Paper on "Garbage Furnaces and the Destruction of Organic Matter by Fire," by S. S. Kilvington, M. D., president of the Minneapolis board of health.

The first paper gave a detailed account of the superior equipment on land and on water, for the expeditious and thorough disposition of and care for immigrants at the model station on Grosse Isle, and for the scientifically and mechanically perfect appliances for disinfecting craft. This paper was illustrated by a score or more of stereopticon views, during the demonstration of which the debate became quite animated, the contention being as to whether the sulphurous acid gas were better generated by combustion in the hold, or forced into it as a saturate fume by turbine fan action.

Dr. Salomon gave a brief history of the development in efficiency of the Crescent City station, and made report of the improvements in location, facilities, and equipment that the same would soon be able to boast of. New Orleans is evidently intent upon reassuring its waterway commercial neighbors and dependents on the Gulf and in the Mississippi valley. Dr. Durgin rendered an eminently satisfactory account of the simple and sensible, though somewhat old-fashioned, methods in vogue at the port of Boston.

Finally, Dr. S. S. Kilvington, of Minneapolis, read a paper which characterized the present as the era of filth formation, and which strongly advocated the sanitary necessity of an oldfashioned Gehenna for every modern city. It was, as flatteringly described by Health Officer De Wolf, of Chicago, the most exhaustive and helpful disquisition yet compiled and worked out on the subject of garbage cremation. After giving a careful historical retrospect, followed by a brief enumeration of the various practical experiments made, chiefly in England, during the past decade, Dr. Kilvington gave a detailed and instructively illustrated description of the four crematories now in reasonably successful operation in this country, dwelling on the chief merits and defects of each. This made the association fully acquainted with the Forrestal crematory, of Milwaukee; with the Ryder, in Pittsburg; the Mann in Montreal and Chicago, and the Engel, which, after having been perfected in Minneapolis, has come into

use at Des Moines and Coney Island, and is even now being substituted by Contractor Forrestal for his old one heretofore in use which, as will be remembered, was planned by Dr. Marden.

The evening session was given up, in order that the members might attend a reception given by the Ladies' Club, of Milwaukee. This was held in the Atheneum building, which is owned and controlled by a syndicate of the ladies from this club, and is an institution of which they are justly proud and one that might well be duplicated in every city of fifteen or twenty thousand inhabitants, for it fills a place in educational and amusement circles that leads to refinement and to the elevation of mental and moral sentiment.

As the guests came in they were received by a reception committee consisting of Mr. and Mrs. W. P. McLaren, Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Fitch, Mr. and Mrs. John Johnston, Dr. and Mrs. Marks, Dr. and Mrs. Fox, and Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Peck. Almost every

one of the visitors was present, and the evening was spent in social conversation and inspection of the building. An orchestra in the hall above furnished music, and refreshments were served in the supper rooms.

The morning session Thursday had the following program: Paper on "The History and Administration of Quarantine in Texas, 1887 to 1888," by R. Rutherford, health officer of Texas. Paper on "The Outbreak of Yellow Fever at Jackson, Miss., in September, 1888," by Dr. Wirt Johnston, secretary of Mississippi State Board of Health.

Paper on "The Problems of Yellow Fever Epidemics," by Dr. Jerome Cochran, state health officer of Alabama.

Paper on "Some Personal Observations on Yellow Fever and its Habitudes, as opposed to the Fallacies and Dangers of Personal Quarantine," by Dr. A. N. Bell, Brooklyn, N. Y.

Paper on "Sanitation in St. Paul," and " Proposed Plan for the Disposition of Night Soil, Garbage, etc., at St. Paul, Minn.," by Dr. H. F. Hoyt, health officer of St. Paul.

The paper by Dr. Cochran was read first and attracted great and deserved attention. Though requiring nearly three quarters of an hour for the delivery of his address, and though making no pretense whatever to rhetorical elaboration or verbal finish,- for it was not, indeed, committed to writing until after the doctor's

arrival in Milwaukee, and was, moreover, read prima vista, without any revision, it held the undivided attention of every auditor, from its opening paragraph to its closing sentence, and was unaninously ordered printed for prompt dissemination among the state and local health officers throughout the Union, especially south of the febrile Mason and Dixon's line, as a practical, educative tract. It is doubtless the most important and instructive paper of this year's session, and it was very delicately complimented by Colonel Hadden, who suggested that the best method of discussing the same would be to have it re-read.

