A Caution for Consumptives.

Dr. Tyrrell, in a late bulletin of the California State Board of Health, quotes Dr. Cornet as "of the opinion that the patient is by indiscriminate expectoration even more dangerous to himself than to his surroundings; that he can poison himself, and that the inhalation of a few bacilli more, and the consequent starting of fresh foci in his lungs may determine the speedy end of his life." It can be seen how very important it is that the expectoration of all consumptives should be speedily disinfected, especially in hotels, pleasure resorts, and sanitariums which invalids seek for health's sake. Until this is methodically and effectually done, we can hope for no advance in the limitation of a disease which is preventable, and which, Dr. Cornet says, kills one-seventh of the entire population.

Some Primary Conditions for the Promotion of Health.

Another advance that requires notice is the machinery for cheap washing with tepid water. Since its use the death-rate of the German army has been brought down to five per thousand, and it is proved that they have been largely exempted from the recent epidemic; they have kept down their death-rate to five in a thousand, while the death-date in our home army is about eight in a thousand. The cost of washing one hundred men with tepid water in Germany is about sixpence, but here an advance has been made by Mr. W. Bartholomew, who, with his improved jets, up as well as down, can more effectually wash the same number of men for, probably, not more than fourpence halfpenny. In France they are beginning to try this washing with tepid water on soldiers, and it is shown that it may be done in five minutes of time as against twenty in the bath, and with five gallons of water as against sixty and seventy gallons in the bath. Moreover, it is declared that this is accomplished at the cost of a centime per head, soap and towel included.

Rely upon it that I do not over-estimate the importance of recommending to all men, but especially to our public protectors, to pay the utmost attention to the function of the skin.

In the first regulation issued by our Board of Health, we provided for a regular inspection of schools and places of work by the local health officer, who would examine and detect prevailing symptoms of disease. It would follow that this officer would be accompanied by a sanitary inspector who would take charge of the affected workman or child, and carry out the health officer's instruction as to a fitting place for the separate treatment of the patient.

To secure a central authority for this kingdom, a minister who can guide and direct sanitation in all its departments is an object toward which every sanitarian should strive. The fact that a Minister of Agriculture has been appointed, should render us all the more determined to add to the Cabinet a Minister of Health. To you, as sanitary men, in the most practical of practical senses, the appointment is vital. You and your labors will never be under

stood until you have such an official exponent of what you are and what you do in one of the Houses of Legislature, and I cannot do better than close my present address by urging you to organize and agitate for this much-demanded public department until the thing is done. It must some day be done, and for the Association to take a prominent part in the struggle to get it done will be a lasting honor, and a further surety of continued respect and prosperity.-Sir Edwin Chadwick, in The Sanitarian for July, 1890.

Bromine as a Disinfectant.

Bromine as a disinfectant is said to be coming to the front. It is an inexpensive by-product of the manufacture of salt, selling at seventy cents a pound, and in solution containing one part in weight to about eight hundred of water; it may be used freely without affecting anything which it may touch. A few gallons used daily will remove all ammoniacal odors from the stables, or a few quarts will thoroughly deodorize the entire plumbing system of an ordinary house. The undiluted bromine is strongly corrosive, and if it touches the skin causes a painful burn.-The Pacific Record.

Some Milk Statistics.

