling each time through three feet of air, the mixture, which originally contained in 100,000 parts .267 of organic carbon, and .081 of organic nitrogen, was found to contain after 96 hours, .250 of organic carbon, and .058 of organic nitrogen, and after 192 hours, .2 of organic carbon, and .054 of organic nitrogen. The temperature of the air during this experiment was about 20^ Cent. (68® Fahrenheit). These results indicate approximately the efi'ect which would b^ produced by the flow of a stream containing 10 per cent, of sewage, for 96 and 192 miles respectively, at the rate of one mile per hour. They show, then, that at the above temperature, during a flow of 96 miles at the rate of one mile an hour, the amount of organic carbon was reduced 6.4 per cent., that of organic nitrogeq Flowing Waiai^, 63 28.4 per cent., while during the flow of 192 miles at the same rate, the amounts of these two substances were only reduced 25.1 and 83.3 per cent, respectively. It is shown that the oxydation of this organic matter is chiefly affected by the amount of atmospheric oxygen dissolved in the water, such dissolved oxygen being well known to be chemically much more active than the gaseous oxygen of the air." It was found, however, that the action of this dissolved oxygen was not really anything like so quick or so perfect as generally supposed, md that 62 per cent, of the sewage was the maximum quantity that would be oxydized during 168 hours, even supposing that the oxydation took place during the whole time at the maximum rate observed, which was certainly not the case. It is thus evident that so far from sewage mixed with twenty times its volume of water being oxydizi^d during a flow of ten or twelve miles, scarcely two-thirds of it would be destroyed in a flow of 168 miles at the rate of one mile per hour, or after the lapse of a week. m^i .^ * ,; .^ .:.^, ; It is perhaps unnecessary to go any farther in this subject of river pollution. We have said enough to show that river water once contaminated with sewage takes a very long time to purify, if it ever does so thoroughly, and that in selecting a water to supply a town it is very necessary to get one which has never, if possible, been polluted by sewers emptying into it. The contamination of a river is often unavoidable, or almost so, at least with our present system of sewerage, though if sewerage farms were established about our towns there is no reason why our rivers should be polluted. The next great source of water supply is wells, both deep and shallow, and no two sources can supply waters more widely different. The supply obtained from shallow surface wells is often very uncertain in quantity as well as variable in quality ; indeed surface wells in the neighbourhood of populous districts, as for instance those sunk in towns, for a few feet, often supply 9 most dp.ngerous compound under the uaiQe of water. Many 64 Surface Welh, severe and fatal outbreaks of typhoid, cholera, and other diseases, are due purely to the consumption of water from these surface wells. The following is an analysis of a water made a few days ago by the author, on being consulted as to the quality of too water from a shallow well in a thriving country town in this Province, which was suspected by the proprietor to be impure and unfit for use — and he was right : — Total amount of solid matters per gallon 36.60 grains. Fixed salts 32.51 " Volatile and combustible matters .').21 " Organic matter 4.71 " Nitric acid Very excessive. Nitrous acid Lorge. Now this water was positively dangerous, yet we would ven- ture to say that there are hundreds of wells in as bad or even a worse condition than this one, which was at once very wisely closed up, in the same town. In towns where there is no proper sewerage system, the surface wells, i. e., wells less than 30 feet deep, and even those of a considerable depth, must necessarily be loaded with foul soakings from the polluted ground. The ground itself becomes saturated with sewage, and the water which fulls upon it and drains through into the wells carries filth often of the most dis- gusting character, both suspended and dissolved in it. Very diflferent is the character of the water from deep borings, generally called Artesian wells ; the water is pure and wholesome unless there is some geological cause for an opposite condition, the supply is abundant and generally gushing, and though as a rule hard, it is merely temporary hardness, and not injurious. Such waters, too, often contain substances which might mislead the inexperienced or superficial chemist, for instance nitrites are often found abundantly in water from Artesian wells^ and it is often also quite alkaline. The Welh as a Water Supply. G5 amount, however, of permanent hardness is low, though the total hardness may be very high. Let us now glance for an instant at the geological forma- tions where we may reasonably expect water, and of what kind. We have seen that rain is the source of springs, rivers and lakes, and we may add of wells, too. In this country we may divide the total rainfall into three equal parts, viz., one third which is carried off by streams, &c., another third is absorbed by plants and animals, or is lost by evaporation, while it third sinks into the ground to feed wells, springs, etc. And now to get at this water which has sunk into the ground ; in the first place of coarse it is to be got at by digging or boring into the proper strata. Wells in sands, lying over impervious .^^trata, over clays especially, if they are not deep, do not, as a rule, afford much water ; they niay, however, afford a fair supply as to quantity, but very often afford a bad supply as to quality. If wat^jr of this description has come directly fiom the surface, and especially in the neighbourhood of towns, it is contaminated in all sorts of ways. The water in these wells never flows or spouts up ; wells on the other hand, sunk through impervious strata to pervious ones below, generally, though not always, supply excellent w" ..er. At any rate they have a much belter chance of supplying excellent water, because they supply the water that has come from the h'gh grounds at a considerable distance. We have before mentioned Artesian wells and it may per- haps be as well to fay just a few words about them before we go tmy farther in this subject. They are so called because they were first introduced in the province of Artois^ the ancient Artesium in France, and consist of borings of great depth, the rationnel of which the following Figure, 14, which represents deposits of the tertiary system, will show. 66 Artesiari] Viells, 1, 1, Is an impervious straf.um of clay. 2, 2, A porous deposit of sand or gravel, vesting on 3, 3, A bed of chalk, the whole forming a basin-like structure. Fig. 14. The water which falls on the chalk hills, 3, 3, flows either into the chalk or into the porous bed 2, 2, above it, and being forced upwards by fresh accessions, would rise to the top were it not prevented by the impervious clay above, 1,1. The engineer, by boring through the bed 1, 1, at 4 and 5 gives exit to the water confined in the porous bed 2, 2, which may rise to the surface by hydrostatic pressure, and even flow away in a stream. Such are Artesian wells, and by them through the ciay beds of low level districts in England, France and Germany, copious streams of water are procured from depths, and under conditions which would either preclude the sinking a well altogether, or the expense would be such as to prohibit the enterprise. It is often thought that Artesian wells always overflow, but they don't. The water rises up to a certain height, which height is of course determined by several considerations — for instance, by the height it came from originally. One point is worthy of consideration in sinking these deep wells, which is that the level of the water above may be considerably lowered in the surrounding wells. Springs occur where an impervious stratum crops out from beneath a pervious one. The water in springs and wells varies very much in quality according to the place it is taken from. Spring water differs from rainwater in that it has passed through certain rocks and clays, and dv solved various materials Value of Different Waters, 67 on its way. Both contain a considerable amount of carbonic acid, which, as we have seen, possesses the property of dissolv- ing many mineral matters, notably carbonate of lime. Spring water also contains sulphate of lime, salts of iron, etc. The amount of carbonate of lime is often so great as to form what are called petrifying springs. The purest spring water we can get comes from the igneous, the metamorphic and the older stratified rocks. Many of these hard rocks yield a very pure water with very little salt dissolved. The mountain limestone, the oolitic limestones, and the chalk rocks also yield a good supply fit for drinking, so long as they do not contain any quantity of magnesian salts. Water from the new red sandstone often contains common salt. Waters in clay countries often contain sulphate of lime, these are bad and unwholesome waters, having a high degree of permanent hardness. River water is often purer than that of wells or springs, but this is not the general rule. The vegetable matter in river water is ^liiefly humic acid, and the ani^nal products which arc highly nitrogenous and abound in butyric acid, are d'^.rived from dead animals and manure and sewage, which soak into the river in highly cultivated districts or dense populations, especially after heavy rains. The steeping of flax in rivers, or in waters flowing into them, is likely to add much organic impurity, and early in the 17th century was prohibited by royal edict in Flanders. Another source of impurity in the shallow well water of towns and cities, is gas refuse from the works, or the gas itself escaping from the leaky pipes and impregnating the earth. Even the most impure well waters may be sparkling and cool, and for these reasons have been often reckoned wholesome, a grievous error. The quantity of water that should be ingested daily under the guidance of the sensation of thirst varies much, and in these countries averages some three or four pints for an adult t)8 Qaantitij of Water Supply. male, but in the tropics where evaporation is rapid, eight pints is not considered too much. For all purposes in this country a supply of 25 or 30 gallons per head per day should be enough for both private and public uses, though New York claims to use its 300 gallons per head per aiem ! We have said before that the subject of water supply on a large scale with its storage, filtration, etc , are subjects more within the province of the engineer than within ours, we will, however, give a rough cut of a filter on a large scale, which is one often adopted. Figure 15 speaks for itself. Fio. 15. 1, Feeding pipe. 2, Outflow pipe. 3, Settlingr pit. 4, Downward flitration chain, bar. 5, Upwards flitration cliainber. 6, 6, Fine Band chambers. 7, 7. Gravel chambers. 8, 8, Charcoal chambers. In military proceedings the supply and quality of the water is a very important item. When men are on the march they should each be provided with a water bottle holding a pint or Military Hygiene. 69 two. Soda water bottles covered with fianncl have been sug- gested, but they are too small. Water bottles are usually issued to the men, but it often happens that they are not in Store when required. Soda water bottles well covered with flannel or cloth, which should be kept constantly wet in any passing pool, fiUec with pure water should be carried. Sus- pected drinking water should always be boiled first and then filtered, and each man should carry a small pocket filter, such as the one suggested by the author in this chapter, in his kit. Men should not drink indiscriminately of the water they may meet on the march, and where the water is suspected tea should be issued, and a weak infusion used instead of water. The importance of the water supply of a camp need hardly be dwelt upon here. Tt is the duty of the medical ofiicer, as well as of every other officer and man in the camp, to pay particular attention to this subject. Water has often carried away more men than the engines of war in many of our campaigns. A ready way to make a good serviceable filter in the field is to take two barrels of unequal sizes, pierce their sides with holes and put the s»mall one into the large one, filling the space between them with sand or charcoal, and then filling the smaller with water, which will filter out and be caught in a suitable vessel. 