sewer ventilators

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drops, and broth cultures. 15 of these were acute cases,

ranging from the fourth to the fourteenth day of fever, andin every case large numbers of diplococci were found after thebroth had been incubated at 37° C. for from 12 to 48 hours.

Many of the cases were examined on several occasions andat no time was the diplococcus absent. In addition, sevencontrol cases were examined, one being a case of scarlet

fever, one of measles, the others being cases exposed to theinfection of typhus fever but showing no symptoms of thedisease. In only one of these, a quarantine case, was thediplococcus present, in reference to which the suggestionwas made that the patient, a boy, might have already hada slight and unrecognised attack of typhus fever.

SEWER VENTILATORS.

THE sewer ventilators in our streets are an abomination

and more especially when they are not elevated. Theycannot be dispensed with, as otherwise the evil emanationsof a sewer would probably be forced up into the houses andthus a worse state of things would be established. But at

least these ventilators should be raised well above the

average breathing level instead of being sunk at the street-level pouring forth disgusting and poisonous stenches

immediately under the pedestrian’s nose. As a corre

spondent has pointed out in a recent communicationB..to us bearing on the prevalence of diphtheria, thisdisease is most common in houses abutting on the sewer

ventilators. The distribution of the poisonous gases canbe easily traced in cold weather, when a foul vapourcan be seen rapidly issuing from the ventilator. Theelevation of these ventilators would not entirely removethe evil, but it would considerably diminish the dangerwhich now arises. Children, as our correspondent says,play about the jaws of the death-traps which yawn forthem by hundreds in the narrow roads of our poorerdistricts and into the houses of which drift thefoul air and vapours through each open door and window.This is a serious indictment and calls for the abolition of

street-level sewer ventilators in favour of the elevated venti-lators which have been adopted in many places with amarked favourable influence on the public health.

TUBERCULOSIS AND SECONDHAND CLOTHING.MR. ANTONY ROCHE, Professor of Public Health at the

(Roman) Catholic University of Dublin, has been deliveringa very admirable lecture upon the Cause and Prevention of

Consumption to an audience of Dublin artisans. We are allthe more grateful to Professor Roche for this step becausewhatever boards of health and the various sanitary authori-ties may do the prevention of consumption must lie verymuch in the hands of the people themselves. ProfessorRoche drew attention to a point which is not, perhaps, asmuch insisted on as it should be-namely, the facilities forthe spread of infection offered by the sale and barter ofsecondhand clothing. "Clothes," he says, "may not be avery common medium for the spread, still the tailoring ofclothes in overcrowded workshops with the possibleinfection from one or more sufferers among the work-

men or women is a possible danger; so is the buy-ing of the secondhand clothes which may have beenworn by consumptive owners and also the storingof infected clothes in the warehouses of pawn-offices. I

long ago advocated the compulsory disinfection of all clothesin pawn-offices by the sanitary authorities as a safeguardagainst the spread by them of this and other infectiousdiseases." With regard to cheap tailors’ workshops much hasbeen done since Mayhew in bis " London Labour and LondonPoor" drew his graphic pictures of the unhealthy workshopsand "Parson Lot" fulminated with all the strength of hisfiery nature against the same evil, but much still remains to

be done. As to pawnshops we doubt whether anything hasbeen done, and they certainly are likely to be fruitful sourcesof infection. Professor Roche’s lecture ought to do a greatdeal of good. The artisan, though naturally ignorant upomhygienic matters, for he has never been instructed, is by nomeans a fool and will, we are sure, do his best not only forhimself but for his neighbour when he understands thenecessity for action. -

AN ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL GOVERNORS.

WB have received what we suppose we may call a

prospectus of a new association to be entitled " ArsAssociation of the Managers and Governors of Schools forthe Working lasses in the United Kingdom." Thedocument is very lengthy, but so far as we gather it

proposes to bind together all managers or governors of

working-class schools into one association. The Associa-tion is to confine itself entirely to secular education andthe subscription per member is to be 5s. Among othermatters the association is to work for the object of gettingthe whole cost of the education of the children of the

working classes paid for by the contributions of the wholecommunity. This is an object with which we are in heartyaccordance, for as at present constituted the education rate’is the most unfair and preposterous of all the taxes whichthe long-suffering ratepayer has to provide. The circularis signed by Mr. C. E. Luard, a county councillor for Kent,and he announces that Mr. C. G. Montefiore of 12, Portman-square, has consented to act as provisional trustee of anyfunds entrusted to Mr. Luard towards the objects of theAssociation. We are glad to see this noted for Mr *Montefiore’s name is so closely connected with good workdone in the matter of education that the fact of his showinginterest in the Association should augur well for its futureusefulness.

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THE VACCINATION OF WORKHOUSE CHILDREN.

IT is not the least fault of the Vaccination Act of 1898that it is likely to be the subject of endless debates anddiscordant interpretations. The " satisfaction of the

magistrate as to the "conscientiousness" of the objectionof a parent is an insoluble difficulty to be removed only bybeing ignored. We are threatened with a Parliamentarydebate on quite another point-the legality of an " offer tovaccinate " by a medical officer of a workhouse any childresident in a workhouse at the age of two months. Mr.

Channing, the member for East Northamptonshire, finds thatthe form of vaccination contract with the medical officerof a workhouse in the second schedule of the order ofOct. 18th empowers and compels the medical officer tomake such an offer. Mr. Channing, with the genuineNorthamptonshire antipathy to vaccination, sees in this aviolation of the section of the Act which extends the age forvaccination from three to six months and expressly providesthat no pressure shall be put on the parent till four months.He has made his complaint to the Local GovernmentBoard. The Board has replied that they see nothing inParagraph 2 of the vaccination contract to be entered intobetween guardians and the medical officers of workhouseswhich is inconsistent with the Vaccination Act of 1898. The

peculiar circumstances of workhouse life, especially ofchildren born in workhouses, whose parents generally leavethe workhouse before the age of four months, suggest andjustify the "offer" of vaccination to such children. No

pressure is intended to be applied to the parent who thougha pauper may have the sense to see the advantage of theearly vaccination of her child before leaving the workhouseand of accepting the offer" which the order in questionhas very properly provided. Mr. Channing and his friendswill do well to be content with the temporary victory which