Chapter V: Means of Protection and Preservation of Stone (1)

We have here to consider certain natural principles of construction, and then the methods for the artificial preservation of the stone used in buildings. Under the first head, there are four divisions.

_Selection of Stone._--As it is universally agreed that the utmost importance rests upon the original selection of the building material, it is here that all the resources of lithological science should be called in. Only one investigation, aiming at thorough work, has ever been carried through, that of the Royal Commission appointed for the selection of stone for the Houses of Parliament. But the efforts of these able men were restricted by the little progress made at that time in the general study of rocks, and were afterward completely thwarted by the discharge of the committee and by the delivery of the execution of the work of selection to incompetent hands. There will be hereafter, from investigations made in the light of modern researches, no excuse for such annoying results and enormous expenses as those which attended the endless repairs which have been required, since a period of four or five years after the completion of the great building referred to.

_Seasoning._--The recommendations of Vitruvius 2,000 years ago have been observed at times down to the day of Sir Christopher Wren, who would not accept the stone which he proposed to use in the erection of St. Paul's Cathedral, in London, until it had laid for three years, seasoning upon the seashore. Since then little or no attention appears to have been paid to this important requirement by modern architects, in the heedless haste of the energy of the times. Building stone, even for many notable edifices, is hurried from the quarries into its position in masonry, long before the "quarry-sap" has been permitted, by its evaporation to produce solid cementation in the interstices of the stone.

_Position._--The danger of setting up any laminated material on edge, rather than on its natural bedding-plane, has been widely acknowledged; yet it is of the rarest occurrence, in New York city, to observe any attention paid to this rule, except where, from the small size or square form of the blocks of stone employed, it has been really cheapest and most convenient to pile them up on their flat sides.

_Form of Projections._--The principle is maintained by all the best English and French architects that projections (_i. e_., cornices, sills, lintels, etc.) should be "throated," that is, undercut in such a way as to throw off the dripping of rainwater, etc., from the front of the building, but in New York this principle is almost universally neglected. It was pointed out that the severity of our climate even requires the further care that the upper surface of projections should be so cut as to prevent the lodgment or long retention of deposits either of rainwater or snow. It is immediately above and below such deposits that the ashlar of our fronts is most rapidly corroded and exfoliated, an effect evidently due mainly to the repeated thawing and solution, freezing and disintegration, which are caused by the water, slush, and snow, which rest, often for weeks, upon a window-sill, balcony, cornice, etc. Thus from the initial and inexcusable carelessness in the construction and form of the projections, and, later, the neglect of the houseowner, due to ignorance of the results involved, to remove the deposits of snow, etc., as fast as they accumulate on the projections, is derived a large part of the discoloration of the marble, Nova Scotia stone, or light colored granyte, and especially the exfoliation of the brownstone beneath the window-sills, balconies, etc., by the water alternately trickling down the front and freezing, by day and by night, for long periods.

The artificial means of preservation are of two classes, organic and inorganic. The former depend on the application of some organic substance in a coating or in the injection of fatty matters; but, as the substances are with greater or less rapidity oxidized, dissolved, and carried away by the atmospheric fluids, the methods founded on their use have been properly denounced by many authorities as only costly palliatives, needing frequent repetition, and therefore exerting an influence toward the destruction of delicate carving. The following were discussed: coal-tar; paint, which has been used in New York for many residences, as in Washington for the Capitol, and in London for Buckingham Palace, etc., but lasts only a few years, and often even permits the disintegration to progress beneath it; oil, often used in New York, but as objectionable as paint; soap and alum-solution; and paraffine, beeswax, resin, tallow, etc., dissolved in naphtha, turpentine, camphene, oil, etc.

The preparations of an inorganic nature, which have been proposed and used abroad, have in some cases met with success; but the exact nature of their action, and the conditions to which they are each suited, are yet to be investigated, especially with reference to the entirely different climate by which the stone in our city is being tried. The processes which have been proposed, and in some cases practically used, involve the application of the following substances: waterglass, in connection with salts of calcium or barium, or bitumen; oxalate of aluminum; barium solution, in connection with calcium superphosphate or ferro-silicic acid; copper salts, used by Dr. Robert in Paris to stop the growth of vegetation on stone, etc. There is certainly a call for processes by which, at least, those stones which are used in isolated, exposed, and unnatural positions may receive artificial protection, such as the stone sills and lintels of windows, stone balusters, projecting cornices, and ashlar-stone set up on edge. It will doubtless be found that only those stones which possess a coarse, porous texture and strong absorptive power for liquids will be found particularly available for protection by artificial preservatives, and that such stones should indeed never be used in construction in a raw or crude state. In the spongy brown and light olive free-stones, a marble full of minute crevices, and a cellular fossiliferous limestone, a petrifying liquid may permeate to some depth, close up the pores by its deposits, and incase the stone in solid armor; while, upon a more compact rock, such as a granyte or solid limestone, it can only deposit a shelly crust or enamel, which time may soon peel off. The carelessness with which stone is selected and used, and the ignorance in regard to its proper preservation, when the decay of a poor stone becomes apparent, have led to an increased use of brick and terra cotta, much to be deplored; durable stones are to be obtained in great variety, methods for the preservation of the porous stones can easily be devised, and stones of a fireproof character do exist in this country in abundance.