70 CHAPTER VI. SEASON, CLIMATE, METEOROLOGY AND AIR. •• We next inquire, but softly and by stealth, Like conservators of the public health, Of epidemic throats, if such there are, And coughs, and rheums, and phthisic and catarrh." The term *• Temperate Climate " is usually bestowed on all those between SO*^ and 55° of Northern and Southern latitudes, and in them a wider range of temperature has been observed than in the frigid or torrid zones, e. g., we in Canada often have a range of 100° or even 150° in the year. The thermometer has repeatedly fallen to and below — 30° in winter, and on the other hand it has risen to 120° Fahr. in summer, but fortunately both these temperatures are unusual with us. The Surgeon General of the United States tells us that at Fort Kent a range of 129°, or from 39° to 190° occurred in 1845. The cold climates lie between 55° of North and South latitude and the poles, and have the lowest annual mean tem- perature, for instance 1.66° is the mean temperature of Melville Island. The torrid zone includes the climate between 30° of North and South latitude, and has perhaps the least range of temperatures of any. We have little to do with the frigid or torrid zones here, though our climate may be said to partake of the peculiarities of each in the extremes which we Temperature, 71 experience in winter and summer, the temperature ranging as it does over more than 100° every year. Cold is a most powerful depressing agent, and if intense and prolonged it extinguishes life by injury to the nervous sys- tem, as has been generally known since Captain Cook's graphic account of its effects on the surgeon of his expedition. Dr. Solander was returning with Sir J. Banks and nine others from a botanical expedition in Terra Del Fuego to the ship, during extreme cold, and finding that some of the party were showing drowsiness, he warned them most forcibly of the danger of sleep, saying, ^'Whoever sits down will sleep, and who- ever sleeps will wake no more." He himself was nevertheless the first to lie down, begging to be allowed to die in peace. His comrades, however, roused him, and he afterwards saved the lives of others who would have succumbed to fatal sleep. The first climatic condition of which we shall note the effects on the health of man is temperature, and in estimating this item the annual and monthly mean temperatures must not be the only subjects dwelt upon, for the maximum and minimum, as well as the rapidity with which they fluctuate, are really more important, especially in their influence on the breathing organs, including the skin. Again, high thermal ranges, with but little fluctuation in the entire year, are conducive to a class of diseases of a very virulent type. The prevailing temperature of the season may not be the mean one, as we see illustrated very well here in Canada, and again the mean degree of night and day may be a matter of very little importance in a sanitary point of view. The extremes of diurnal heat and cold are of much more importance. The degree of barometric pressure is also a matter of importance. Let us now examine and compare these various temperatures, and then compare them with what the Registrar General's Report says about the death rate at the different periods of the y6ar. 72 Isothermal Lines, Nearly the whole of Canada is included between the isoti.ermal lines of mean annual temperature, 40® and 50® Fahrenheit, — sny 45®, it is a little more, but this will do, being an error on the safe side. During the month of January, which may be taken as having some of the cc»ldest days in the year, Canada lies between the isothermnl lines 10® and 25® Fahrenheit,— say 17®. Now if we take the mean temperature for the month of July, which is perhaps the hottest month, we find Canada lying between the isothermal lines 70® and 75® Fahrenheit, — say 72®. We now get a mean of about 45® Fahrenheit for the year, and we have just seen that our mean temperatures are not of such importance as our extremes, but even here we have a mean variation of 55®. Let us now compare this with the Registrar General's Report for 1879. In speaking of diphtheria he says : '^ The month in which the smallest number died of this disease in 1879 was July, when 20 were recorded. In December the largest number, 76, was recorded. November and January were nearly as fatal as December." We see then that December and January are the most fatal in this disease, while July, the warmest month, is the least so. The same remark will apply to inflammation of the lungs, and other inflammatory diseases of the respiratory organs. The following table shows the death rate of the Province of Ontario in 1879, from the Registrar General's Report: — Per Cent. Malta. Females. Total, of the Whole. Quarter eiidiiJtf March 3lst 2,615 2,412 5,027 28.0 '• " June 30th 2,360 2,142 4,502 25.1 '• " September 30th. . 2,290 1,947 4,237 23.6 ** " December 3l8t... 2,193 1,999 4,192 23.3 9,458 8,500 17,958 100.00 Rapid changes of temperature are always more or less 'dangerous, and countries therefore with a fluctuating degree of bent and cold are more so than those more equable, but this, Registrar Genera Vs Report, 73 only holds good to a limited extent, for we find in the tropics, where the annual mean variation is not more sometimes than 10° or 12°, that other diseases step in and render the climate still more unhealthy. In Canada we have, as we have just seen, in summer almost a tropical range of heat, while in w^inter our cold is often nearly as intense as that of Greenland. Every season, as we will now see, has its special class of diseases, and we will again have recourse to the Registrar General's Report, to lay this subject more forcibly before us. " In the cold weather of winter," he says, ** or more especially in this country, in the damp, cold, windy weather in the latter part of winter and early spring, there is a tendency to sickness and death through the organs of respira- tion ; inflammation and congestion of the lungs, bronchitis and pleurisy being the affections most prevalent at this season of the year. In the warm weather of summer the tendency to sickness and death is through the digestive organs ; diarrhoea, cholera infantum, and later, dysentery, being the diseases which are especially prevalent and fatal during this season. " In winter a fall of mean temperature below the average increases the sickness and mortality from affections of the chest. In summer a rise of mean temperature above the average increases the number of cases of death from abdominal affections. ** Regarding the winter or spiiug high death point, it is important to observe that it is not the first cold weather in autumn or early winter that gives rise to the great increase in the mortality, but it is that at the end of the winter, after the severe cold is past. Why is this ? It cannot be doubted that, though the cold at this later period is accompanied by winds and greater humidity of the atmosphere, those who then * to death succumb' have been, during the winter, exposed to some pre-disposing causes of lung diseases — to causes which have made them readily susceptible and prone to these affections. The most eminent authorities have brought forward convincing -...■•" 74 ' Summer Mortality. evidence that the re-breathing of breathed air in unventilated rooms is a common and constant cause of diseases of the lungs and air passages. Here, then, doubtless we have the chief factor, the principal cause, of the high March death-rate from diseases of the organs of the chest : exposure during the winter to impure air in close, unventilated roomp. Other causes, to be sure, help to swell up the wave of death at this period. There will be found a few in this country badly housed and fed during the winter, and cold and hunger com- bine with the foul air to predispose to these fatal diseases, manifested with the chills of spring ; others are inactive and spend much of their time in cramped positions with contracted lungs, and these organs then much more readily take on con- gestions and inflammations on exposure to cold damp air. ** In reference to the summer high death point, it may be said that the warmer the atmosphere the more rapid the gener- ation of malaria, and the development and growth of all sorts of disease germs, moulds, mildews, etc., etc.; and the greater the insanitary conditions, i. e., the more we allow ourselves to be surrounded with excremental or waste organic matter of any sort, the more abundant the development and growth of those causes of disease. Indeed, without the presence of de- composing organic matter, as on the surface of the ground or in the soil, there cannot be any development of such causes. These effluvia and the microscopic germs or seeds of these minute vegetable growths, moulds, mildews, etc., pervade the air, and attach themselves to the foods we eat, and are absorbed by the drinks we use ; especially are they absorbed by milk, the universal food of the young. They take root and grow upon fruits, and indeed more or less upon all sorts of alimen- tary substances. And not only are they, hence, taken into the body with the food we eat, but they are drawn into the lungs and blood with the air we breathe. In the body they interfere greatly with healthy nutrition, and give rise to general debility and intestinal diseases; the more readily and more severely Cold^ Rainfall^ Electricity ^ etc, 76 affectiri}!; those who had passed the previous winter housed in unventilated apartments, but who, with perhaps better develop- ed lungs and digestive organs, escaped the effects of, or lived through, the cold damp blasts of March. *' There is abundant evidence on record in proof of the above. Indeed the facts are well recognized. But it must be observed, and should ever be borne in mind, that it is not the weather per se, that is responsible for the high rate of mortal- ity at these particular periods. " Furthermore, a useful and practical lesson may be deduced from our knowledge in reference to these high points in the death wave. " It is more than probable, it is certain, that, with better ventilation in dwellings, schools, etc., and more outdoor life and exercise during the winter, and with more perfect sanitary surroundings, more perfect cleanliness, by the removal and proper disposal of all waste, excremental matters in cities, towns, villages, and even around farm-houses, whereby the air, water and food are rendered purer during the summer, the two high points in the death wave might be lowered in a marked degree. And it is further probable that much might be done in this direction by individual and united public health efforts," The effects of dry and moist years upon disease are quite evident in this country. About one in every five is extremely dry, and then fevers prevail and even cholera makes its appearance. This may be due to the difl&culty with which sewage of all kinds is washed away, and, drying up it floats through the air in all directions. About one in every ten years is exces- sively cool, when influenzas prevail. A cold, damp air rapidly abstracts the heat from the body, seeming to chill one to the bones — Rheumatisms then prevail. The effect of electricity on the health is no longer a subject of discussion. Undoubtedly the electric fluid is a great puri- fier of the air, most probably from the fact that it produces a 7€ . . Dew^ Winds, etc, '> quantity of ozone, which it is well known is highly beneficial in the air. In estimating the fitness of any place as a residence, especi- ally for invalids, the number of rainy days is a more important factor than the actual amount of rainfall. The rainfall at Cannes, in the south of France, is five inches higher thnn it is in London, yet the rainy days average 178 in the latter and only 52 in the delightful watering place we have just mention- ed. Tha^. climate then, which allows of the greatest amount of outdoc»r exercise, will be always the best for the prevention, alleviation and possibly cure of consumption. Dew is a deposit of atmospheric vapor, the eiFects of which are popularly and with justice dreaded. It falls when the capacity of the air to contain moisture is lessened by its^ temperature being lowerad at the departure of the sun, and it increases from shortly after sunset till midnight. Night dew should be avoided, especially sitting under it. Winds are injurious only in so far as they may be the vehicle of something else ; for example, malaria, when they blow from marshes or unwholesome places East winds are, as a rule, chilly, and are to be avoided on that account. They are of infinite service in renewing the air, which in towns is rapidly polluted. Long continued calms often precede the out- break of an epidemic. The air we breathe is certainly as important as the food we eat or the fluids we drink, and yet it receives far less attention. In our chapter on ventilation will be found a closer investiga- tion of this subject. Here we have only to give a few hints as to the rendering of air pure, or what is generally called disinfection. In vapory air bacteria, which we have before had occasion to mention, exist, multiply and thrive, but they are immediate- ly destroyed by a pure dry air ; it follows then that a damp atmosphere is at least favorable to the spread of disease, while a dry one is healthy. Aa might be expected, consumption Monthly Mortnlity. it ::- THLY HETURN OF DEATHS IN »OTATION AC 975 I March. 