We hold the figures up

an army of determined opposition to preventive measures. before their eyes, and show them that on the beggarly basis of valuing a life at $750, we lose $500,000,000 a year; that we lose more than 250,000 citizens from strictly preventable diseases, and that with scarcely an exception, in every town, each inhabitant would be taxed at least $8 per head for its filth and sanitary neglect.

Yet in what community has not the election of officers been fought on the sanitary issue-and where is the place where people, not only of ignorance and narrowness, but even the so-called cultured, do not keep in open rebellion on all preventive measures?

We can point to our opponents, and show them that in a city like Boston the mortality from preventable diseases was 34 per cent. of the whole, and then by but moderate cleanliness it was reduced to 18 per cent., and kept at that as long as wished. Yet the people of Philadelphia not only insist on being dirty, and drinking water that has been shown to be directly destructive to human life, but they will break open the pumps and hydrants, and defiantly drink said water, and discharge the officials who dare oppose them; and this sort of mob is headed by a person no less than the so-called honorable Mayor

We can point to Plymouth and Bellaire, towns in vast numbers, and trace for our opponents the course and cause of typhoid fever and diphtheria as clearly as a mountain brook is traced, and still their self-induced blindness will not recognize it, and they meet us with the destructive crusher that we are but "sanitary cranks,' that sewer gas does not kill, for they and their forefathers breathed it, and it did not kill them; that the water is not foul; the analysis matters not to them, as they use the water and are in good health; that their cellars, yards, and compost heaps do not produce diphtheria or scarlet fever as they have not had either of them.

It matters not what is said, they meet us with the logic that the Irishman did the sanitary officer, who told Pat that the pig and its pen which were at his door must be removed. "And what for?" said Pat. "Because it is unhealthy," answered the officer. 66 Oh," says Pat, "that is not so, for that pig has been there for more than three months, and never cleaned, and he has not had a day's sickness."

It is with sanitation as all other vital reforms; it requires a complete change of heart, and a verifying of the scripture, "precept upon precept, line upon linehere a little, and there a little."

This may be our last session, but the fact remains, our work is imperative and vital, and life, self-respect, prosperity, and progress all urge us on. Open your eyes to the actual facts in our great State of Ohio, with her three millions of people, and see the mortality that attends her preventable epidemics, and yet what has she given the State Board of Health for our protection?

The beggarly sum of $5000, not enough for the oversight of a single county. Our work is not more nearly done as an organization in looking after the physical, social, hygienic, and vital wefare of our people than is the work of the teachers who look after the spiritual and educational welfare of the people. As long as the mind of man creates, and the heart of man harbors impure thoughts, as long as avarice, selfishness, greed and disregard for the feelings and welfare of others exists, as long as "man's inhumanity to man makes countless millions mourn" there will be an imperative need for organizations of this kind, for general sanitation will never become popular.

Garbage and Night-Soil Crematories ; from a Practical and Financial Standpoint.*

BY GEO. I. GARRISON, M.D.,

Member of the State Board of Health of West Virginia, and Health Officer of Wheeling, West Virginia.

The time has passed when it was necessary to prove by argument the necessity for prompt and thorough removal of all waste materials which are the result of aggregation of people into communities, to insure the greatest amount of health and comfort to the inhabitants thereof. The precise relations of cause and effect, as between filth and infectious or contagious diseases, are now known to the merest tyro in sanitary science. Until within a few years, it was thought sufficient for the disposal of city waste, to discharge it into the water-courses; and that system has been practiced so long and universally, that our rivers are little less than vast sewers for conveying to the sea all offal of whatever character, from the cities and towns that line their shores. From these filth-burdened sources must a supply of water for domestic purposes be drawn. The pollution of streams is becoming a more serious question every year, and, while some governments of Europe have undertaken its solution, and many States in our own country have enacted more or less stringent laws for the protection of rivers and streams, there has been comparatively little accomplished in the way of relief. So great has been the nuisance in recent years that a great but natural and perfectly justifiable outcry has been raised. As a result of this outcry other means for the disposal of such substances have been sought. It has been attempted to get rid of sewage by irrigation and chemical processes. The effort has been made to dispose of night-soil in a manner other than by throwing it into streams, removing it in barrels or tanks to fields for manurial purposes, where it becomes almost if not quite as great a nuisance as when thrown into the water. It has also been treated chemically and in various ways to remove its offensive odor, that it might be transported to remote distances for like uses. But, when we consider that the average of such substances from each person in a community is about three pounds in twenty-four hours, or one thousand and ninety pounds in a year, in addition to the enormous quantities of garbage and other unwholesome materials accumulating in the same time, we must conclude that either of the above plans is impracticable, or, at least very unsatisfactory for large cities. Experiments have been made, and at several points furnaces have been constructed for the purpose of destroying such substances by heat. This short paper will not permit a description of the various kinds which have been devised within the past twenty years or more. While every one which has been invented, may be capable of burning city offal with varying success, that one which will destroy the maximum quantity at a minimum of time and cost, is the best. The furnace in use at Wheeling combines utility with economy in the highest degree; hence, I shall confine myself to a description of it, and the system as practiced there. It may not be uninteresting to mention in this connection, the method formerly employed, and the chief cause which led to the adoption of the present system. Briefly, therefore, it was formerly the practice to dump all refuse into the river at the lower end of the city. This plan was particularly objectionable because the intake of the water-works for the city of Bellaire, Ohio, is situated less

*Read before the Ohio State Sanitary Association.

than a mile below that point.