In conclusion, three suggestions were offered: 1st, that householders invoke the magic use of the broom on the fronts of their residences as carefully as upon the sidewalks; 2d, that house-builders insist upon the undercutting of all projections, and the exclusion of brackets or other supports to sills and cornices, which only lead to the oozing of water and a line of corrosion down the ashlar; 3d, that house repairers recut the projections in this way, whenever possible, and entirely avoid the use of paint, oil, or other organic preservatives.

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ELEPHANTS MOVING TIMBER AT MOULMEIN, BURMAH.

"Elephants," says Mrs. A. H. Brackenbury, of Singapore, to whom we are indebted for our sketch, "work in the timber yards of Moulmein, carrying huge planks, sometimes two or three together, and with great care and exactitude piling them in stacks one over another. The old hands take a sidelong view with one eye closed to test the perpendicularity of the stacks. The elephants lift the planks with their proboscis on their tusks, and then tuck their trunks around the burden, and march majestically off as if they were carrying nothing. A man sits on each elephant's neck to direct him, which he does by kicking or pressing behind their ears.

"In Africa the elephants are being so persistently slaughtered for the sake of their ivory that they are likely soon to become extinct.

"Would it be possible to breed them on farms as ostriches are bred, and then to employ them in navvy work, for which they are probably as well suited (education being supplied) as their Asiatic cousins?

"Moulmein is a very pretty place, and its charms are enhanced by its being out of the beaten track of tourists. It is up a river, and there are many islands on which are perched the daintiest little gilt and painted Burmese pagodas. The scene recalls the well known view on the willow-pattern plate of our childhood, which plate has once more become fashionable."--_London Graphic_.

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STRENGTH OF YELLOW PINE.

It is reported that a comparison of the relative strength of yellow and Norway pine was made at Dayton, O., with the following results: The specimens were dressed exactly one inch square, and these were broken in a testing machine by placing them on bearings, one foot apart, with the weight in the center. The southern pine had been air seasoned for two years and upward, the Norway from a year to fifteen months. The weakest yellow pine broke at 763 pounds, the strongest at 1,102; average of eight specimens, 904 pounds. The weakest Norway broke at 501 pounds, the strongest at 790 pounds; average of ten specimens, 702 pounds, showing the yellow pine to be 28.7 per cent. stronger than Norway, and that a yellow pine sill 4x8 inches dimensions is equivalent to a Norway sill of 5½x8 inches, with the further advantage in favor of the yellow pine that it can be got much freer of knots and consequently stronger in comparison than these figures show, which are based on clear timber. Another test was made at a meeting of the Master Car Builders' Association, with the following results: Five pieces of each variety, one inch square and eleven inches between bearing points, were experimented upon, the pressure being applied in the center. The outcome showed strength of yellow pine at 500, 510, 500, 490, and 530 pounds breakage strain, or an average of 506; while Norway stood a strain of 620, 645, 730, 650, and 630 pounds or an average of 625 pounds. These experiments do not appear to throw much light on the question of relative strength.

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THE EDUCATION OF GERMAN WOMEN.

"Our women in Germany," said the professor of a German university to me, a few days ago, "must by all means be acquainted with the different departments of housekeeping, and must interest themselves therein. Those who stand highest as well as those who stand lowest, from the wives and daughters of a Minister of State to the wives and daughters of the meanest peasant. The Princess-Royal attends to the skimming of the milk in her dairy." "I beg your pardon for interrupting you," I said, "but an American lady would think that quite out of her sphere; and if I were not convinced of your seriousness, I should imagine you were amusing me by a piece of fiction." "I do assure you," replied the professor, "that it is a well known fact that the Princess-Royal keeps cows and superintends personally the management of her dairy, and I have heard that the Queen of England does the same." "Please to instruct me further regarding the education of women in Germany," I said. "I am very much interested in that subject, as, from my own observations, I have seen that as a general thing the German ladies are well read, not only in the literature of their own country, but also in that of France and England." "Our women," he replied, "also speak French and English, especially French, and many of them are able to read the authors of those countries in the original." "This is the more surprising to me," I remarked, "as they seem to be much occupied with the cares of housekeeping, and I would like to know how they find time to learn foreign languages, and to read all the principal works of the poets and romance writers of three countries." "That," said the professor, "is a part of their education, and in order that you may understand in what manner German girls must utilize their time at school, I will give you a brief explanation of the system of education employed and of that knowledge which it is incumbent upon every German girl to possess, whatever be her position in life, and afterward of the different grades of education from that of the peasant girl to that of the lady of the highest position in the State. Every girl in Germany must learn to read and to write, to sew and to knit, to cook and to do general housework, and to acquire besides some general knowledge of grammar, geography, mathematics, and history. Beginning at the daughter of the _Bauer_, or, as you say in America, _farmer_, the above mentioned knowledge, which is the starting point for the education of the other classes, is the limit of her education; and as it may be interesting to you, I will mention that when the daughters of the Bauer have learned thus much they quit school and labor in the field until they are married, when they leave aside the field work and enter upon the duties of the household and its immediate attachments, such as the dairy, the chicken yard, the gardens, etc.; and while the products of the field belong to their husbands, the garden stuffs, and the milk, eggs, butter, etc., become their own property, and from the profits of these, which they carry to the markets and sell, they provide their pantries with the necessary teas, sugar, coffee, etc., and themselves and their children with clothes.