894 March. . . April, ^"'''"«' ■■■.■.■.■:::: m i^ebruary traiiuary l^eceinhei May '. " ■ ■ ■ •fuly . Noveiuher Jurip. ... 836 804 788 746 737 729 o . , , 720 oeptetnopr 710 Oot'»her. . (ijK CORDING TO NUMBERS. Females. 8o5 9,458 i^T^'^y 785 X* ebruary y^n Decern her. "ic M-y- : ■■..:.•.■.■.■. ■.-.iiS ^"S"»' 688 xNovember. . ggi •^"/y -v •■.:;:.:.: 633 September g26 9^'<^"''er '.■■.*.■.■.■.' 620 •^""« 612 8,500 We have before made referpnnfl fn K„ * • i ,. produ^eiiotvteat^^r^l ^^^^^ ^ ^o .. the 78 C HAPTER V [T. FOOD. In the two previous chapters we have spoken of water and air, which, we may remark, it is the duty of the authorities to supply to everyone pure and good, and the former at as low a rate to all as possible, while the both should be free to the poor, and pure and wholesome as Our Heavenly Father intend- ed them to be. Rules have been laid down, in the chapters just referred to, for the regulation of a healthy supply of water and air, speaking as we were able then to do in a degree generally to people who were able to make the disposals we re- commended, since they were those chosen to supply the masses ; still individual attention is necessary in every item of sanita- tion to insure safety from the thousand diseases by which we are surrounded. It is very dilFerent now, however. Every one has peculiar- ities of taste and circumstances, which will render his selection of the articles of food different from those of his fellows. It will be our duty, then, to draw attention to articles known to be unwholesome, and to lay down easy rules for the detection of adulteration in our daily food, &c. " Persons who prepare our food," says Dr. Lankester — *' cooks in the kitchen, ladies who superintend cooks and order dinners for large families, and people who consume food from day to day never think of asking whether food contains the right proportion and the proper ingredients to secure Pooil 79 health. Yet, without these, babies get rickets, young ladies acquire crooked spines, fathers get gouty and mothers get palpitations; and they do not, however, think of ascribing these things to the food which has deprived them of the proper con- stituents of their blood." All foods may be divided into two divisions according to their physiological action. 1, Tissue making. 2. Fat mak- ing. We have said a great deal about water in a former chapter, still we are not quite done with it yet, as it forms the bulk of many of our foods, e. g.^ we are told that Mahomet AH ate a forty pound melon every day by way of dessert. Again, food is divided into nitrogenous, non-nitrogenous and mineral. The nitrogenous articles of diet are the tissue mak- ers, and consist of animal and vegetable substances, but principally of animal food, excepting fat. The non-nitrogen- ous articles of food are the heat makers, and are used up chiefly in the lungs, they are starch, sugar and oil. The mineral substances are used in the process of digestion and for the repair and formation of bones, &c., they are common salt and various salts of lime, soda, potash and iron, &c., with mineral and vegetable acids. Let us now see what part each of these articles of diet, or at least each class of articles, plays in the economy of digestion. The nitrogenous portion of our food is supplied to us almost entirely by the flesh of animals, and is the substance we have mainly to rely upon to rebuild the waste of muscle aocl strength which is always more or less going on. Vegetables do not contain so much of this class of diets, and are there- fore not considered so strengthening. Man cannot exist very well on a diet from which animal food has been wholly ex- cluded, though occasionally he attempts to do so, contrary, we might be inclined to add, to the laws of God and nature, as we shall see more plainly hereafter. Again, we find it equally difiicult to exclude vegetables from our daily use, sometimes it becomes necessary to do so, 80 Food. and then the craving for articles containing starch and sugar becomes so intense that it requires the full exercise of the will to make us avoid them. In certain diseases of the kidneys such a treatment has been found the most successiul, and many lives have been prolonged with enjoyment of health by its means. Certain vegetables contain much more of this article, (nitrogen), than do others; for instmce. good wheaten flour forms in itself almost a complete diet, and well made bread with the addition of a little butter may be looked upon as a complete and whole.^^ome diet, of course with the addition of some water. Rice, which forms the staple article of diet in India, is very far from supplying the amount of nitrogen, which is necessary in due proportion, and therefore an unnecessary quantity has to be ingested, which throws an additional straiti on the elimi- native organs. Potatoes in Ireland and oatmeal in Scotland some years ago formed the staple diet of the peasantry, and in those countries gout was almost unknown among that class; ulceration of the corma and other diseases, the result of defeo ive nutrition, seeming to take its place; in India the same diseases prevail, A non-nitrogenous diet on the other hand will not support life at most, more than a few months. Dr. Stark abstained for four months from all nitrogenous food ; he was attacked by un- controllable diarrhoea, became fearfully emaciated, and died a victim to his misdirected zeal for science. In bread, the non-nitrogenous portion is sometimes vashed outarid consists of starch and sugar, the gluteri which remains, being the nitrogenous part, is a tissue producer, such a bread oflight be used in certain forms of renal disease, as we . have said. Starchy foods, such as arrowroot, rice, a large portion of the potato and of cereal grains must be converted into grape sugar before they can be taken into the blood, and this 'hunge lakes place in the mouth by the action of the saliva, they Variety and Mixed Diet 81 require even more admixture with it, by mastication, than is accorded to them generally — more we would say than even animal food. Having spoken, though very cursorily, of the two great groups of food, the flesh producing and the heat producing, the first principle of dietics we have to inculcat'^ is that they shall be mixed in due proportion, and that they must be sup- plied with considerable variety, as the complexity of human tissues plainly demands. This necessity was first demonstrated by Majendie, for he found that such simple substances as sugar, gum, fat, gelatine, and even pure flesh substances would not support dogs, for they died nearly as soon as if wholly starved. It is popularly believed that jellies are highly nutritive, and cooks swear by soups which thicken because of the presence of this material, but there is no greater fallacy — it is doubtful if it feeds us a^- all. If it acts as food at all it must be as a diluent of other matters, and the same may be said of cellulose, in which many vegetable foods abound. The admirable adjustment of all nutrient matters in due propor- tion in milk and the egg presented to us by nature, and in bread - a food so universal in this country that it may be said to be naturalized to mankind, teach us useful lessons in dietics. It may be instructive to study one or two of these natural foods more fully. Bread consists of (1) starch, which may be ^'eadily removed by washing the flour with water as before stated — it is purely heat-giving ; (2) of gluten — the stringy substance which is left on the removal of the starch — it is a tissue making principle ; (3) of salts, such as common salt, i. e., chloride of sodium,, phosphates, &c.; (4) of water. The only feeding group not re- presented ill bread is the fatty, but a time honored custom has supplied this in butter. Bread is of two principal kinds, viz : unvesiculated in the form of biscuit or the unleavened bread, and vesiculated or spongy, which excells by exposing a greater surface for the action of saliva. New bread is more palatable 6 82 Milk than stale bread, but is not so digestible, and is liable to cause dyspepsia, this probably is due to its being tougher and there- fore does not get the same amount of mastication, and conse- quently is not so thoroughly mixed with the saliva. The subject of milk is still more important as it concerns a question now attracting much attention, namely, infant mor- tality. The more important components of milk are four. (1.) Casein, the flesh producing element. Of this there is one- third more in cow's milk than in human milk, so that the former, to be a substitute for the latter, needs dilution. (2 ) Butter, the main heat producing material, exists in about equal amount in these two fluids, but in asses' milk there is but half us much, and it should be enriched by cream if used for infant feeding. The morning milking is one-fourth poorer than that of the evening, owing to the longer interval of feeding. (3.) Sugar ; this heat- producing article, abounds greatly in asses' milk, and thus in part compensates for its deficiency of butter. (4.) Mineral substances, which are twice as plentiful in cow's milk as in the infant's natural food, a fact which also shows the need for dilution. The practical rules we derive from these comparisons are, that cow's milk should be diluted, and then cream and sugar added to make up for the addition of water. The following are the best proportions — cow's milk, 8 oz., cream, 2 oz , water, 6 oz., sugar of milk, J oz. The addition of some nutritive flour, as corn flour, improves such food for infants, and prevents the milk from souring so rapidly as it often does ; but all such artificial mixtures are but poor substi- tutes for that which nature designed, and when one reflects on the conditions milk may be subjected to — by being kept too long, by adulteration, by the animals which yield it being unnaturally cooped up in cities, and the difficulties of adjust- ing its temperature and dilution — mortality among infants, enormous though it be, cannot excite surprise though it appeals for remedy, and we trust not in vain. Esquimaux and Greenlander, 83 Fatty foods are necessary in cold climates, especially where the people live greatly in the open air. It is this enormous consumption of fat which enables the Esquimaux and Green- landers to live the life they do, exposed to the rigor of the northern