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thought, not provide the means for collecting better datathan those already available. In favour of his scheme forthe provision of free dispensaries Dr. Turner for his partcontended that they would enable the people to get medicaladvice and to obtain also the benefits to be derived fromdisinfection. At the same time the Public Health Depart-ment would be enabled to get information as to the incidenceof disease. It would be necessary to enforce the lawand its penalties on the medical men who failed tonotify the existence of infectious disease. In orderthat the scheme which he advocated might be effectivelycarried out it was absolutely necessary that the sanitaryadministration of the city should be vested in the PublicHealth Department. The control of infectious diseases inany city is impossible without such powers. When to theordinary difficulties which a health officer has to combat inEuropean towns are added the obstacles due to religiouscustoms and habits as well as indifference to life, all attemptsmade in the direction of control of infectious diseases areabortive and ineffectual, imposing a false sense of security.No man experienced in the administration of public healthwould think otherwise.

Assuming that the municipality of Bombay, under adviceof the Municipal Commissioner and subject to the Govern-ment of India, desire to place the city of Bombay on anequal footing with some other cities of the empire, Dr. ’,Turner points out that unless ample powers are given to theexecutive health officer it will be useless to attempt to controlany existing or future epidemic. The powers for which Dr. ’iTurner asks are very great. Such powers, ito be of use,must be exercised with tact as well as with firmness. IRadical changes in the sanitation of Bombay are evidentlynecessary They have long been required. The presentstate of things is the result of years of neglect on the partof the responsible authorities. And this fact is a greatargument in favour of Dr. Turner’s drastic proposals.

SANITATION AND THE GLASGOW INTER-NATIONAL CONGRESS OF ENGINEERS.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL COMMISSIONER.)

The Utilisation of Micro-orga1/,isms in the Purification ofSf’lvaqe -The Housing of the Poor.

THERE has been a great gathering of engineers at Glasgow.The University was placed at their disposal and more than2000 engineers attended, including a few foreign members ofthis profession. The Congress met from Sept. 3rd to the6th, and was subdivided into nine sections. In the seventh

section, entitled Municipal Engineering, there were severalquestions discussed intimately connected with the preserva-tion of public health, such as the treatment of sewage,water-supply, and the housing of the poor. Here once morethe well-worn theories in favour of utilising agriculturalland for the purification of sewage found an eloquent advo-cate in the person of Lieutenant-Colonel ALFRED S. JONES,C.E., V.C. Other methods, however, were not ignored, andColonel Jones also recognised that Lord Bramwell’s RoyalCommission, so far back as 1884, had pronounced an opinionon the necessity of adopting the separate system in sewagewherever possible. In practice it seemed as if the reversewas done-namely, that the separate system was only adoptedwhere the combined system was found to be impossible.Much was sai 1 about filtration in artificially prepared beds ofcoke and the bacteriological treatment of sewage either withor without covered "septic tanks." But the objection tothese latter methods was the great variety in the compositionof sewage. It was pointed out that a process which wassuccessful for one town failed when applied to anothertown. Of course sewage varies according to the localindustries, the nature of the refuse and waste from thefactories, &c. No one, however, seems to have pointed outthat where the separate system was adopted the quality ofthe sewage would be almost identical if the waste water fromfactories was drained away with the rain-water, and thusdealt with separately from the sewage proper. ColonelJones made a useful criticism when he remarked that, what-ever the system adopted, there was a tendency, when oncethe works were completed and paid for, to take little furtherinterest in the matter. Careless and incompetent workmen

were employed at inadequate wages to carry out duties thatoften varied from hour to hour. The satisfactory working,the true average duration of filtering beds for.sewage, had notyet been ascertained. The process required skilled’ andintelligent superintendence. The best system would fail ifnot properly controlled. Where coke filtering beds were

employed these should be connected by a tramway tothe boiler station for the production of power for

electricity, &c. Thus the coke which had served forthe purification of sewage could in its turn be purifiedand utilised by passing through the furnace. It was saidthat one acre of artificially prepared bed of coke could purify1,000,000 gallons of sewage per day ; but such a rule couldnot be absolute and there must be men present capable ofcarrying out modifications according to the circumstances.All these methods were described by Colonel Jones as thetreatment of sewage under difficulties which necessitated

great concentration of microbe energy on a confined area.Evidently he preferred the employment of this energy on abroad area as in sewage-farming and spoke of the 20,000acres near Berlin all under sewage and of convalescenthomes flourishing in the midst of land well irrigated withthe sewage of the Prussian capital. He extolled what hadbeen done near Paris on the same principle and in sewage-farms such as those of Birmingham, Nottingham, andLeicester. He declared that in such cases there was a

complete absence of clogging, some return in crops for thelabour of cultivating, and that the freehold rose in intrinsicvalue as a corporation asset which might ultimately be usedfor some other and more profitable purpose.