"Between the peasant class and nobility there are many grades and classes varying more or less in the refinement of their manners as well as in the extent of their education, but as it would not be possible and is also unnecessary for our purpose to describe them all in particular, I prefer to include them all under the head of gentry, and for these a more ample education is provided. The daughters of the gentry must, in addition to the aforesaid rudiments of knowledge, have a very thorough education in history as well as in grammar, mathematics, and natural and physical geography. They must know French and English, and have an intelligent understanding of the literature of those countries, as well as of that of Germany. They must learn fine needle-work and the art of governing a house and of educating young children. They must also acquire a knowledge of good manners and an understanding of society. They must be able to receive company and do the honors of the house. In addition to this they will have an intelligent understanding of music and art. For all of these branches of knowledge there are schools provided, and according to the position or wealth of the parents, or the intelligence and application of the daughters, will vary the refinement and education of each. As, for instance, the education of a country squire's daughter will be superior to that of a wholesale merchant's daughter, and that of the wholesale merchant's daughter will be superior to that of the retail merchant's daughter. The daughter of a very wealthy banker will be educated above the daughters of the merchants; the daughter of a professor of the University above that of the daughters of a professor of the Gymnasium, and so on; and each will fill a position in life differing from that of the others, according to the respect in which the position of the parents is held.

"The same system of education which we have described for the daughters of the gentry will be incumbent on the daughters of the nobility, with the addition of a more finished and thorough education in regard to the manners and formalities which attach to their station of life, and these will also vary in kind and extent, according to the position of the persons concerned. A Duke's daughter, for instance, will be more accomplished than a Count's. But the difference will be more apparent than real; the actual knowledge of both will, as far as their education provides, be the same. In the society of the Court, the ladies will naturally acquire some knowledge of the affairs of State, which those in private life and a more retired existence will not care to learn. But in matters of art, in literature, in the general business of life, all German ladies are expected to be well informed and to be able to converse intelligently regarding them, while the special faculties of law, of medicine, of theology, of chemistry, etc., etc., are left to the higher ambition of their fathers and brothers, and they do not meddle with them. But, above all, as I remarked in the beginning, a German girl of whatever rank or condition must understand fully all the matters concerning a _household_."

When the Professor had finished, I thanked him and expressed so much admiration at the system of education provided for the women of Germany, that he promised me at some future time a brief explanation of morals and manners in Germany, which I shall be most happy to present before the reader at the proper time.

K.G.D.

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SCIENCE IN ANTIQUITY.

HERON'S PNEUMATIC AND COMPRESSING APPARATUS.

The most ancient of such instruments is certainly the syringe. The Egyptians, says Herodotus (ii., 87), employed the latter in the embalming of common people, for filling the belly with oil of cedar, through injections made _per ano_, without opening the body and extracting the intestines. Heron, in his "Pneumatics," describes an instrument of this kind, called _Pyulgue_, which was designed for sucking pus out of wounds.

The following apparatus, also described by Heron, is the first step that was taken toward the production of the pneumatic apparatus properly so called

"_Construction of a cupping glass that sucks without the aid of fire_."

Let _ΑΒΓ_ (Fig. 1) be a cupping glass (like that which is usually applied to the skin), divided by a partition, _ΔΕ_. Through the bottom let there be passed two tubes that slide one within the other by friction--_ΖΗ_ being the external and _ΘΚ_ the internal one. In these two tubes, external to the glass, there are two apertures, _ΛΜ_, that face each other. The extremities of the tubes situated within the apparatus should be open, and the external extremity of _ΘΚ_ should be closed and provided with a key. Beneath the partition, _ΔΕ_, there is another cock, _ΝΞ_, like the one just described, save that the corresponding apertures are within the cupping-glass, and are in communication with an aperture in the partition, _ΔΕ_.

"Things being arranged thus, the keys of the cock are revolved in such a way that the apertures of the one at the bottom of the instrument are in a line with each other, while the cock above the partition remains closed, inasmuch as its apertures do not correspond. The chamber, _ΔΓ_, being full of air, if we apply the mouth to the orifices, _ΛΜ_, and suck out a portion of the air, and turn the key of the cock without removing the mouth from the tube, we shall be able to thus keep up a rarefaction of the air in the chamber, _ΓΔ_. The oftener we perform this operation, the more air we shall remove. Let us now apply the cupping-glass to the skin in the usual way, and open the cock, _ΝΞ_, by turning the key. A portion of the air contained in _ΑΔΕ_ will pass into _ΓΔ_, and we shall then see the skin, as well as the subjacent matters that pass through its interstices, that we call unexplored spaces, drawn into the space in which the air is rarefied."

As for the pressure fountain, this had reached perfection as long ago as the Alexandrine epoch. The following description of it is borrowed from the "Pneumatics:"

"_To construct a hollow sphere, or any other vessel, in which, if a liquid be poured, the latter may be made to rise spontaneously with great force so as to empty the vessel, although such motion be contrary to nature_."