climate they inhabit, where the cold often stands for months as low as the lowest ranges of temperature we ever experience here, and where they bear with comparative incon- venience the most severe extremes of cold, living generally an open-air life. An Esquimaux will, without inconvenience, hoist in at one meal the almost incredible amount of 20 or 30 pounds of blubber, and when thus supplied is able to pass several days without food. On the other hand, among the inhabitant' of warm climates, there is but little disposition to the use of oily matter as food, and the quantity of it contained in their diet is comparatively small. In Canada pork forms a very large portion of the diet of the masses. It is often almost purely a non-nitrogenous diet in very many instances, as it consists almost exclusively of fat. Salt pork is the most indigestible article of diet with which we are acquainted, but if the meat is free from disease it is a food not unsuited to the requirements of this climate in the cold winter season, especially for lumbermen and others exposed to much cold and out-of-door work. It is not, however, suited to the requirements of people much confined in the house, or to those of women, who are as a rule less exposed than men. A little farther on we will have occasion to speak more par- ticularly of the relative values of different foods, and we will then see that certain grains are rich in the tissue producing element. We will mention peas and beans here, since we are speaking of pork, to be enabled to say a few words more on the subject of this kind of meat. Peas and beans contain a great deal then, as wc will see presently, of the very essential element, nitrogenous material, and pork is generally deficient 84 Nutritive Value of Foods, in it, by combining the two we make a very wholesome diet. This is often done in the form of pea and bean soup. Again, bread and pork forms a fairly good diet, whereas pork and potatoes, both being rich in the heat-producing principle, and poor in the nutritive, would be a very bad one. In the sub- joined table the relative value of various articles of diet are shown. TABLE OF THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OP FOOD PER CENT. * Article, Arrowroot Potatoes Cows' Milk Rice Corn Meal (India) Wheat Flour.... Oatmeal E^KS Beef Peas Beans Lentils Nitro- genized. Starchy. Fat. Salts. m • 82 • • ■ • 2 23 0.2 0.7 5 5 4.1 0.7 7 76 0.3 0.3 9 65 8 1.7 11 70 2 1.7 12 62 6 3 14 • • 10.5 1.5 19 • « 5 2 22 58 2 8 24 44 1.4 3.6 29 44 1.5 2.3 Water. 18 74 86 14 14 15 15 74 73 13 14 14 The extremes of digestibility of food are represented by rice, tripe and whipped eggs, which disappear from the stomach in about an hour, while four and a half hours are re- quired t digest salt pork. The potato, an article of diet so much in vogue now in all parts of the civilized world that it may be looked upon as next to bread in importance, calls for a few words in particular. The value of any aliment may be fairly judged of by comparison of its composition, and that of the blood it is destined to make, for this fluid may be regarded as the vurveyor-general to all the tissues. The following table puts the potato to this test, and even the small amount of nutriment it possesses is so obscured by The Potato. 85 incorporation with starch in immense quantity, and consisting; of particularly large grains, that we doubt if it be all utilized in digestion. In Blood. In Potato, Tissue producing matter 20 1.6 Heat do do 0.15 22.83 Saline matter 0.63 1.56 As an addition to other foods the potato is admirable, for instance, its mineral ingredients make it highly antiscorbutic, its value was put in a very practical shape by the American Sanitary Commission, when they said that a barrel of potatoes, annually supplied, was equal to one man preserved. But when we find it used as an exclusive food, disease must be rife among its consumers. As an example of the quantities of food, and their mixed characters, which should be apportioned to men under different circumstances, we will quote the daily diets in military hospitals. Low. Meat 8 oz. Bread 14 " Salt i •• Tea I " Sugar IJ ** Milk 6 •♦ Butter 1 " Eice..2 oz. N l"/".i* " \ ^""-^'"^ Milk., ipt.; Meat 8 oz. Bread 16 • Potatoes 8 * Barley Ik • Salt I • Tea J • Sugar 1} • Milk 6 * Vegetables 4 * Butter 1 • Flour i ' Entire. Meat ..12 oz. Bread 16 " Potatoes 16 " Barley U " Salt I •• Tea I " Sugar It •' Milk 6 " Vegetables 4 " Butter 1 '• Flour i •• We see, then, that a diet should be above all things varied 86 Adulteration of Food, from day to day, and in such a way that the different matters which we have now seen to be essential to the preservation of health may be given in due proportion. We will now briefly consider the more usual adulterations which are imposed upon us often in our food, premising, however, that the amount of adulteration of our food docs not take place now-a-days which did a few years ago ; still much of it goes on even now, and sometimes it is only when the article is subjected to the examination of the analytical chemist that the impurity or adulteration can be detected. When possible, we will lay down rules for the ordinary detection of fraud, but it must be remembered that, as in the case of water, the scientific analyzer should be consulted in all matters of doubt. The author is prepared to analyze specimens of food sent to him for that purpose. " We cannot disguise the fact that nearly all articles that it will pay to adulterate are adulterated," says Dr. Hassall. We would not like to say quite eo much as this, as we are convinced from our own observation of the manufacture of many home, as well as foreign, articles of food, that adultera- tion does not primarily occur, and therefore that we can some- times get unadulterated food from honest provision dealers, who deal with honest manufacturers. However, the authority just referred to gives us the following rather alarming list : — Annatto is adulterated with chalk, wheat flour, rye flour, salt and soap, for bulk and weight ; for color it is adulterated with turmeric, a ferruginous earth, probably Venetian red and red lead. Arrowroot with sago, potato and tapioca starches. Anchovies are mixed with Dutch, French and Sicilian fish, and sometimes these fish are passed off as the anchovy itself; both Armenian and Venetian red are also added to color the liquid which surrounds the fish. Bread with mashed potatoes, alum, hards, and sometimes with sulphate of copper. Adulteration of Food. 87 Butter with water, and we might add various fatty com- pounds. Bottled Fruita and Vegetables with certain salts of copper, usually the sulphate or acetate. Colored Confectionery with East India arrowroot, wheat and potato flour, hydrated sulphate of lime, and colored with cochineal, lake, indigo, Prussian blue, Antwerp blue, artificial ultramarine, carbonate of copper or verditer, carbonate of lead or white lead, red lead, vcrmillion, the chrome yellows or chromates of lead, lemon, orange, and deep gamboge, the three Brunswick greens, emerald green, or arsenite of copper, Indiaa red, brown ferruginous earths, chiefly umber, sienna and Van- dyke brown, and various combinations of the above pigments, and also bronze powders. Coffee with chicory, roasted wheat, rye and potato flours, roarted beans, mctngel worzel, and a substance resembling acorns. Chicory with roasted wheat and rye flours, burnt beans, saw dust, mahogany saw dust, carrot, mangel wurzel, and colored with ferruginous earths, such as Venetian red and umber, burnt sugar, sometimes denominated *' black jack." Cocoa and Chocolate with Maranta, East India, and Lacca or Tahiti arrowroots, tous-les-mois, the flours of wheat, Indian corn, sago, potato and tapioca, and various mixtures of these, sugar and chicory, and colored with Venetian red, red ochre, and other ferruginous earths. Cayenne with ground rice, mus :ard husk, deal sawdust, salt, and colored with red lead and vermillion or bi-sulphuret of mercury, Venetian red and turmeric. Custard and Egg Powders with wheat, potato, and rice flours, colored with chrome yellow or chromate of lead and turmeric. Curry Powder with ground rice, potato, farina and salt, colored with red lead. Flour with alum, and many other articles we could add. 88 Adulteration of Food, Ginger with wheat, sago, and potato flours, and turmeric powder. Gin with water, sugar, cayenne, cassia or cinnamon, and flavorings of different kinds. Rum with water and cayenne pepper. Isinglass with gelatine. Lard with potato flour, water, salt, carbonate of soda, and caustic lime. Mustard with wheat flour and turmeric. Milk with water and annatto. Marmalade with pulp of apple and turnip. Oatmeal with barley flour and the integuments of barley, called rubble. Porter and Stout with water, sugar, treacle and salt. Pickles with salts of copper, usually the sulphate or acetate of copper. Potted Meats and Fish with flour, probably wheat flour boiled, colored with bole Armenian and sometimes Venetian red. Preserves with salts of copper, including the acetate. Pepper with wheat and pea flour, ground rice, ground mustard seeds, linseed meal, P.D. or pepper dust. Snuff with the chromates of potash, chromate of lead, ferru- ginous earths, chiefly umbers, red and yellow ochre, red lead or oxide of lead, carbonate of ammonia, lime, powdered glass or silex, and powdered orris root. In Sugar wheat flour was found in two cases only ; it is but rarely adulterated ; potato flour and tapioca starch were also each found in one case. Cinnamon is adulterated with cassia, wheat flour, sago, meal, and mixtures of these. East India arrowroot, and potato flour. Pimento with mustard husk, in one instance. Mixed Spice with wheat, sago and potato flours, ground rice, and two vegetable substances, one of which resembled linseed. Adulteration of Food, 89 Sauces, such as the essences of anchovies, lobsters and shrimps and tomato sauce with red ferruginous earths, as bole Armenian and Venetian red. Tea with exhausted tea leaves, leaves other than those of tea, British and foreign, among the former those of sycamore, horse-chestnut and plum, with lie tea, paddy husk, sand and starch colored with plumbago or blacklead, gum, indigo, Prus- sian blue, turmeric, Chinese yellow, China clay and soapstone, or French chalk ; and it is flavored with sulphate of iron catechu gum, la veno beno, and Chinese botanical powder. Tobacco with water, sugar, treacle and salts of various kinds. Vinegar with sulphuric acid. Dr. Hassall says : — '' This list does not embrace nearly all the substances employed in the adulteration of food and drink, it contains those only which have actually been discovered by myself in the several articles subjected to analysis up to this time;" and the author could add a great many more which he has found even recently in food. If, DOW, we look over the list of adulterations we find that a great many articles are adulterated with the same substance, as for instance, potato and wheat flour, and various husks and earths ; these may be collected by washing and then submit- ting to the simple test for starch, which is a weak solution of iodine, which, if starch be present, gives a beautiful blue color. Wheat flour is detected by boiling when a paste is formed, and with a good hand glass. Ferruginous earths and iron filings are attracted by a small magnet, to which they will adhere. Alum is first dissolved out of bread, and the solution tested for alumina. TL: amount of ash left after burning is a good and tolerably easy test for the purity. Sand, gravel, etc., will be detected after washing in the bottom of a vessel with a handglass. Sugar is easily known by the smell on burning. Disease is very often introdv^ed .to the system by means of th« fluids or condiments we use with our food. 90 Diseased Meat, Fio. 10. Figure 16 represents a speci- men of so-called cider vinegar, which came under our notice a few days ago. It was literally crowded with beings like minia- ture eels, running about in all di- rections. Some of the diseases which in- fest the animals we consume as food, are capable of producing