In summing up he had this to say about yellow fever: "This disease is caused by a transportable and transmissible poison quite as specific as prussic acid, for instance; but it is not known. whether the same be a living organism, similar to the cholera microbe, or, as seems more probable, the product of some quasi fermentative process like that caused by the yeast fungus, which in feeding on sugar decomposes it into alcohol, carbonic acid, and water. These germs do not appear to be bacteria of generically distinctive character or kind, the probabilities pointing rather to a pathologically productive condition of the flora ordinarily resident in the alimentary canal. It is infectious and, moreover, communicable, but whether from the patient's respirations, secretions, or excrements, is unknown, as is also its route of ingress into the human organism, whether from the skin, by inspiration, or alimentation. Though this point is also not yet quite certainly determined, it is more than probable that not personal contact but the immediate environment, as is the case in typhus and cholera, produces the infection. It is in the United States, however, always of exotic origin; and, as in the case of a shower of sparks on a shingle roof, it is but one, perhaps, that will set fire to the building. Yet one or two sporadic cases are very unlikely, if properly handled, to produce an epidemic, even under otherwise unfavorable conditions. For it may be laid down as a general proposition, that in order to get across the street or over a wall, this infectious what-is-it' must be lugged there, as it were, by hand or in a bundle. Thus jails, convents, and secluded private domiciles are demonstrated to be their own best quarantines. From this it is made clear that whatever else may be true, so much is undeniable, non-intercourse is the best

prophylactic in latitudes and at seasons where and when the daily mean temperature is protractedly 70 degrees or over. In other words, the golden rule is: "Don't go near the fever if you don't wish to catch it," and its corollary, self-evidently quite as sound, "Don't let the fever come near you, if you don't wish it to catch you" but only, be it remembered, in latitudes and at seasons where and when the daily mean temperature is protractedly 70 degrees or over. From all of which it further follows that domiciliary quarantine, prompt and perfect, is the desideratum, followed in due course by thorough disinfection. On the other hand, it is also certain that depopulation is infeasible and worse, because it involves stampedes and panic, and these in turn what might be called chaotic quarantining, unlawful, wasteful, cruel folly. So, too, are refugee camps necessarily of evil, though admirable in theory. Thoroughly competent health officers, few but efficient, should once for all be endowed with ample funds and authority, and then trusted to run the job themselves without the interference of boards of trade or other expert authorities in other matters. For be it furthermore remembered, that upon importation, even during "hot spells," a spreading of the disease does not follow as a matter of physical or logical necessity, and that in any case its spread, if it spread at all, will be slow. So for this, if for no other reason, it would be advisable to take things easy. If there be a strong, well-equipped health department, all the better; but in any case keep cool."

Such in effect was the discourse; little wonder, therefore, that it was thought by the American Public Health Association, in annual meeting assembled, that if the prompt and persistent dissemination of these plain facts and this sound advice could be effected by the press and the profession among the people of all classes throughout the South, it would do even more good than if the unexpected were to happen, and Congress provide a thorough and efficient system of international and interstate co-operation in mutual protection against infectious diseases.

OTHER PAPERS ON THE SAME SUBJECT.

Supplementary to this disquisition, there were read three papers dealing with the same subject from different or more restricted

standpoints. Dr. A. N. Bell gave it as his conviction, resultant from an intimate study of the disease in the semi-tropics about the Spanish main and in quarantine at New York, that the disease is not infectious except through things and places, and then only under predisposing atmospheric conditions.

Health Officer Rutherford, of Houston, Texas, read the history of the Texas quarantine administration for the past ten years, which bristled with names and figures.

Dr. Rauch also read the record of eleven cases, only one of which proved fatal, at Jackson, Miss., all the patients being either builders on or watchmen about the new Illinois Central depot near their old freight house in Jackson, Miss. Though scattered far apart, all about town, these cases did not infect the community, however they themselves may have been infected — presumably by non-disinfected cars stalled near the site of their work, in which they may have taken their nooning.

It was left to Colonel Hadden, of Memphis, to sum up the entire subject as involved in the series of papers and brief discussions on yellow fever and quarantining, in a most happy, off-hand, and non-technical way. This gentleman of the old school proceeded to give his experience as the very head and front of a socalled shot-gun quarantine, in a manner that simply convulsed his audience.

Dr. H. F. Hoyt, health officer of one of the largest cities in Minnesota, metaphorically robbed Peter to pay Paul, when he repeated the truism that physically St. Paul was builded on a rock; and then he went on to show that despite herculean labors but 7,200 householders of that city had, as yet, tapped her watermains, while only 4,500 had connected their domiciles with the city sewers.

Prof. W. W. Payne, signal service officer at Northfield, Minn., then briefly requested an intelligent co-operation between health officers and the service, to the end that by the graphic compilation of "weather" and "health" data the possible, not to say probable, connection between the two as cause and effect, may in good time be authoritatively either demonstrated or disproved.

And finally, Dr. A. N. Bell presented a brief report from the committee on sanitary and medical service on immigrant ships, which on the one hand showed up the shamelessly systematic