"The construction is as follows: Let there be a sphere of a capacity of about six cotyles (about 2¾ pints) made of some metal tough enough to withstand the pressure of the air that is to be produced. Let us place this sphere, _ΑΒ_, upon any base whatever, _Γ_. Through an aperture in its upper part we introduce a tube which runs down to that part of the sphere which is diametrically opposite the aperture, but which leaves sufficient space there for the water to pass. This tube projects slightly above the sphere, to whose aperture it is soldered, and divides into two branches, _Η_ and _Ζ_, to which are affixed two bent tubes, _ΖΜΝΞ_ and _ΗΘΚΛ_, that communicate internally with _Η_ and _Ζ_. Finally, in these tubes, _ΗΘΚΛ_ and _ΖΜΝΞ_, and in communication with them, there is adapted another tube, _ΠΟ_, from which issues at right angles a small tube, _ΡΣ_, that communicates with it and terminates at _Σ_ in a fine orifice.

If, taking the tube, _ΡΣ_, in hand, we revolve the tube, _ΠΟ_, the two apertures that face each other can no longer establish a communication, and the liquid that rises will no longer find an outlet. Then, through another aperture in the sphere, we insert another tube, _ΤτΦ_, whose lower orifice, _Φ_, is closed, but which has upon the side, toward the bottom, at _Χ_, a round hole to which is adapted a small valve of the sort called by the Romans _assarium_. Into the tube, _τΦΤ_, we insert another and closely fitting tube, _ΨΩ_. Let us now remove the tube, _ΨΩ_, and pour liquid into the tube, _τΦΤ_. This liquid will enter the cavity of the sphere, through the aperture, _Χ_. The valve will open in the interior, and the air will escape through the apertures in the tube, _ΟΠ_, of which we have already spoken, and which have been so arranged as to communicate with the tubes, _ΗΘΚΛ_ and _ΖΜΝΞ_. When once the sphere is half full of liquid, we incline the small tube, _ΡΣ_, so as to shut off all communication between the corresponding apertures, and then push down the tube, _ΨΩ_, and drive into the interior of the sphere the air contained in _ΤτΦ_. This requires some force, as the sphere itself is full of liquid and air, but the introduction is rendered possible through the compression of the air, which shrinks into the empty spaces that it contains within itself. Let us now take out the tube, _ΨΩ_, again so as to fill the tube, _ΤτΦ_, with air, and let us push down the tube, _ΨΦ_, again and force this air into the sphere. On repeating this operation several times in succession we shall finally have in the sphere a large quantity of compressed air. It is clear, in fact, that the air introduced by force cannot escape when the piston-rod is raised, since the valve, pressed by the internal air, remains closed. If then, replacing the tube, _ΡΣ_, in a vertical position, we set up a communication again between the corresponding apertures, the liquid will be driven to the exterior through the compressed air, and the latter will assume its normal volume again, and press in the liquid beneath it. If the quantity of compressed air is considerable, there will occur an expulsion, not only of the entire liquid, but also of the excess of air.

The valve of which I have spoken is constructed as follows (Fig. 2, 1 _bis_ and 1 _ter_): Take two pieces of brass about one inch square, and about as thick as a carpenter's rule, and rub their surfaces against each other with emery, that is to say, polish them so that neither air nor liquid can pass between them. In the middle of one of the pieces bore a circular aperture about 4/10 an inch in diameter. Then fitting the two plates together by one of their edges, unite them by a hinge so that the polished surfaces shall coincide with each other. When this valve is to be made use of, the part containing the aperture is adapted to the aperture that is designed for the introduction of the liquid or air that is to be compressed. The pressure causes the other part of the valve (which moves easily on its hinge) to open and allow the liquid or air to enter the tight vessel, wherein it is afterward confined and presses against the unperforated part of the valve and thus closes the aperture through which the air entered."--_A. de Rochas, in La Nature_.

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PROFESSOR ADOLF MEYER has been experimenting upon the relative digestibility of natural and artificial butter. The experiments were made on a man of 39, and a boy of 9 years. He found that there was but little difference, but in these individuals the natural butter seemed to be more easily digested. While natural butter was all digested, at least 98 per cent. of the artificial butter was also digested.--_Chemiker Zeit_.

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FILTH DISEASES IN RURAL DISTRICTS.

By ALFRED L. CARROLL, M.D., NEW BRIGHTON, N. Y.

An editorial comment in _The Medical Record_ of April 14th, upon a paper by Dr. Hamilton, of Philadelphia, may serve as an apology for some remarks on a subject which ordinarily seems to possess scarcely more interest for practicing physicians than for "practical" laymen; both being wont to lay the finger of incredulity against the nose of scorn when they turn their deafest ears to the voice of the sanitarian. In the present very unsettled condition of professional opinion as to the diagnosis of typhoid fever--passably good authorities in India, on Western mountain peaks, and even nearer home, differing widely thereanent--I shall not attempt here to discuss its etiology, or to single out for reprobation any particular one of the several kinds of bacteria which have been respectively described as its exclusive cause. Suffice it merely to hint that there may be possible source of error in statistical arguments touching its relative frequency in town or country. But, waiving this, I am not aware that "professed sanitarians" have ascribed to "sewer-gas" alone such pre-eminence over other vehicles of filth or fungi as the article in question imputes. On the contrary, I believe that the majority of cases of enteric fever which have been traced accurately to their origin have been traced to other and more tangible contaminations of food or water. Nevertheless there is strong evidence, which has stood the test of much cross examination, that the so-called "filth diseases" deserve their name in this respect: that whatever be the specific _tertium quid_ which determines their occurrence in the individual, filth-poisoning (_i. e._, the imbibition, through some channel, of the products of organic decomposition) is an essential factor in their genesis.