This paper was followed by a description of what had beendone at Huddersfield where the staple woollen trade impartedfat, soap, dyes, and a variety of chemicals to the sewage.Chemical precipitation and sand filters had been tried, butthese latter were rapidly clogged and no system of cleansingthe beds worked satisfactorily. They had to be entirelyrenewed and this was too expensive. Contact-beds and openseptic tanks were then tried. It was found that the bedshad to be re-laid at least once in two years and that for suchrenewals a large amount of space was necessary. Again,therefore, the process was too costly. Chemical precipita-tion did not remove the colour of the dyes in the sewage, andthe effluent was sometimes quite clear, sometimes veryturgid. The contact-beds did remove some of the colour-

ing matter but were more successful in the purificationeffected as measured by the albuminoid-ammonia or

oxygen-absorbed tests. The same was noticed when thesewage was not subjected to precipitation, but placed in araw condition on the contact-beds. Evn now the result wasnot yet satisfactory ; but when the sewage was passedthrough a second contact-bed composed of clinker 151samples of the effluent had been placed in the incubator instoppered bottles for seven days at 80° F. and no putrescencehad resulted. Then septic tanks had been tried, with theresult that they had one foot three inches of sludge after 18weeks, one foot seven inches after 30 weeks, and two feetfour inches after 44 weeks. Mr. K. F. CAMPBELL, whosepaper supplied these details, concluded that no process couldprevent the formation of sludge, but in the open septic tankabout 40 per cent. of the sludge was destroyed. He thoughtthat the effluent of the septic tanks more rapidly destroyedthe filtering beds than that of the precipitating tanks, for itcontained more suspended matter ; but he recognised thathis experience might differ from the experience of other

engineers-a fact which showed that no one system could beapplied to all localities.

In the course of the discussion Mr. FOWLER of Leedsmaintained that the success of bacteriological beds dependedon the skill of the superintendent.-Mr. MIDGLEY TAYLORsaid that he had calculated that the cost of cleaning abacteriological filtering bed would amount to from E200 toE250 per annum per acre. The cost of cleansing was oftenforgotten and it was an important item.-Mr. A. J. MARTINof Exeter pointed out that the system of sewage-farms wastoo often in conflict with the interests of the ratepayers to bevery reliable. He defended the closed as opposed to the

open septic tanks. The cost of roofing them over was notgreat, and it was most necessary to exclude atmosphericair and to maintain an equable temperature Then it pre-vented an enormous quantity of flies from breeding on thescum on the surface of the sewage. At Exeter, during fiveyears, the only expense incurred was the washing off of18 inches of material from the filtering beds.

Mr. PRICE of Birmingham argued that expense depended on

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the" quality of the sewage, which, for instance, was seventimes stronger at Birmingham than at Leicester. For the

present they had land enough for the Birmingham sewage-farms, but the time might come when they would have toemploy septic tanks, and these would be open tanks, as theywere cheaper.

Mr. S. S. PLATT of Rochdale said that they had beenexperimenting for two years and found that the septictanks must be covered over. It was necessary that a scumshould form on the top of the water and this would beblown away by the wind or broken by the rain if the tankwas not covered.

Mr. MLNTZ of Belfast said that his experience had shownthat broken bricks were the best filtering material and hethought the bacteriological system the most suitable.

Mr. CORBETT of Salford related that during five yearsthe filtering beds there had, if anything, improved. Theyonly required occasional raking of the surface.

After a few words from the CHAIRMAN (Mr. GEORGE1B1 A WBREY of Leicester), who pointed out that it had been

conclusively established that any kind of sewage could besatisfactorily clarified by bacteriological treatment, the dis-cussion was closed.From this discussion it will be seen that when the experi-

ments made at Exeter on the utilisation of micro-organismsin the purification of sewage were described at length inTHE LANCET a subject was then opened out which wasdestined to take a leading place in the study of the problemof sewage disposal. The question was then comparativelynew and now it is discussed on all sides. Nevertheless, it isstill so far new that as yet the most divergent opinionsprevail. Medical men are criticised because they sometimesfail to agree. If this be a failing of the medical professionwhat will be said of the engineering profession ? Rarelyhave so many flat contradictions been uttered in so short a

space of time and by so many eminent authorities. Indeed,it seemed as every speaker rose mainly for the purpose ofexplaining that he disagreed with some other speaker ; andthe outsider who came for the purpose of obtaining someclear indications of what was to be done must have goneaway sorely perplexed and disappointed.^- 1"’’-- (,_1- !---.::1- _1- _On the following day, after Mr. MANSERGH had given an.