serious consequences to man if their flesh is partaken of. Sheep, it is well known, suffer much from "y?i^A;es" in the liver, and this parasite is transferable to man if the liver be eaten. The flesh has not been shown to be unwholesome, but the liver is so dis- gusting that it is surprising it could ever be used as food. This disease in the sheep is often called the " ro^," and cannot be cured. In the pig the disease called ** measles,'^ and recognized by knowing buyers by small blisters which form under the tongue, is due to an animal, the ^^cysticercus,'^ lodging in the flesh, and it becomes developed in man's body into that formidable ten- ant the tapeworm. Figure 17 shows a measle from the pig. By thorough salting and smoking and care- full cooking they maybe destroyed, and there is much more danger of their being introduced in underdone pork; but to avoid danger to pub- lic health all measly pork should be seized. Measly, or '* spotted" pork may be known jy the specks scattered very thickly through it. The trichina spiralis is another little crea- Fio. 17. tare which may in a similar manner find its way into man's flesh, and there give rise to, during its migrations, a fever re- Trichina in Pork, 91 « sembling typhus, but producing awfully severe muscular pains. It has not appeared, lately, v^ry often. Figure 18 is a trichina in the author's possession. The one here shown is full of eggs, and as the animal is itself very minute, one car- cass of diseased pork would be capa- ble of propagating some twenty or thirty millions of them. This disease is also incurable in the pig, but it is said to be spread by rats about slaughter houses, which pigs after- fio. is. wards devour. The flesh of rats, which live about slaughter houses nearly always contains them in abundance, and it is said that during the late siege of Paris, when people were forced to eat vermin, the disease was quite common. .^^ ^> ^^^"^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 If IS m ^ US, nil 2.0 1.8 U !!llll.6 V] o / Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14S80 (716) 872-4503 92 CHAPTER VIII. METHODS OP SLAUGHTERING ANIMALS, ANIMAL FOODS, COOKING, BANTING AND BEVERAGES. Blood by our present method of slaughtering, is generally wasted, much both to the loss of the butcher and of his cus- tomers, and we will now endeavor briefly to draw more parti- cular attention to this subject, knowing, as we do, the ^reat benefits of retaining this important fluid in the meat which is intended for our tables. About one-fourth of the weight of the carcass of an ox is solid flesh, and abou«i one-fifth is blood and juices, or fluid flesh. The latter, by the process of bleed- ing, is almost wholly wasted, or rather cast into our sewers to putrify and poison the atmosphere. We will here, with the reader's permission, enumerate the advantages we claim for the method we advocate. 1. Blood and flesh are identical in chemical composition as is evident from the following analysis : Dry Ox Blood. Dry Ox Flesh, Carbon 54.35 54.12 Hydrogen 7.50 7.89 Nitrogen 15.76 15.67 Oxygen 22.39 22.32 And from this fact, Periera, one of the most reliable writers on diet, allows that i/heir nutritive value is equal. Very good articles of food are prepared from blood, and they would be- come favorite ones if we were convinced that that fluid were collected in so cleanly a way as to prevent the possibility of Blood to lietain in Meat. ^d cffal getting mixed with it. 2. The removal of phosphates of soda, sulphates of iron, and of the potash salts by imbiba- tion from the flesh with the last-flowing blood is injurious, as they are nutritive materials of vital importance, and one of the best preventatives of scurvy is underdone meat, or that in which some blood remains. 3. Meat from which the blood is most completely extracted, as thoroughly bled veal, is acid and unwholesome. All game, fish and some other animals are but slightly deprived of blood, and their pleasant and distinctive tastes are due to this fact. The equestrian people of the South American pampas kill their oxen in a way which does not ex- tract the blood ; and upon this flesh, usually dried in the sun, and constituting their sole diet, they attain the acme of mus- cular vigor. Tbe following modes of killing would retain the blood and be likewise as rapid and painless as possible : — 1. Compressing the lungs with air, as was patented by Dr. Carson, or with water, as suggested by Dr. Mapother. 2. By blowing Piir into the juguhr vein in the same way as horses are often destroyed on the hunting field, after an accident. 3. By thrusting a knife into that part of the brain known as the forth ventricle* 4. As practised in the abattoirs of Paris, dividing the spinal marrow in the neck — a most painless way — and this is not only a humane consideration, but a selfish one too, for the meat of animals which have suffered agony is hurtful — even poisonous. To diminish the acidity of meat killed by bleeding, or of meat which has been bled, it is necessary to keep it for some time before it is used, or until it becomes alkaline from incipient decomposition, evolving ammonia. Now it is very hard to de- termine how far this alkaline putrescence should proceed, and although the gastric juice has undoubtedly antiseptic properties, food may be introduced into the system m a very unfit state. Meat also loses in weight and substance by being kept, and to avoid pecuniary loss, it is often sold and dressed in a condition most injurious or even poisonous. The blood is an H Salted Meat alkaline fluid, and if retained in the flesh would neutralize its acidity and thus render it fit for food much sooner. The nauscles stiffen a few hours after death, which is probably naainly owing to the blood becoming solid within the vessels, for it scarcely occurs in the carcass that has been bled. It is well to wait until this stiffening has disappeared, for the meat is then certainly more tender and digestible. It has been proved, however, that no method of sLughtering will entirely remove all trace of blood from animals, for the microscope or chemical analysis will still discover it; any prohibition, therefore, against partaking of blood will be virtually a prohibition against eating flesh at all. As well might Shylock have endeavored to remove his pound of flesh without bloodshed ; as might the butcher try to drain absolute- ly all the blood out of the animals he slaughters. One notices the insipid taste of butchers' meat, but more particularly of beef, on coming from Europe here. We can hardly bring ourselves to eat the tasteless beef which is generally sold in the market, and yet the meat looks well — very well, indeed — we can only then conclude that the fault lies at the door of the butcher. Salted meat is objectionable for the following reasons : Its soluble salts are extracted with the brine, and as it must be steeped in water before being used, much of the soluble nutritive matter is afterwards dissolved out, and the covering of the fibres of the meat is so hardened that it takes a long time to be digested, and often disagrees with the stomach. Baron Liebig says : *' It is certain, moreover, that the health of a man cannot be supported permanently by means of salted meat, if the quantity be not greatly increased, inasmuch as it cannot perfectly replace, by the substances it contains, those parts of the body which have been expelled in consequence of change of matter, nor can it preserve in its normal state the fluid distributed in every part of the body — namely, the juices of the flesh. A change in the quality of the gastric juice, and consequently in the pro- Preparing 0/ Animal Food, 96 dutts of the digestive process, must be regarded as an inevitable result of the long-continued use of salt meat." Now the brine, which is thrown away, contains probably one- third of the nutritive materials of the meat, and it has been proposed to remove the salt by dialysis and to dry down the juice into meat extract, or uso it as soup. The separation can be effected by putting the brine in skins and placing these in water, which dissolves out the salt; in the same way salt meat may be reconverted into fresh. We will say nothing here about Professor Morgan's plan for preserving meat, referring those who desire information on the subject to the Professor's own writings. The plan is a very good one, and may easily be tested. What is known as ** slink veal," or the flesh of calves killed within a day or two of their birth, is a most dangerous and disgusting stuff, and fortunately is not much in use in this country. It is pale, flabby and acid, and is extremely liable to bring on diarrhoea. We will now say a few words about preparino; animal meat for food. Boiling lessens tHe weight of meat nearly one- third, and in order to retain tne juice the piece should be large, and should be plunged at once in boiling water to harden the cuter crust, it may then simmer till all the meat is heated to the boiling point. The rules for making broth are just the reverse, and, indeed, Liebig's soup may be made with cold T^ater, to each pint of which six drops of muriatic acid, some salt, and a half pound of beef, chopped fine, is added. This is most nutritive and restoring, but its red color is sometimes objected to. In roasting, the loss of weight is mainly water and fat, or dripping, the juices being retained by the crust the fire or strong heat soon forms on the outside. The subject of obesity, or corpulence, has become so " fash- ionable," and so constant a matter of consultation and of table talk, that we must discuss it for a few moments, but in doing so, we would say with Lewis to the softer sex : *' Young ladies, d6 ' ianting^ be boldly fat, never pine for graceful slimness and romantic pallor; but if nature means you to be ruddy and rotund, ac- cept it with a laughing grace, which will captivate more hearts than all the paleness of a circulating library." ^ :' - We will now analyze Mr. Banting's profitable little pamphlet. This person, a retired cabinet maker, some 68 years of age when he wrote it, five feet five inches high, and 202 pounds in weight, not being, as he says, *' quite insensible to the sneers and remarks of the cruel and injudicious in public assemblies, public vehicles, or the ordinary street traffic, nor to the annoy- ance of finding himself no adequate space in a public assembly, if he should seek amusement or need refreshment,'' and not being able to ** stoop to tie my shoe, so to speak, nor attend to the little offices humanity requires, without considerable pain and difficulty, which only the corpulent can understand. I have been compelled to go down stairs slowly backwards to save the pain of increased weight upon the ankle and knee joints." He joyfully tells us that by the regimen we shall just now quote, he reduced 35 pounds in 38 weeks, and became free from all the troubles he so bitterly complained of. Here it is verbatim : '* For breakfast I take four of five ounces of beef, mutton, kidneys, broiled fish, bacon, or cold meat of any kind except pork, a large cup of tea (without milk or sugar), a little biscuit or an ounce of dry toast. For dinner, five or six ounces of any fish but salmon, any meat except pork, any vege- table except potato, one ounce of dry toast, fruit out of a pudding, any kind of poultry or game, and two or three glasses of good claret, sherry or madeira — champagne, port or beer forbidden. For tea, two or three ounces of fruit, a rusk or two, and a cup of tea without milk or sugar. For supper, three or four ounces of meat, or fish, similar to dinner, with a glass or two of claret. For nightcap, if required, a tumbler of grog, (gin, whiskey or brandy without sugar) or a glass or two of claret or sherry." Now we see that in this somewhat generous bill of fare, which, almost ignoring the Stimulants, 97 question of Quantity, aims at excluding heat-producing food, there is nothing new, and that a similar one would have been prescribed by any scientific and judicious practitioner under similar circumstances. The fretted question of the use of stimulants is one which we feel that it is not our duty in the space we have now remaining to enter at any length. Alcohol, as a beverage, is undoubtedly injurious both morally and physically ; as a medicine, however, we are of a very different opinion. Malt liquors in moderation are often of the greatest benefit, but when they are not necessary for health we cannot recommend their use. Good ale and stout possess many valuable tonic virtues, but if taken in excess they are liable to derange the liver and bowels, particularly so ale. Stout is generally con- sidered more an invalid's drink, but there is often very little difference between them. laght wines, German, French, etc., are grateful and very useful in many instances, and they are not so liable to derange the liver as champagne, port or sherry. Madeira is a wine difficult to obtain good now, owing to a disease of the vine, which a few years ago did much harm io the Island. For general use we would be inclined to recommend some of the good brands of claret or mosselle in preference to more heating wines. Strong, now, rye whiskey and the coarse spirit sold as brandy in this country, are both bad and disgusting, as well as often being greatly adulterated with all kinds of deleterious and injurious stuffs. Nearly all wines and spirits are doctored, as it is called, and some of them contain not one particle of the principle which they are supposed to represent. We can make a fairly good " port " out of some cider, brandy, ripe sloes, water, tincture of red Sanders, and powdered catechu ; and a fair brandy out of any spirit with a little etherial flavoring. Sherry can be manu- factured out of brandy and water, flavored with some bitter almonds, or something of the kind. 98 ' . . i > ' CHAPTER IX. i';.'