The first source of fallacy in the arguments referred to lies in the misinterpretation of the term "sewer gas," connecting it with sewers in particular instead of with sewage in general. Thus, I find it stated that typhoid is "more prevalent in the suburbs and surrounding country than in the cities subjected to the contamination of sewer gas;" that diphtheria and scarlatina occur most fatally "in the country, where sewer gas is wanting;" and that in Philadelphia the extension of the sewage system into the rural sections has diminished the sickness from fever. Now the facts on which most sanitarians lay great stress are, that unsewered rural districts are more exposed to danger from fermenting filth than cities, that the ineffable atrocities of leaching cesspools and privy-vaults (those perversions of barbarism to which the American rustic clings as to his most precious birthright) do infinitely more to poison air, and soil, and water than all the blunders of city engineers and plumbers combined; and that, granting the worst that can be said of some city sewers which shall be nameless, even a bad sewer is better than none at all--which is merely equivalent to saying that it is better to carry away as much of one's sewage as possible than to keep the whole of it on the premises to decompose under one's nose. And the peril from this fount and origin of evil is augmented a hundredfold where the mania for "modern improvements" has invaded rural households. Long before sewers are thought of--even before the importation of the agonizing pianoforte--the suburban housewife insists on having a bath-room, including that sum and substance of vileness, a pan water-closet on the bedchamber floor, and a kitchen sink and "stationary tubs" down stairs; and these fixtures, commonly constructed in the cheapest and nastiest manner, are connected with an unventilated cesspool, serving as so many inlets to insure the constant pollution of the house atmosphere with the gases of decomposition. Then, in an uncemented basement a "portable furnace" is arranged to transport to the upper rooms not only the cellar-air, but the freely indrawn "ground atmosphere," laden with noxious vapors from the soil-soakage of cesspools or privies. It is not saying too much to affirm that for every one channel of filth-poisoning in a paved and sewered city there are at least three in the average village settlement, and if the evidence of insanitary conditions be found in "not more than one house out of five," it is because, unfortunately, very few physicians in this country have cared to learn how to look for it--familiarity with the doses of drugs and the results of disease being regarded in most of our medical schools as vastly more important than _rerum cognoscere causas_.

I am not sufficiently informed of the morbility statistics of African cities to appreciate the full weight of reasonings based upon their alleged comparative salubrity; the occasional scattered returns which I have seen from a few of them show death-rates ranging from 30 to over 40 per 1,000. But I am free to admit, on general principles, that it is less dangerous to let organic matter decompose fully exposed to atmospheric oxygen than to store it in unventilated receptacles to form sulphureted and carbureted compounds, or to saturate an undrained soil with it. It is to be remembered that few, if any, sewage substances are suspected of pathogenic power while in their fresh solid or liquid state: the products of their subsequent chemical changes are what we have to fear; and if these products be liberated _al fresco_ as fast as they are formed, they are diluted to homoeopathic insignificance by the surrounding air. Of the two evils, therefore, the Africo-Hibernian practice of throwing house refuse promiscuously upon the surface is preferable to the American village method of fostering and festering it in cumulative concentration.

As regards the allegation that "the young men at work in the fields were more frequently attacked (by typhoid fever) than the females, who were generally engaged in domestic duties in or about the house," it may be observed: First, that agricultural laborers do not spend all their time in the fields, but sleep in rooms from which, as a class, they carefully exclude all ventilation; second, that, for some unexplained reason, enteric fever seems to have a selective affinity for robust young males. It is an affair of common observation that, under apparently precisely similar conditions, fragile women may resist the infection to which strong men succumb.

Facts, however, are more forcible than words, and I therefore subjoin a few examples of coincidences which have very much the air of causes and consequences. I have excluded instances where water-pollution could be supposed to bear a part, and also those where careful inquiry did not seem to eliminate the possibility of immediate or mediate importation of contagium from a pre-existing case. And let me, at the outset, deprecate the Liebermeisterian criticism that if an adynamic fever with peculiar temperature curve, abdominal symptoms, etc., be not directly traceable to a preceding patient, it is not true typhoid, but only something otherwise indistinguishable from it; or that, without evidence of contagion, a pseudo-membranous angina with grave constitutional depression is not genuine diphtheria, though a remarkably good imitation of the real article. Grant only that there are diseases--call them what you will--which closely resemble the regulation nosological types, that people sometimes die of them, and that they are intimately associated with the eating, drinking, or breathing of filth-products, and I shall, for the present, leave the question of diagnosis to be begged by whosoever cares for it.

I. _Typhoid._--Large country house with numerous "conveniences." Two "pan closets" on second floor; one in a small windowless hall-apartment, the other in a bath-room adjoining a bed-chamber; basin and bath-wastes led into trap of water-closet; leaden soil-pipe not continued above the line of fixtures, communicating directly with cesspool, and badly corroded at bends of closet-traps. Servants' pan-closet in basement with foul and leaky "retainer;" kitchen and laundry wastes on same horizontal branch, constantly liable to siphonage. Frequent illnesses of minor grade prevailed in this household until the whole plumbing system was reconstructed on a proper plan, since when the inmates have enjoyed excellent health.

II. _Typhoid._--Small house in village street. Under the cellar runs the ill-covered channel of a former brook, which receives the sewage of several adjoining tenements. The house-refuse is discharged into this foul trench through an open untrapped conduit in the basement.