The people of that city became clamorous for relief, and justly so. Soon after my election to the position of Health Officer of Wheeling, which was in the early spring of 1885, the danger from such wholesale pollution became so apparent, from the largely increased number of persons sick of typhoid fever and kindred diseases supposed to be the result of drinking impure water, that it was thought necessary to bring the whole matter to the attention of the Council of the city of Wheeling. That body at once determined upon a change of some sort, which should have for its object the relief of the Bellaire people. But, with the tedium which attends reforms of whatever character, their object was not accomplished until nearly two years later, when the furnace which has been in successful operation ever since, was completed.

It is constructed precisely like that of a regenerative, gas-heating furnace found in most of the rolling mills, except that the hearth is basin-shaped, made so to accommodate liquid substances. A low bridge wall is placed in the centre, trans

versely, to allow greater facility for cremating different substances at the same time. The exterior length of the furnace is 44 feet and 6 inches. Its extreme width is 8 feet and 4 inches, while its height is 7 feet and 6 inches. The main stack, 50 feet high, and a duplicate stack of the same height as the furnace, and connected with the main stack by an elbow, are placed over two semi-circular underground flues, to be hereafter described. At either end are situated two hot-air chambers, which extend the full width of the furnace, 6 feet below the hearth, and occupy 12 linear feet of space; these hot-air chambers are filled with "checker work" and connected with the two flues already referred to, which extend from one end of the furnace to the other in a semi-circle. They are connected at the point farthest from the furnace, with the two stacks by means of "butterfly" valves, which serve also to change the course of the draft. There is another flue which passes under the furnace and at a right angle to it, called the air-flue, and intersects the inner one of the two flues just

The

described at the middle of its course. The fuel used is Natural Gas, and is supplied at both ends of the furnace, so that heat may be applied from either, at will. furnace is charged through two large circular openings in the crown, large enough to admit the body of a horse; the covers of these openings are shifted by means of cranes under the control of the keeper of the furnace. Air is introduced from the under, while the fuel is introduced from the top portion of the furnace, and heat of such intensity is secured that it would melt the apparatus if left to itself for a few hours. The substances destroyed are, night soil, garbage, dead animals, butchers' offal, spoiled meats, decayed fruits, vegetables and fish. The bodies of horses are charged by means of a large crane, also under the control of the keeper. Two men are all that are required to operate the furnace day and night. The ordinance in relation to the crematory provides for the election of a keeper at a salary of $60 per month, and the appointment of an assistant at $1.50 per day, for such time as his services may be required. The same ordinance regulates the manner of collection and removal of substances to be cremated. Contents of cess-pools are not allowed to be removed nor transported by persons except those who may be licensed for that purpose; and they must first obtain from the health office a permit which shall state the name of the person doing the work, the name of his employer, the location of the premises where work is done, the probable amount to be removed and the time of removal. This permit must be conveyed by the licensed party to the keeper of the crematory, who shall fill and sign a blank form on the back, showing date of presentation, name of the person presenting and quantity and kind of substances presented. All permits must be returned to the health office at the end of each week by the keeper. All butchers, grocers, hucksters and green grocers, are required to remove all their offal and garbage to the crematory; all dogs killed by the police, and all dead animals found upon streets, alleys, public or private grounds, in the city, must be removed to the furnace for cremation. The keeper is obliged to record in a book provided for the purpose, the kinds and quantities of substances burned, the names of the persons presenting, and the date of presentation.

Careful examination and study of the operation of the system, based upon the test of more than two years' trial, demonstrates that the following substances can be disposed of in the space of one month, viz.: 1784 barrels of night-soil; 384 loads of garbage; 13 horses or other large animals, and 41 dogs; besides other materials which are occasionally brought to it for consumption. A barrel contains 40 gallons, and 6 represent a ton in weight. 384 loads of garbage represent about 180 tons; 13 horses probably represent 7 tons; dogs and other materials 5 tons more, a total of 489 tons at a cost of about 20 cents per ton. Before the present system was established in Wheeling, the cost of removing contents of cess-pools was $1 per barrel of 40 gallons of contents removed. Now the cost is 75 cents for like service. There should be removed annually, from a city the size of Wheeling (35,000 inhabitants), 12,000 barrels of night-soil. During the months of March, April, May,

June, July and August, 1889, there were removed 8,611 barrels.

The following statement will represent the amount saved to the citizens of Wheeling by the new system, and the amount which can be saved to the people of any community in like circumstances. This, however, will represent the saving in cost of removing night-soil only as there is as yet no apparent saving, from a "dollars and cents" view, in the cost of removing garbage.

Let us suppose then, for the purpose of illustration, that 12,000 barrels are removed annually, for the period of ten years, and compare the cost of the new with that of the old system, leaving the question of interest out of the calculation. Then we have something like the following:

Under the old system, 120,000 bbls., at $1 per bbl.,

$120,000

Crematory

for Garbage Right-soil etc.

No. 2.-Proposed New Furnace.

Fuel, as an item of cost does not figure in this calculation, for the reason that natural gas does not cost anything for city purposes under the terms of the ordinance granting to natural gas company right of way through streets and alleys of the city. If such results can be accomplished with an experimental furnace, what will one brought to a high state of perfection accomplish? Since the construction of the