^-!,>: HOUSES, HOUSE ISOLATION AND VENTILATION, AND DISINFECTANTS. ^■':/-:>'^!:;- ^.^.,., • ■•.„:..«_ It is obvious that the house we live in was in nearly every instance not built by ourselves for our own individual habita- tion, and again it often — very often — occurs, that the house we occupy was built with no reference to us whatever, and perhaps prior to our advent ; nay, it often happens that the house we call home belongs to another — to one, perhaps, who has no particular interest in our health or welfare, or otherwise. Thus, the material may not be just what we should have chosen, or the style or the situation may not be exactly what we would have liked. Again, the ventilation may not be quite perfect — and, indeed, seldom is. The work of planning and placing ventilators in a house is the business of the architect and the builder ; we have merely to determine the space that we think will be suflficient for the maintcnar.ee of health and the amount of air to be supplied ; before doing so we will dwell just for a moment on the material of which houses may be built, taking it for granted that wooden houses are things of the past, as indeed they ought to be ; however, farther on, when we speak of isolation, we will E!ak« some suggestions for their improvement. Air penetrates all building material in common use very readily. That foul gases, &c,, then penetrate foundations and other walls with the greatest ease will be seen from the following table, which indi- cates the quantity of air passing through a square yard of wall Isolation of Houses. 99 of ordinary thickness and of different materials in one hour. Through Randntone wall 4.70 cub. ft. •' quarried limestone wall 6.50 '* *• brick wall 7.90 " " tufaceouB limestone wall 10.10 '* This table only allows for a difference in temperature of 9J degrees. The penetrating power would be much increased by greater thermal difference, and by the impact of wind and rain storms. Every cellar, therefore, in a town or city where there is no system of subsoil drainage and ventilation, is merely a tank for the reception of the surrounding pestilential moisture and gases. Stone houses in this country are sometimes accused of lodging frost in the walls in winter, but this we think is more a matter of fancy than of reality. Good, well built stone, or well burnt brick make the best walls with which ^e are acquainted ; but whatever the material, where there is suspected subsoil contamination, the house, cellars and all, should be isolated. That no house built upon polluted soil can be inhabitable, unless completely isolated from such soil, is sufficiently clear ; and that all urban districts, even if they be sewered and drained (though in the last event much less so) must fall under the denomination of polluted soil, is also obvious. It is important, therefore, that every dwelling should be isolated from the soil surrounding it. To accomplish this a bed of some impervious material should be laid under the cellar floor and along the whole base of the dwelling, from outside wall to outside wall, dipping in under the foundations ; or the foundation walls may be built on a base of concrete and a course or layer of impervious material (cement and slate or asphalt are much used) placed between the courses of brick or layers of stone, on a level with a layer of the same material which should be placed under the cellar floor. It would be well if all dwellings could have areas between the surrounding ground and their cellar walls, where this is impracticable the layer of isolating material should be carried up the outside of 100 Isolation of Houses. the walls to the ground level. Cellars should be ventilated, and under no circumstance should they be constructed below tide-level or in clay soils. Dwellings in such localities should be raised above the grouna with free ventilation under them. Figure 19 will roughly illustrate what we mean regarding isolation. 1, 1, Isolating material. 2, 2, 2, Concrete. It will be seen that the concrete runs under the cellar floov as well as under the foundations, and that the isolating material runs from outside of wall to outside of wall, run- ning up to the ground level at 3, where there is no area. Fio. 19. Let US now pass on to the consideration of house ventila- tion, and to fully appreciate its importance, we will draw attention to the quantity of air which man consumes, or rather vitiates, both personally, that is, by means of his own organs, as the lungs and skin, and by means of the conveniences he employs about him, as for examrle in lighting, fires, etc. An average sized healthy man will br^Athe in an hour about 28,800 cubic inches, or 1666 cubic feet of air, and in 24 hours produces 12 to 16 cubic feet of carbonic acid gas, and to dilute this to 0.4 of carbonic acid to one thousand parts of air it becomes necessary to supply at least 100 times the volume of air expired, or 1666 cubic feet of air per hour ; but this does not include exhalation from the skin, or combustion, which, when we do, will raise the amount to 2,802 cubic feet per hour at least, and this in a hospital ward or sick room, must again be greatly increased, as the causes of vitiation are greatly in- creased, we will then find that 4,500 should be furnished per hour, and in times of epidemics this must be increased to 6,000 Vitiation 0/ Air, 101 cubic feet, at least, per hour per head. It is computed that the burning of one candle vitiates as much air as the breathing of one person. "A cubic foot of coal gas will, on an average, give, when burnt, 2 cubic feet of carbonic acid, with about one- half grain of sulphurous acid, and this will require, at the least, 1,800 cubic feet of air to dilute it to a healthy standard." We know that an ordinary room gas burner burns about 3 cubic feet of gas per hour, and liberates 6 cubic feet of carbonic acid gas at the same time ; we see, then, that each ordinary gas buiner^ when lighted, vitiates as much air as would twelve persons in a room. The cubif space which each person occupies in a room, or in other words, the amount of air furnished^to each person in a known space or apartment, is found by multiplying the length, breadth and height together and dividing the product by the number of persons. The very least amount of space which should be allowed to each person should not be less than 300 cubic feet in sleeping apartments, and for a sick person 500 cubic feet at least should be allowed. This is much lower than we would recommend, perhaps one half of what we would say would be sufficient, and men in permanent barracks are allowed 600 cubic feet. But the re- newal of this air which has becsn vitiated so as to keep the carbonic acid down to the standard which we have said, viz : 0.4 parts in 1000 of air is a matter of much greater impor- tance than the actual space in cubic feet allowed. This renewal of the impure air generally goes under the name of ventilation^ and is of two kinds, namely, natural ven- tilation^ effected by windows, doors, and other natural and acci- dental inlets, and climneys and fireplaces as outlets. Artificial ventilation which is generally effected by the action of fans and valves, or by stoves or other artifical heat, including gas, whereby air is either drawn into or forced out of an apart- ment. " The fundamental principles of ventilation may be stated in a few words and should never be forgotten. When- ever air is heated it expands, and becoming lighter ascends, 102 Ventilation, leaving a space more or less empty. To supply the deficiency thus caused, the t-urrounding cold air lushes in. This prncess going on in the atinosphere amund ua constitutes a wind or current of air." Now by lighting a fire the air in the chimney is heated, expands and ascends, und the cool uir rushes in throujih the door, etc., to fill its place, if we then so constitute the chimney and fire that they will draw the foul air up in this heated ccudition, allowing the pure air to take ita place, we will have a good system of ventilation. To lift a window sash and throw open a looi is, in the aver- age mind, the established limit of all idea of ventilation. How much air enters a room through its openings, or how much should enter, or why any does enter at all ? or whether the doors and windows really ventilate in the technical sense of the word, or are simply means of just preventing air starvation and no more ? These are questions, which, we fear, but few know or care to know anything about. Fortunately nature takes better care of as than we do of ourselves. There are cer- tain physical laws by which injurious atmospherii agents are destroyed or overcome, did these not exist the whole human race would eventually succumb to their deleterious influence. These laws are of two kinds. First, the production of winds, by which the impure air is replaced by that which is pure, carrying away the agents of mischief, or diluting them to such a degree that they are ren- dered innocuous. These may be called the mechanical agents of purification, but they have also a chemical aspect, for whilst oxygen, as already mentioned, is an essential constituent of the atmosphe»*e, it is at the same time the great purifier. This is done, as we have seen, in the case of filtering water by the oxida 'on of the noxious contLminations which is constantly going -n in the air, till they are gradually rendered inert, at least as far as their poisonous influence to the animal kingdom is concerned. In the oxidized form they are caught by watery vapor aud descend with the rain, to fertilize the ground and Ventilation, 103 produce pi .nts for thci use and conFumption of nnn, other aniiiiMls ;iitd other plants, and thus there it! u CHuiph'te circle of natural Kuppoi t alw lys jroiu'j: oi in the org-mic w "ild. I he >ec »nd 1 .w t(» which we have aliuled is c.illed the ''law of diffusion" by which jiases niin^ilo with eich other, re^sird- los8 ot the hiws of gravity. For example, carbonic acid j^as, a very iieavy one, will rise and aiinirle to any hei»;ht with at- mospheric air, which is comparatively li«rht, and by this moaus impure air is freely diluted by that which is pure and free, brin«ring the oxygen in contact vv.ih the impurities, and bring- ing the whole down to the standard that may be respired. Now, in ventilation, we endeavour to imitate nature as much as possible by introducing