III. _Typhoid._--Cottage of better class. No plumbing fixtures except kitchen sink, which discharges untrapped into an obstructed and very foul drain; leaching privy-pit on higher ground than the basement, which, with the foundation walls, is uncemented, affording ingress to ground-atmosphere.

IV. _Diphtheria._--Elegant mansion, regarded by owner and "practical plumber" as a model of sanitary construction. Soil-pipe extended above roof, but without ventilation at its foot. Materials and workmanship good. On a lateral branch was a down-stairs water-closet into the trap of which the kitchen waste discharged, and into the dip of the running-trap of this horizontal soil-pipe, in the basement, and within a few feet of the furnace, was inserted a servants' hopper-closet without any flushing fixture; excremental matter being, of course, thus retained in the trap a great part of the time, and its decomposition favored by the admixture of hot water from the kitchen. When the water from the boiler was set running, the steam arose freely from this hopper.

V. _Diphtheria._--Handsome country-seat. Plumbing work recently overhauled and declared perfect by the plumber. Three foul pan closets and numerous other "conveniences," all leading to unventilated cesspool. In the bedroom occupied by the patient the "safe-waste" from a stationary basin was carried into the soil-pipe, constituting a direct inlet from the cesspool.

VI. _Diphtheria._--Presumably "first class" residence. Kitchen and laundry wastes carried from basement into privy-vault, which was filled to above the level of the pipes.

VII. _Typhoid?_ (two irregular cases).--Cottage in good neighborhood. Bath and basin wastes discharging into trap of foul pan-closet with "putty-joints." Two inch tin pipe inserted, with leaky slip-joint, into bend of water closet trap, and carried with several angles to roof; no other ventilation of soil-pipe, which connects with leaching cesspool. Cellar riddled with rat-burrows (indicating probable connection with some old drain), and airbox of furnace made of loosely jointed boards, so as to convey the cellar air to upper part of house.

VIII. _Typhoid?_ (continued fever)--Cottage on high ground. Offensive pan-closet on bedroom floor. Soil-pipe relieved by angular galvanized vent. But carried without other ventilation or trapping to cesspool on lower ground. Kitchen and laundry wastes untrapped and led to a row of buried barrels which were filled with a most malodorous mess, the water being allowed to soak into the soil as best it might.

IX. _Diphtheria._--House without plumbing fixtures. Cellar loosely paved with bricks, and saturated with soakage from several privy-vaults on much higher ground and close in the rear; the fæcal-smelling semi-liquid filth actually oozing up between the bricks when they were stepped upon.

X. _Diphtheria._--Cottage alleged by the owner, and innocently believed by the tenant, to be "one of the best plumbed houses in the county." Pan closet in a decadent and offensive condition, with untrapped bath waste and insufficiently trapped basin waste led into its seal. Short vent from bend of closet trap to outside of wall, with orifice closed during winter "to prevent water pipes from freezing;" soil-pipe thus without ventilation at top or bottom. Butler's pantry sink connected by tin pipe with earthenware drain, which was badly laid and composed of different sized pipes. Some distance beyond the junction of the soil pipe and wastes, this drain was tapped by a "ventilating" pipe carried into a chimney flue, with an occasional down-draught. Kitchen waste opening directly into an unventilated cesspool. All lead pipes of poorest quality.

XI. _Diphtheria._--Country farm-house. No plumbing. Uncemented cellar; living room in wing built directly upon the earth. Overflowing privy-vault within twenty feet and on higher ground, the soakage and surface washing from which had permeated the soil around and under the building.

XII. _Diphtheria._--Large and handsome house. Sanitary arrangements satisfactory to plumber. Pan-closet with insufficient flush. Two-inch tin vent from bend of soil-pipe carried with various angles into cold chimney flue. Running under the whole length of the basement was an eight inch earthenware drain receiving the soil-pipe and the wastes from different fixtures; its large caliber and slight grade precluded proper flushing, and it was thickly coated with refuse and chilled grease. Into its upper end was inserted the overflow from a tightly covered cistern, so that the only ventilation of the entire house-drainage system was through the rain-water leader, close to a "mansard" bedroom window.

XIII. _Typhoid?_--Two small houses of the poorer class, situated on a road at the foot of a steep declivity. No plumbing. Two privy-vaults, a pig-pen, and an indescribably filthy cow stable just behind and above them, from which the washings were traceable into their cellars.

I could extend the list by scores of illustrations of rural house-defects: soil-pipes disjointed from their outlet drains and discharging their sewage under basement floors; cesspools "backing-up" into kitchen sinks or laundry tubs, or pouring a reflux tide through "overflow" pipes into drinking water cisterns; ingenious devices of every sort to deprive the gases from pent-up filth of any escape, save into the dwelling. And these among the "wealthier residents," whose surroundings are commonly supposed to be above suspicion. As regards the unplumbed poor, their chances of inhaling filth-polluted air or imbibing filth contaminated water are often enhanced by inadequate cubic space and faulty construction within doors, and ignorant neglect of the very rudiments of hygiene in the environment; their cellars and wells being sunk in soil saturated with putrescent refuse. In the intermediate agricultural or mechanic class similar conditions frequently exist, their potency for evil depending chiefly upon the porous or retentive character of the soil; precautions to exclude the ground atmosphere from cellars or basements are seldom found; cesspools and privy-vaults are close at hand; and it is a common thing for a couple of adults and two or three children to sleep in a "stuffy" unventilated room with not more than 1,000 or 1,500 cubic feet among them.