interesting account of the new works for the water-supply ofBirmingham, the subject of sewage disposal was reopenedby Mr. A. B. M’Donald, the city engineer of Glasgow. Hedescribed the drainage of Glasgow and the adjacent boroughswhich extended over 39 square miles. There were threemain collectors and outfalls. The suspended matter in thesewage varies from 20 to 250 grains per gallon, and therewere 95,000,000 gallons of sewage per day in dry weather.The sewage was treated by the process of precipitation withthe aid of hydrate of lime and sulphate of aluminium. Theresult was the removal of the suspended matter, and 30 percent. of purification was attained, calculated on the basis ofoxygen absorbed in four hours at 27° F. This was far from

perfect, but the water in which the sewage was thrownat the nearest outfall was in volume 40 times more than thequanity of sewage and it was tir)o1 water 1fnrr,hpr rtn’nmquality of McWagC, and it was that WBUm. T LtOWll

at the other outfall the dilution was much greater. Newat the other outfall the dilution was much greater. IvTewand improved precipitation tanks were in course of con-

struction.Mr. F. W. MAGER of Wallsend presented an important

paper on the subsidence of sewers in mining districts. Whenthis happened the local authorities had to re-lay the sewersat their own expense. If, however, there was a subsidenceof a highway the law protected the highway and made thosewho had caused the damage pay for the repairs, but thealteration of the level of a road was a small matter as

compared to the alteration of the level of a sewer. Theentire scheme of drainage might be destroyed by a suddenchange in the levels. If the coal-owners had to repair the roadsthey damaged it was still more necessary that they shouldrepair the sewers. When mining operations caused a sub-sidence which made a sewer give way the health of the

locality was seriously endangered. That the law should

protect the roads and not the sewers was certainly an extra-ordinary anomaly and could only be explained by the fact thatroads were made a subject for legislation long before sev.-ersexisted.The last two days were devoted mainly to the housing

problem, including therein the question of cheap transit,mainly by tramways. The over-head wire seemed to find themost favour as it gave the best financial results and much

1 THE LANCET, Dec. 5th, 1896, p. 1631.

was said concerning the laying of the lines so as best to standthe wear of the traffic. In regard to the housing question itselfthe principal paper was read by Mr. A. H. CAMPBELL, theengineer of the East Ham Council. In this district theywere now building 540 single and double tenement houses ata cost of £ 120,000 in combination with a system of cheaptramways. The entire scheme was so contrived as to payits own expenses without increasing the rates, but this meanthigher rents than were desirable. The maximum wage ofthe class of tenants for whom these dwellings were neededshould not exceed 30s. a week. They gave a kitchen

measuring 144 superficial feet ; a scullery of 70 feet super-ficial area, containing a small range for use in summer, acopper, and a bath. Then there was a parlour that couldbe used as a bedroom, measuring 125 feet, and a bedroom of96 feet-in all, 435 superficial feet-together with arrange-ments for coals, an outside water-closet, clothes closets, and alarder. No subletting was allowed. The cottages or tene-ments with three bedrooms had to be let at 7s. a week, andthe working men were made to pay this high rent so as tocreate a valuable property for the next generation, bywhich time the capital expenditure would be refunded.The rents should be estimated not by the number ofrooms but per 100 feet of superficial measurement. Thuscalculated the greater part of the dwellings built by theEast Ham Council would be rented at from Is. 4d. to Is. 7d.per week per 100 feet. At Richmond the cost for doubletenements was Is. 6d. and Is. 7d. The cheapest buildingswere Messrs. Dick, Kerr and Co.’s workmen’s houses atPreston which only cost lld. the 100 square feet. Dwellingscheap enough to meet the wants of the poorer classes couldonly be obtained by throwing a part of the burden on therates or by reducing the initial expense and taxation.The discussion that followed did not throw much light on

the subject. Mr. MUNTZ of Belfast thought that it was absurdto build gentlemen’s houses for working men and that thehouses should be of the flimsiest materials because it was somuch trouble to pull down a good house. He seemed to thinkthat workmen did not want good accommodation. The

great thing was cheapness and houses that could be’pulleddown without any great sacrifice as soon as a better class oftenants could be obtained for the district. When thescandalous condition of the homes of the poor at Belfast-where there are 20,000 houses with no back passages and thecontents of the middens have to be carried through the livingrooms-is taken into consideration, it is not surprising that arepresentative from that town should treat this question in sodisparaging a manner. This idea of levelling downwards didnot meet with approval. The rehousing of the poor is an

opportunity of raising the conceptions of decency which havebeen allowed to fall so low as to be a menace to the healthand morals of the community. It is also an acceptedprinciple, which finds its expression in our legislation on thesubject, that the poor are not to be driven from the localitiesin which they live. On the contrary, when an insanitaryarea is cleared this must be done on the express conditionthat houses for the same class of people are to be rebuilt onthe same spot. Therefore there is every advantage in build-ing such dwellings with good and lasting material. At EastHam tenders were invited, but none were under 6 1/4d. percubic foot of structure raised. The East Ham Council there-

upon determined to do the work themselves and havesucceeded in carrying out the high-class specifications for4 1/2d. per cubic foot. This was considered a good argumentin favour of municipal enterprise.The Congress met only in the mornings. The afternoons

were devoted to visiting the many public works that, insome respects, have made Glasgow a model city. Thus therehave been object-lessons as well as theoretical discussions.

SOME MEDICAL ASPECTS OF THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION AT BUFFALO.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

THE exposition now being held at Buffalo is on the wholea very satisfactory display, whether from an instructive, anamusing, or a spectacular point of view. It would, of course,be unfair to compare it with the international exhibitions

which have taken place within the past few years. In sizeand scope of exhibits the Chicago and Paris world’s fairseasily surpassed it. The fact, however, should be borne in