pure fresh air into our rooms, and driving out the impure gases to mingle with and be purified by the atmosphere. Windows and doors are nearly always avail- able as ventilators, and in the case of windows they should open both above and below. The little lath, which keeps the upper sash of a window from opening, is a most deadly contri- vance, and should, where it exists always be removed. It is a matter of the greatest importance that the window may be opened at both top and bottom, and when practicable, this should always be done. ; '-; v. _>,,>. The upper sash made so as to open on hinges or pivots is a good plan, and one on which many windows arc now construct- ed in schoolrooms, etc. The hingo should be near the bottom of the sash so that when it is opened an upper current may be given to the ingoing air, which 8trik.?s against the ceiling and disperses, and does not produce draughts. Slany kinds of ventilators have been invented and are io use, and all those which divide the current on entering the room, as, fcr instance, perforated zinc or wire gauze, are to be preferred. The cold air from outside, too, should enter near the ceiling and be allowed to fall to the floor, and thus pre- vent currents of air along the floor, which often exist in rooms where the ventilators Quter at or near the floor. Many dif- 104 Ventilation. ferent plans of ventilating: rooms have been patented, some of which are very good. A simple contrivance, and one which works very well, is to introduce a row of perforated bricks next to the ceiling. The proportionate area of aperture should be one square inch to every 60 cubic feet of the room capacity. To obviate a downdraught, a cornice witii the upper surface made of perforated zinc covers the perforations in the bricks and communicates the air to the rooms. " A simple plan/' says Dr. Varona, " which works well in schools, is as follows : a perforated zmc tube opening to the external air, passes around ths cornice of three sides of the room ; on the fourth side another perforated tube is connected with the chimney " If there is no means of warming the in going fresh air, as indeed in most cases there will not be, the outer openings should have appliances for closing them in very cold weather. Numerous small inlets, so as to distribute the air equally and avoid draughts, are better than one large one. If the supply of pure air be insufficient, the vitiated air will collect at the top of the room, and eventually by the law of diffusion, which we have before mentioned, spread through the whole apartment and taint it. We have now to direct attention to the egress of contamin- ated air. The size of the apertures will have to depend upon the temperature, and height of the column. If the height of a heated column be 15 feet, and a difference exists of 10*^ between the external and internal temperature, and if the dis- charge per man be 2,000 cubic feet per hour, the outlet space per man must be 24 square inches, nearly equivalent to an opening five inches square. There must be, of course, an equal amount of mlet, so that the inlet and outlet together would be 48 square inches per head. This, therefore, would be the total open area necessary for each person, independently of all openings by windows and doors. To calculate the total size of the openings for any room destined for healthy persons, multiply 48 by tbg pumbei . Ventilation, 105 of persons, and the result will be the total sectional area to be provided in square inches. For hospitals we must multiply 72 by the number of persons. The outlet is more certain and constant in its action if the air be warmed — a fact exem- plified in the chimney and open fire, which carry on the remo- val most efficiently. Illuminating gas for this purpose admits of extensive application. : ■; r A very good ventilator is made by placing over the gas jet a pipe to carry off the product of combustion, and this may be enclosed witLin another pipe, considerably larger, which opens on the ceiling. The sunlight method of illumination consists in burning the gas under an opening in the ceiling, which communicates with a pipe lo carry off the products of combus- tion. Care in all these cases must be taken that the water formed by the burning of the gas does not condense in the tube and occlude it, and this is obviated by giving the pipe a proper inclination towards the chimney. In summer when fires are out there are no better ventilators than doors and windows, and these should be wide open on all possible occa- sions ; of the two evils it certainly is much less dangerous to breathe pure dr moistened with night dew, than bad air laden with poisonous vapors. The agencies for purifying air, are, as we have seen, three, viz : diffusion^ dilution^ and oxydation, and those who wish as far as possible to breathe untainted air, should introduce into their dwellings as liberal a supply of fresh air as can be en- dured without discomfort. There is another class of agents which do much good in rendering impure air respirable and wholesome, we refer to disinfectants. Disinfectants act in three ways, and may, therefore, be divided into three classes. 1. Those which oxy- dize the organic matter and thus reduce it to its elementary and harmless constituents. 2. Those which prevent putrefac- tion and fermentation, or any change, in fact, preservatives. 3. Fixatives, i. e.^ that one or more of the constituents of the 106 Dmn/ectanti, agents combines with the offensive volatile products, and fixes thetn, thus preventinj; polution. We will cmsider the object briifly, with respect to the use of ordinary disinfectants, asxl the tiicuiusstjjuces under which their employment is Sf.ecially indicated. Chlorine is a deodorizer, and destroys organic putrescence rapidly; tor the purpose ot* disinfecting, equal parts of common salt and black oxide (tf nianganese (powdered) are placed in a basin, and some water and oil of vitriol added, when the gas is given off. If too nmch chlorine is evolved add more water. Chloride of lime is a good substitute, and the proportion of one pound to a gallon of water makes a good solution. A little nitro-benzole will overcome the unpleasant odor. Another easy means of evolving chlorine is to put a wineglassful of Condy's fluil into a cup on a plate and slowly add muriatic acid, when the chlorine will be given off until the ingredients are exhausted. Chlorine, however, is very irritating, and for this reason iodine has been used instead, and as it vaporizes spontaneously it is handier. Heat will accelerate the diff'usion of iodine. Manganates and permanganates of alkalies admit of a wide range of application, and are invaluable as disinfect- ants, especially the permanganate of potash, a solution of which, Condy's fluid is principally composed. Antiseptics or colytics act by arresting or preventing decom- position or decay, but they do not of necessity remove the odor of already decayed matter, nor do they act on existing effluvia. Heat and cold are natural antiseptics, as is seen by the preserving or canning of different foods, and the keeping of meat by freezing. Clothing may be disinfected by placing it in a proper chamber, and raising the temperature to 212® to 214*^ for at least two or three houi's. Trie fumes of burning sulphur is a good and cheap antiseptic (sulphurous acid), but they can only be usei in uninhabited rooms, owing to its poisonous and irrespirable properties. Carbolic acid and its fumes are most valuable, true antiseptics, preveotiug putre- Disw/ectanU, 1 07 faction and arresting the lower forms of animal life im- mediateiy, :js for example, the bacteria, which we have before noticed. The fixatives are of use when it is de-irable to fix the orjijanic m itter for a time on a i.trt^e scale, they are chloride of zinc (a solution of which is called Burnett's fluid), chloride of iron and the sulphates of these two metals and of copper. The best and cheapest is one which has lately been introduced — chloriue of aluminium, or chloralum, it is not poisonous like some of the others, is inodorous and very cheap. It is a ready deodorant, but not being volatile, is probably inferior to some other a«;ents as an aerial disinfectant. The following table is from Dr. Grace Calvert's experiments on the relative value of antiseptics : — Antiseptic, Tainted. Putrid. ConHy'tf Fluid 2 days 4 dayi Chloralum.,... 2 *• 10 ** McDoujral'H Powder 12 •• 19 " Chloride of Lime 14 " 21 " Burnett's Fluid, 19 " CarboHu Acid '. nut tainted dried up. The meat was suspended over the antiseptic. 108 x-^ CHAPTER X. THE SKIN, BATHS, CLOTHING AND PURSUIT. The skin, let it be remembered, is one of the most important organs of the whole animal economy, and, in itself, exercises a greater variety of functions than any other. It is, in fact, the great safety valve of the whole system. It is both a secreting and an excreting organ, absorbant, respiratory and protective. If an internal organ fails to do its duty, as, for instance, the lungs in the chest and the kidn'^ys in the abdomen, the skin immediately attempts to compen. '^te for the disabled membe by its own extra exertions. A^ 'n, if the system becomes subjected to the influence of a poison, the skin attempts to free it, and in the eifort often perishes itself, as we see by the peeling off of the scarf skin after a severe fever ; this was the effort of the skin to cast the poison of the fever out of the body, by which it dies and is also cast off itself. It will readily be seen, then, that it is a matter of the greatest impor- tance to keep this organ in as healthy a condition as possible. The structure of the skin belongs more to the subject of histology, and we will not, therefore, enter upon it more than to give a general outline, to enable us to speak with greater preci- sion about the uses of the bath and clothing, &c. It is com- posed of two principal layers, the scarf skin, which we readily peel off, or which is raised by a blister, and the true skin, con- taining the nerves, vessels, glands, &c. The scarf skin ia an insensible waterproof layer of scales, which overlies the sensi- The Skin. 109 tive true skin, protecting it from mechanical injury and from the effects of heat and cold, as it is also a bad conductor of heat. The scales of which it is composed are constantly being renewed by the true skin and cast of on the surface, which may readily be seen on the scalp, where it goes by the name of dandriffj which we may be permitted parenthetically to men- tion is derived from two Saxon words meaning itch and dirt. The true skin contains, as we have just mentioned, glands, and these structures we will find are closely connected with the preservation of health. They are of two kinds, first, short ones, which we see depicted by the side of the hair in figure 20, which is a section diagram of the skin. They open into the socket in which the hair is set, and pour out a soft fatty matter, very like ordinary tallow, whea the orifice becomes blocked up and the secretion hardens. These little sebaceous glands, as they are called, are plentiful on the face and large, and when the contents of a tube are squeezed out they assume a spiral form, and being tipped by black dirt they are often called flesh worms, but they are rather nests of worms, for we have found as many as twenty little worms in such a mass under the microscope. The longer tube, with its gland and little blood vessel to the deep end of it, are the sweat follicle and gland. They are each about a quarter of an inch long, and there are about 7,000,000 scat- tered over the surface of the body, equal to about 28 miles of this tubing throughout the entire skin. These little glands FiQ 20. 