From a sanitary point of view it matters little whether the gases from decomposing sewage escape from sodden soil or from a foul sewer; their nature is alike in either case, and the aggregate dose may be even larger in the former instance. But when, and why, and how, they, or any of them, exert their most deleterious influences, are questions which it is impossible to answer in the present state of our knowledge. It is an indisputable fact that people may for a long while be exposed to them without pronounced manifestations of "filth disease"--although such people, in my experience, are seldom thoroughly well, even if not specifically ill. But sooner or later an apparent qualitative change may take place, and an acute zymosis declare itself. I have elsewhere suggested the part that may be borne in this complicated problem by a "personal factor," or temporarily altered individual susceptibility;[7] but it seems necessary also to assume an alteration in the external conditions; and such alteration is explained by many etiologists on the hypothesis of the importation or evolution of specific pathogenic micro-organisms. That certain varieties of schizophytes are associated with some of the acute infections is beyond doubt; that in a few, such "microdemes" are the conveyers,[8] if not the causes, of the infection seems proved; but it must be remembered that in the diseases chiefly under consideration no characteristic bacteroidal forms have been defined. In typhoid fever, Klebs describes a bacillus where Letzerich finds only micrococci; according to Wood and Formad, the micrococcus of diphtheria is just like that of the ordinary buccal mucus; indeed, nearly all of the acutest infectious diseases are attributed to these ubiquitous micrococci, indistinguishable from each other in most instances, and divided into species solely on the score of their assumed physiological effects. Admitting all that the most ardent advocates of the germ theory can claim for it, there are at least three possible ways in which filth and fungi may be connected.

1. Taking the view of Naegeli and others as regards the mutability of the bacteria, it is conceivable that the common "scavenger" microphytes may acquire pathogenic properties by successive generations of development amid the products of certain decomposing substances. In favor of this conception may be cited the seemingly gradual intensification of "filth poisoning" in numerous instances; sore throats of a less septic type forerunning outbreaks of diphtheria; diarrhoeal derangements preceding enteric fever; and, furthermore, Koch has found both bacillus-spores and micrococci in surface soils, the latter organisms preponderating where the earth is subjected to excremental soakage.

2. Or, accepting the specific classification of the schizomycetes, it may be supposed that some pathogenic germs obtain favorable intermediate conditions for their development and multiplication in these products of decomposition; a supposition almost necessary if the specific-germ theory be applied to enteric or choleraic discharges.

3. Finally, if it be conceded that desiccated spores may retain their specific vitality indefinitely, and be air-wafted almost unboundedly, the predisposing action of our filth emanations maybe imagined to be cumulative, slowly undermining the individual powers of resistance, or rendering certain cell groups an easier prey to the intruding organisms in the struggle for existence.

Which of these hypotheses, if either of them, will ultimately prevail is a question only to be decided by experimental investigations which are beset by a multitude of difficulties and sources of error.--_Med. Record_.

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HORSE MEDICINE BIT.

Owing, no doubt, to the preponderance of horizontality over verticality in the construction of the horse, there results a considerable difficulty in administering medicine to that quadruped, and he frequently has to undergo what may be said to amount to cruelty in the endeavor to persuade him to swallow the unpalatable dose. It is therefore with satisfaction that we bring under our readers' notice a simple and effective invention which promises to do away with this difficulty, and from humanitarian motives we hope to see it widely adopted. It is the joint production of Mr. Philip Fonnereau, of Masons' Arms Yard, Maddox Street, and Mr. Willoughby Fielding, of Lisle Street, Leicester Square, London. The inventors have adopted the sensible and very obvious plan of utilizing that which the horse is trained to tolerate--viz., the bit. It will be seen from the annexed engravings that the invention consists essentially of a tubular bit, with a funnel attached, as shown at Fig. 1. The bit has a hole, which is close to the horse's tongue when in its mouth. The upper part of the apparatus is fitted with a rope, which is passed through a ring in the ceiling of the stable. By this rope the horse's head is gently elevated, so as to prevent the medicine from going in any other direction than down its throat. When it has been properly adjusted, as shown at Fig. 2, the medicine is poured into the funnel, and it immediately runs through the hole into the horse's mouth, and the animal cannot help swallowing it. The apparatus is then removed, and rinsed out for future use. Of course the invention is adapted to liquid medicine only, but we believe it is as easy to prepare medicine in a liquid form as in any other, and therefore there need be no difficulty on that account. We commend this invention to all having the care of horses as a practical means of obviating the perpetuation of a hitherto necessary but now unnecessary cruelty to animals.--_Iron._

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THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SLEEP.

As regards the vascular condition of the cerebrum during natural sleep, there seems to be at present a virtual agreement among physiologists. Whatever views may be held of the immediate or proximate cause, it is generally admitted that during sleep the brain is relatively anæmic. There are well-attested facts enough on record to substantiate this. The brain, denuded of a portion of its cranial covering, has been carefully watched during the waking state and in sleep, and it has been ascertained that, both in man and in the lower animals, the organ is comparatively bloodless during sleep, and its circulation more sluggish than at other times.