The American Analyst says that there are $2,000, 500,000 invested in the dairy business in this country. That amount is almost double the money invested in banking and commercial industries. It is estimated that it requires 15,000,000 cows to supply the demand for milk and its products in the United States. To feed these cows 60,000,000 acres of land are under cultivation. The agricultural and dairy machinery and implements are worth $200,000,000. The men employed in the business number 750,000, and the horses over 1,000,000. There are over 12,000,000 horses all told. The cows and horses consume annually 30,000,000 tons of hay and nearly 90,000,000 bushels of corn meal, about the same amount of oatmeal, 275,000,000 bushels of oats, 2,000,000 bushels of bran, and 30,000,000 bushels of corn, to say nothing of the brewery grains, sprouts, and other questionable feeds of various kinds that are used to a great extent. It cost $450,000,000 to feed these cows and horses. The average price paid to the labor necessary in the dairy business is probably $20 per month, amounting to $180,000,000 a year. The average cow yields about 450 gallons of milk a year, which gives a total product of 6,750,000,000. Twelve cents a gallon is a fair price to estimate the value of the milk, at a total return to the dairy farmers of $810,000,000, if they sold all their milk as milk. But 50 per cent. of the milk is made into cheese and butter. It takes 27 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of butter, and about 10 pounds to make 1 pound of cheese. There is the same amount of nutritive albuminoids in 81⁄2 pounds of milk that there is in 1 pound of beef. A fat steer furnishes 50 per cent. of boneless beef, but it would require 24,000,000 steers, weighing 1,500 pounds each, to produce the same amount of nutrition as the annual milk product does.

A Few Dollars vs. The Health of a Family.

In February last a physician brought a sample of water to the State Board of Health (says the Sanitary Volunteer), and asked to have it analyzed, as he suspected that the water, which was from a family well, was having a bad effect upon the persons using it. The sample was forwarded to Prof. E. R. Angell, of Derry, N. H., and he made the following report:

"This water is horribly polluted. If it were not polluted, it contains too much solid matter for domestic purposes."

is fearfully polluted.

In a private letter accompanying the above report, Prof. Angell writes: "The sample from contains a wonderfully large amount of solids, and There can be but little question that the vault has direct communication with the well. It contains the most nitrous acid of any water I ever met. After it was diluted with 100 volumes of distilled water it gave a sharp reaction for that acid."

The State Board of Health immediately notified the owner of this well of the result of the analysis, and asked him to fill a blank which the board requires in such cases, giving the location of the well in respect to surrounding dangers of pollution, the effect of the water upon those using it, etc.; but up to date no information has been received from him. We have learned, however, through sources believed to be thoroughly reliable, the following facts: That the owner of the well did not furnish the information asked for, through fear that the same would be published and that he could not then sell his place, which he desires to do, without digging a new well, or providing some other water-supply; that there has been a large amount of sickness in the family, two members having died from a disease said to be consumption; that a son is in a debilitated and poorly nourished state; that the wife has been ill more or less; and that the husband has been afflicted with quinsy sores.

This water, which is so horribly polluted, has been used for years for all domestic purposes, and without doubt has been the cause of much sickness in the family.

We give the above facts to illustrate the dangerous degree to which wellwater may become polluted without attracting the attention of those using it; and it further shows the thankless manner in which any attempt to improve or protect the health of a family is sometimes received. We withhold, for the present, the name of the locality and of the owner of the well, out of consideration for others.

The influence of polluted drinking-water in the causation of disease has been repeatedly proven by the investigations and observations of the State Board of Health, as well as by sanitarians everywhere. Hundreds of polluted wells have been closed in this State within a few years as a result of such investigations, and this is the first instance that has come to our knowledge in which the owner of a dangerously polluted well has desired to keep the matter secret in order to dispose of the place, with its poisonous water-supply, to some unsuspecting family.

An International Sanitary Commission.

Premier Crispi, of Italy, has just caused to be distributed to the representatives of Italy in foreign countries a circular, in which he proposes the convening of an International Commission with a view to institute a sanitary service for the Red Sea. He suggests that two international sanitary offices be established, one for the medical visitation of ships which enter the Red Sea from the Indian Ocean, and the other for that of ships which pass from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Another proposal in his circular is to the effect that in connection with each of the two offices should be instituted an international sanitary station, where the ships must put in for disinfection when found to have cases of infective disease, actual or suspected, on board.

Diphtheria and Manure.