110 The Skin, eliminate about three pint-s of fluids and 100 grains of solids daily in the form of sweat under ordinary circumstances. We see, then, that the system is a very important one, for no one will deny the disastrous results of throwmg this cff e matter back on the or^raDis. The very numerous matters, which the skin itself discharges, and the extrancou-* particles, which the friction of our clothes or the dusty atmo'^phere give rise to, soon form a crust upon this organ, which blocks up its openings aad otherwise interiieres with important functions. The salts, which form a considerable portion of this crust, attract moisture so that an unclean skin is always more or less damp, and the waste matter may, in this way, undergo solution and be re-absorbed into the system. Such animal matters, if refused exit by the skin, will be thrown on the kidneys, and this, superadded to their own work, gives rise to that most fatal and distressing dis- ease, called Bright's disease of the kidneys, which depends on obstruction of the tubes of the kidneys, often resulting from a neglected skin or from the rush of blood to the organ by re- duced temperature and suppressed perspiration. Soft water is the remedy, we say so/t water because as we have seen it is a better solvent than hard. To remove the oily and greasy matter which collects on the skin, it is necessary to use soap, and we would here remark to those who are possessed of a tender skin, and fear to irritate it, that soft water and well made hard soap will not irritate the skin of the most delicate new-born babe, and, further, that all washing powders are hurt- ful; for as iVIr. Wilson, an able authority on the skin, says they cannot " follow the immeasurable apertures of the skin, nor enter the mouths of the pores, otherwise than to obstruct them. A skin cleaned in this manner may always be detected by a certain kind of shining, not to say greasy polish, and the whole complexion looks mellowed into a kind of tonej as we say of pictures in which dirt and time have softened and chastened the tints." Again, Mr., now Sir E. Wilson, says, "As regards the frequency of ablution , the face and neck from their neces- neSkin, 111 sary exposure to the atmoj'phere, and the impurities which the latter contain^, cannot escape with leas than two saponaceoua ablutions in the twenty-four hours ; the feet, from the confined nature of the coverings which are worn over them, require at least one ; the arm pits, from their peculiar formation in refer- ence to the detention of secretions, and also from the peculiar propeities of the latter, at least one; and the hands and arms 80 many as nicety and refined taste may dictate. No harm can arise from too frequent ablutions, much evil may result from their neelect." We have heard that Miss Jane Porter, the novelistj who was always catching cold on the slightest ex- po.6 . Millwrights Undertakers .... 10 . 1 . Manufacturers .... 21 . 6 ^^ Occupation. DEATHS BY OOODPATlONS, UNDEB THE AVEBAOB AGE. Occupationt, -^o. of Average Age Sawyers ^^^f* ^.t'''^^' coopera v;.*;. -J •••• ^J y®*"- Labourers '.*.*.* uJ: ••*• J? HousewiveB iSS *••• jj Watchmakers.. :: ^^^i '-" ?? Musicians ^i "" ^f Hackmen, •••• ^^ Carriage and Waggon Makers 28 Carpenters *• 50? .- Merchants.... Ho "" 5t • • • I 51 61 MiUerr."."'."" -^i? •••• 51 • • • • • • • • 50 Physicians.... '.v.v. •;.•.•;;;;;;;. ^ •••• ^o Froyincial Land Surveyors "* g Cabinet-makers oq ka Planterers * ^ "" ^ Lumbermen '. ik *••• Jx Engineers...... ' •••'•»'•'»? r.,. 16 .... 49 Cooks • ••••••' ••.-...M.. lb .... 48 Barbers ..J; v.- .......... 6 .... 48 Bricklayers.... ...*.'.';■**'•*'■•'■•••'•• • 2 "" J° Other Mechanids. . . •*•••"'' -.t,. ,0 ,..,, w Other Occupations. .'.','. ':''',' ''''"' S "^ '••^ ' 4? Stone-cutters, •••••••.• ^o "" aL Brewers ...^ ,.,,,,,,.,,. 13 .... 47 Tavern-keepers. .... .*.*.*.*.*:':* * * *' * ' ' *"' ^2 * * ' * Ji Painters.... ................ f •'•' f Teamsters....:. . '• -t^^-t-.v... . . ^1 .... 46 Bakers :::....;* •• — — ••••••-•.•• ...S •••• f^ Brickmakers. . . . ' " * * •••*•*•• ^ "" !§ Blacksmiths..:.. ....*../]'"*'■*•'•*•**''• ■ 56 Sailors •.••••.•••-•••••., w^ • .^l Teachers '..: * 1% ''■'' f? Agents :^y ::'::'::::::.::::: 11 "" it Lawyers '' U 4I Chenaists and Druggists. .•/.':*:■•;;■;::";•. 17 "** U Butchers ^ •*•• JJ Moulders , ^ •••* ~ Railroad Employees...*.**."'* 33 li Saddlers and Harness Makers 9 41 Artists ? •••• Ji Tinsmiths 12 '*** 40 Milliners and Dress Makers '*** «( (I It «t 41 t for rearing healthy Children, 112. Hypocrates, 27. Igneous Bocks, 11. Infantile deathrate, 119. Infant's Food, 82. Infection, 117, 118, Insects, 9, 16. Ireland, dampness of, 24. Isolation of Houses, 99, 100. Isothermal Lines of Canada, 71, 72. Jellies, 81. Junctions of Pipes, 38. Jungles, 15, 19, 20. -■4* ^34 indea^i Kane, Sir R., 116. Lagoons, 28. Land or Soil, 5, 13. Latrines, 49. Liebig'a Soup, 95. Location, 6, 10. London, rainy Days in, 75. -- Sewage, 36. Magnesian Limestone, 11, 13. Mahomet Ali, 79. Mf.jendie's experiment, 81. Manure Heaps, 33. Marah, Well of, 59. Marching across swamps or marshes, 34. Marsh Gases, 30, 31. Marshes, 8, 26. — Pontine, 27. — Salt, 27. Mastication, 80. Measles in Pork, 90. Melville Island, 70. Men of War, Crews of, 34. Miasmatic Winds, 19. Milk, 82. Mills, Debris from, 30. Mineral Fooc, 79. Moist and Dry Air, 7f Monthly Mortality, 77. Mummies, Irish, 126. Nitrogenous Food, 79. Non-Nir-rogenous Food, 79, 80. Nutritive value of Foods, table, 84. Oatmeal, 80. Ind^x. 135 Obesity, 95. Occupation, 113-115. Odors of Flowers, 14. Oxydation, 105. Ozone, 76. Paludal Diseases, range of, 8. — Poison, origin of, 26. Paul St., site of execution of, 19. Peas and Beans, 83. Penetrjiting power of Air, 99. Permanent hardness of Water, 52. Pine, 18. Pits for Refuse, 49. Planters' Dwellings, 18. Pontine Marshes, 27. Pools, stagnant, 30. Pork, 83. Potatoes, 84, Preparation of Meat for Food, 95. Previous sewatie contamination, 53. Purification of Water, 56. Qualities of water, 50. Quantity of air consumed by Man, 100. — Sewage per Head, 36. — Water drunk, 67, 68. — — supply, 68. Rain, distribution of, 65. Rain Water, 51. Range of Paludal Diseases, 8. Rapids, 34. Rate of flow of Sewage, 35. Registrar-General's Report, 28, 73, 74. Reptiles, 9, 16. Respiration of Plants, 13. Rice, 80. ^^^ Index. Rice Beds, 34. Rivers, Lakes, etc, Beds of, 10. River Water, 62, 63. Roasting Meat, 95. Rocks, Igneous, 11. — Magnesian Limestone, 11, 13. Rome healthy, 27. — Seat of fatal Epidemics, 27. — Sewers of, 36. Rot in Sheep, 90. Running Streams, 7. Salted Meat, 94. Seasons' effects on Health, 73, 74. Settling Pits, .%. Sewage, comp^ ition of, 40, 41. Sewage, quantity of per Head, 36. Sewer Gases, 42-44. — Pipes, 38. — — bends in, 37. Sewers, etc., 35. — Material of, 36. — Shape of, 36. — Size of, 36. -- Ventilation of, 39. Sheep, Flukes in Liver of, 90 Site, 6, 11. Skin, etc., 108. — Structure of, 108-111. Slaughtering of animals, 92. — modes of, 93. Soil or Land, 5, 13. — Nature of, 5, 13. — Virgin, 10. — Waterlogged, 12. Solander, Dr., 71. Springs, 66. Index, 137 Spring death-rate, 73. Stagnant Pools, 30. Stark, Dr., 80. Stimulants, 97. Stone Filters, .59. St. Paul, site of execution of, 19. Streams running, 7, Subsoil Water, 28, 34. Suffocation, 125. Summer death-rate, 74. Sunlight, 116. Surface Wells, 64. Swamps, 7-9. Tapeworm, 90. Tarquin drains the Pontine marshes, 27. Temperature effects on Man, 71. — range of, 70. Temples and Groves of the Ancients, 18. Temporary hardness of water, 52. Total hardness of water, 52. Transpiration of leaves, 23. Tree Culture, 20-23. — influence on rainfall, 21, Trees, 17. Trench system for Camps, 48. Trichina Spiralis, 90, 91. Typhoid Fever, 120, 121. Vaccination, 121. Value of different waters, 67. Variety of food, 81. Veal, 95. Vegetable matter in water, 67. — mould, 10. Vegetables, 79, 80. Ventilation, 100-105. Ventilators, 104, 105. 138 Index, Vinegar, Cider, 90. Viichow's germ theory, 46. Virgin Soil, 10. Vitiation of air, 101. Wanklyn's Method, 54. Waste Pipe, 39. Water and Water supply, 50. — Bodies of, interrupting Malaria, 6. — Carbonic Acid, &c., in, 51 ' — - Closets, 40. — Easy Analysis of, 55. — Hard and Soft, 52. — Flowing, 63. — Impurities in, 53. — in Camp, 69. —■ on the March, &c., 69, — Purification of, 56. — Qualities of, 50. — Rain, 51. — River, 62, 63. — Uses of, 50. Waterfall, 6. Waterlogged Soil, 12. Waters, diflFerent, 56, 57. Weather as a cause of death, 75. Wells, 63. — Artesian, 64-66. — As a water supply, 65. — Surf"-e Analysis of Water, 64. West Indian planter's dwelling, 18. Winds, 76. — Miasmatic, 19. — Unhealthy, 6. Wines and Spirits, 97. Winter death rate, 73, Zones, 70, .-at"*' ■ ■>: • ,' 1 ■ J Save the Mothers ! Save the Babes ! EVERY WIPE SHOULD HAVE THEM! EVERY MOTHER MUST HAVE THEM! IS THE EXPRESSED OPINION OF THE LEADING PHYSICIANS AND OF THE NEWSPAPER PRESS EVERYWHERE. ADVICE TO A WIFE ON THE MANAGEMENT OP HER OWN HEALTH AND ON THE TREATMENT OF SOME OF THE COMPLAINTS INCIDENTAL TO PREGNANCY, LABOR AND SUCKLING, WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER ESPECIALLY ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG WIFE. By PYE HENRY CHAVASSE, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Fellow of the Obstetrical Society of London, formerly President of Queen s College Medico- Chirurgical Society, Birmiitgham, etc. 1 vol., 12mo., 307 pp., cloth, gilt, 75 cents, po%t free. ADVICE TO A MOTHER ON THE MANAGEMENT OF HER CHILDREN, AND ON THE TREATMENT ON THE MOMENT OF SOME OF THEIR MORE PRESSING ILLNESSES AND ACCIDENTS, By BYE HENRY CHAVASSE, Author of ''Advice to a Wife," etc. 1 vol., 12mo., 323 pp., cloth, gilt, 75 cents, 'po&t free. Ask your Bookseller for them, or send direct to the Publishers. Mailed to any part of the Dominion Free of Pofetage. WILLING & WILLIAMSON, Publishers. 7 and 9 Kin^ Street East, TQBONTO. Antiseptic Respirators, As Osvlsed by MoK«nxie, Coghill, and others. FOR TREATMENT OF PHTHISIS, BRONCHITIS, WHOOPING COUGH. &c See " Braithwaiie' s Retrospect," January 1882. *' Canada Lancet ^" January 1ZZ2. This little Instrument is so contrived that in the most simple and convenient manner any required volatile drug may be inhaled with no more trouble than is incurred in the use of the ordinary Atmospheric Respirator. This useful purpose is effected by means of a double metallic box, of jA convenient shape to fit over the mouth. The outer portion of the box is made with a false bottom, which, as well as a hinged lid, is perforated with minute holes. In the hollow between these two perforated surfaces, a piece of felt, thick flannel, or sponge, is conveniently inserted, and is saturated with the required drug. The Inhaler is then placed over the mouth, and fastened with elastic bands in the same manner as an ordin- ary respirator is worn. Coghill's, each, $1.00, $1. 50 ; McKenzie's, Naao-oral, $2.50, with solution eSS'Sent Free to any address on receipt of Price. ANTISEPTIC DRESSINGS Of every description and all kinds of Apparatus used in Antiseptic Surgery. Steam Spray Inhalers or Attomizers from $1.00. J. STEVENS & SON, Surgrical Instrument Makers, G-ower Street, London, En^. 40 Wellinerlon Street East, Toronto. Dr, Sproule on ' 'Hygiene THEOLOGICAL, Medical^EducationalWorks —FOR SALE BY- THOMAS MENZIBS, ' " General Bookseller and Stationer, George Street, PETERBOEOUGH. P.S.— Books by Mail free of Postage. FILTERS. The Best, Cheapest, and Simplest Filters Made. ,;,, See Cuts of Water Filters in this Work. >£{«jt They will Purify the foulest waters, and are the only safe preventative of Diarrhoea, Tj^phoid Fever, and many other Diseases. dmcj^idbj B-sr ADAM HALL, (BBT A T=iXiISB[S333 3.860.) JOHN McKEE. CHEMIST and DRUaOIST, Dealer in Pure Drugs^ Fine Chemicals, Brushes, Combs, Sponges, Choice English, French and American Perfumery, Soaps and Toilet Preparations of all hinds. Pure Native and Foreign Wines for Medical Purposes. OEOBaB STREET, FETESBOBOTTGH, ONT. Fine Old Scotcli and Irish Whiskies, Recommended by the Faculty as the best and most reliable stimulants, in Debility, Consumption and Dyspepsia. Excellent Old Full Bodied Wines, and Pure Light German and French Wines. The Best Brands of Cognac Brandy, Guiness* Stout, and Malt Liquors. Coffees, (fresh roasted and ground on the premises). Unadulterated Teas, Provisions and Groceries, of Every Description. See what is said about the "adulteration of food" in this book, and what every book of the kind says about it, and then make up your mind to buy from JOHN CAMERON, George Street, Peterborougb.