In the early part of this century Blumenthal first enunciated this theory, and supported it by the interesting case of a patient who had lost a portion of the right frontal bone; during sleep the brain was seen to be anæmic and in a collapsed condition. Dendy[9] relates a similar case, which was observed in 1821. But Durham's memoir on the physiology of sleep, which was published in the volume of "Guy's Hospital Reports" for 1860, was the first really thorough and scientific contribution to our knowledge of the vascular state of the encephalon during sleep, and the relation of that state to the phenomena of sleep. To Hammond also, many of whose experiments were made prior to Durham's publication, we are indebted for numerous original observations, and for the most exhaustive and conclusive exposition of the subject yet given to the world.[10]

We may see that during sleep all the encephalic blood-vessels are under a diminished pressure, as proved in fact by the manometer, and that this lessening of the active flow corresponds with a diminution of cerebral function. Even if no experiments had ever been made, inductive reasoning would have led irresistibly to this conclusion. During the intervals of digestion the gastric mucous membrane is relatively pale and bloodless; the submaxillary gland does not become turgid with blood until it begins to secrete saliva; a muscle in action becomes markedly hyperæmic. It is so with the organs in general. The performance of function is characterized by vascular activity and fullness. If in any part there is a call for work, there is a call for more blood. The nervous system forms no exception to this law, and there is the most intimate and absolute correlation between the evolution of nervous energy and the activity of the circulation. So true is this that it is everywhere admitted that the induction of functional work in any such apparatus as the digestive, the sexual, or the muscular produces a degree of hyperæmia of the apparatus called into action sufficient to prove a serious hinderance to the easy and satisfactory performance of any severe mental task.

Professor Mosso, of Turin, has lately made some interesting experiments on persons who had lost portions of the cranial bones, using Marey's ingenious hydro-sphygmograph. Noting, like others before him, that during sleep the brain diminished in volume, with shrinkage of its blood-vessels, and that the lively blush characterizing its surface during the waking state disappeared, he observed also that any sudden impression, if sufficient to rouse the brain to partial activity, was sure to be attended with an increase of its vascularity and its volume. He has proved, too, that every effort of the intellect is normally accompanied by a diminution of volume in the peripheral parts, the arm, for example, and that, on the contrary, when the cerebral activity is lessened the distant members are augmented in volume. Sleep is always accompanied by a dilatation of the vessels of the extremities, and particularly of the forearm, where this dilatation has repeatedly been measured by Mosso with his registering apparatus. Every excitation from without causes a contraction of the vessels of the forearm of the sleeping subject, and the augmented blood pressure at once produces a renewed afflux of blood to the brain. In this manner the fluctuations of cerebral activity can be followed: a sound, a touch, a ray of light falling on the closed lid of the sleeper, all give rise to modifications of the cerebral circulation--unperceived, doubtless, but possibly the source of dreams.[11]

The immediate cause of sleep is not simply the shutting off of a portion of the blood current from the brain. There are more important factors. Here Vulpian[12] is right. The lessening of the blood supply to the encephalon is rather the accompaniment than the cause of sleep. We cannot produce normal sleep in a person simply by exsanguinating his brain, or else we should have in an ice-cap and a hot foot-bath the speediest and most effective of hypnotics. The brain must first be in a certain condition. There must be in the constitution of the supreme nerve centers something that forbids further activity, and with that cessation of activity there will be a lessening of the blood-flow to the brain, in accordance with the physiological law before stated. What is the particular modification of the cortical cells which renders them less fit for the liberation of their special forces, and finally compels a suspension of action, with a diminution of the blood supply? Herbert Spencer has given a very plausible explanation, in accordance with the theory of evolution:

The waste of the nerve-centers having become such that the stimuli received from the external world no longer suffice to call forth from them adequate discharges, there results a diminished impulse to those internal organs which subserve nervous activity, including more especially the heart. Consequently, the nerve-centers, already working feebly, are supplied with less blood and begin to work more feebly, responding still less to impressions, and discharge still less to the heart. And so the two act and react until there is reached a state of profound unimpressibility and inactivity. Between this state and the waking state the essential distinction is great reduction of waste, which falls so low that the rate of repair exceeds it.... During the day the loss is greater than the gain, whereas during the night the gain is diminished by scarcely any loss. Hence results accumulation; there is restoration of nerve-tissue to its state of integrity.

According to Mr. Spencer, that rhythmical variation in nervous activity which we see in sleep and waking is the result of adaptation, due to survival of the fittest. "An animal so constituted that waste and repair were balanced from moment to moment throughout the twenty-four hours would, other things equal, be overcome by an enemy or competitor that could evolve greater energy during the hours when light facilitates action, at the expense of being less energetic during the hours of darkness and concealment."[13]

With some qualification, the foregoing statement is about as satisfactory as any that has yet been offered as to the proximate cause of sleep. During the waking hours the vaso-motor center in the medulla is doubtless under inhibition by the superior centers, and there is relative relaxation of the cerebral arterioles, with dilatation of the capillaries; when the cells of the hemispheres are exhausted, they are no longer able to exercise this inhibition--in common parlance, they no longer powerfully extract the blood--and the vaso-motor center "puts on the brakes"; the blood supply is then no longer sufficient for function, though enough for nutrition.

An ingenious theory has lately been proposed by Preyer, of Jena,[14] according to which, to use a homely illustration, the fire ceases to burn because the flues are clogged with cinders.