The connection between human diphtheria and cognate maladies of the lower animal creation has now been placed on so firm a basis that it is but a step further to postulate an association between this disease and manurial refuse. Dr. Airy, in a recent report to the Local Government Board, on an outbreak of diphtheria in the Samford Rural Sanitary District of Suffolk, has shown that in a particular village in this district the outbreak was immediately preceded by the passage through it of a cartload of London manure landed from a barge near by. Several children returning home from school complained of the stench from the cart, and sickened soon after. These cases set others going, and the disease was then disseminated by school attendance and the like. Though, as Dr. Airy suggests, the foul effluvia of the manure may have acted by hastening the growth of the diphtheria only, yet he considers some weight should be given to the suggestion that the earlier cases were, in some way or other, due to the introduction of the manure. He states that the traffic in manure has increased greatly in these parts of late, and points to the great increase of diphtheria in London since 1882. Dr. Airy's suspicions as to the ability of manure to convey disease are confirmed by the medical officer of health, Dr. Elliston, who has observed scarlet fever to develop in certain places after the deposit of London manure. Similar experience is also forthcoming from Strood, in Kent. The whole question of this association between infectious disease and manurial refuse deserves the attention of sanitary workers and observers. Whether the association is one of coincidence only, or is truly causative, extended inquiry alone can determine; and if the latter be the case, it will yet have to be said whether the infection is a direct one--that is, whether the poison contained in the manure is derived from a toxic animal's discharge or secretion—or whether the infecting manure acts only as a nidus, or multiplying ground for the resting forms of certain specific contagia which may gain access to it. We trust that all who have opportunity of observation will not fail to record any facts bearing on this highly important and interesting problem. -Medical Press.

Boiled Water.

If there is the least suspicion that the water supply is polluted, get the small quantity to be used for drinking purposes from some source entirely above suspicion. If this is impracticable, boil all water for drinking, and to remove the insipid taste of boiled water filter it. Even infected water used in cooking, and in making tea or coffee, is undoubtedly entirely safe, providing it has actually been boiled.-Sanitary Inspector.

Cremation in Milan.

Two systems of cremation are followed at Milan, by one of which the body is burned in a furnace surrounded by wood and charcoal, while by the other the combustion is brought about through a number of jets of gas which cast their heat upon the furnace from all sides. When wood and charcoal are employed about 600 pounds of wood and one of charcoal are found necessary, and the process lasts two hours. When gas is used, all that is consumable in the body is burned up in less than fifty minutes. The body may, in ordinary cases, be introduced into the furnace with or without the coffin. But if death has been caused by some infectious disease the coffin and body must be burned together. The weight of the remains after cremation, in the form of bones and dust, is about four pounds. They are in color pure white, tinged here and there with a delicate pink; and it is a rule never to touch them with the hand. The bones and vestiges of bones (which are for the most part burned into powder) are taken up with silver tongs, while the ashes are removed from the furnace with a silver shovel, to be placed on a silver dish and then deposited in an urn for retention in the cinerarium. Here the ashes are preserved in separate compartments, each with a suitable inscription beneath it. The cost of cremation is $5 to a member of the Society for Extending Cremation in Italy, or $10 in the case of non-members.

Adulteration of Food.

In his annual address delivered before the Chemical Society of Washington, the retiring president, Mr. Edgar Richards, said that, from want of reliable information in regard to the materials employed in most new food products, there is a general feeling of uncertainty and insecurity on the subject. People, as a rule, imagine that any substance used as an adulterant of, or a substitute for, a food product is to be avoided as of itself being injurious to health; and when they hear that a certain food is adulterated, or is a food substitute, there is immediately a prejudice excited against the article, which it takes time and familiarity to allay. A moment's reflection ought to show that it would be directly contrary to the food manufacturer's interest to add to, or substitute anything for, a food product which would cause injurious symptoms, as in that case his means of gain would be cut off by the refusal of consumers to buy his product. It is true that the unscrupulous manufacturer or dealer does not hesitate to cheat his customer in the interest of his own pecuniary profit or gain, but he does not want to poison him. Where, through careless