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THE RESERVOIR AT WIDNES. THE Builder states that there has just been completed at Widnes, in Lancashire, what is believed to be the largest covered reservoir in the kingdom. It has occupied two years and a half in construction, having been begun on April 16, 1876. The total cost, including the mains attached to it, amounts to over 30,000!. Widnes is a manufacturing town of about 22,000 inhabitants, and the water-supply is under the control of the local board of health. A very large quantity of water is required for manufacturing purposes. The supply is exclusively from wells, known as Stock's Well, Netherley, and Belle Vale -the latter having only recently been purchased by the local board. The object of the new reservoir, which is situated at Pex Hill, is the storage of the water pumped at Netherley and Stock's Well. It is upon a lower level than the old reservoir adjoining it, the new one being intended to supply the town and the lower parts of the district, while the old one will be reserved for the higher portions. Separate leading mains have been laid with this object in view. The water can be delivered into the new reservoir direct from the engine pumps, or through the overflow from the old one, as may be necessary. The length of the reservoir is 330 feet; the width, 240 feet; the depth at time of overflow, 22 feet 3 inches. It will contain 10,000,000 gallons of water when full; the old one held only 1,250,000 gallons. It is said that while this work has cost 37. for every million gallons it will contain, the average cost throughout the country is 57. per million gallons.

THE PUBLIC HEALTH.

DURING THE WEEK ENDING JANUARY 11, 1879. IN twenty-three of the largest cities of the United Kingdom 6,177 births and 4,512 deaths were registered last week, equal to annual rates of 379 and 27.7 per 1,000 of the estimated population. The annual death-rate was equal to 23.3 in Edinburgh, 28.2 in Glasgow, and 44'9 in Dublin. The fatal cases of small-pox in Dublin, which had increased steadily from 8 to 22 in the four preceding weeks, were 18 last week.

In the twenty large English towns the births registered last week exceeded by 255, and the deaths by 458, the average weekly numbers recorded during 1878. The deaths showed a further decline of 228 from the high numbers returned in recent weeks, and included 427 which were referred to the seven principal zymotic diseases, of which 146 resulted from scarlet fever, 125 from whooping-cough, and 52 from fever. The deaths from these seven diseases in the twenty towns were equal to an annual rate of 30 per 1,000; this zymotic rate ranged, however, from oo and 0.8 in Wolverhampton and Portsmouth, to 52 and 76 in Oldham and Salford. The high 7ymotic death-rate in Salford was mainly due to the fatal prevalence of scarlet fever, measles, and Scarlet fever also showed excessive whooping-cough. fatality in Birmingham, Oldham, and Leeds; and the deaths from this disease in the twenty towns, which in the previous week had declined to 127, rose again last week to 146. Whooping-cough was scarcely so fatal as in the preceding week, and showed the greatest fatality in Leeds. Diphtheria was less fatal in London than in the previous week, but caused three deaths in Leeds and two in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Twelve more fatal cases of small-pox were recorded last week in London, whereas the nineteen large provincial towns again enjoyed immunity from the fatality of this disease. The deaths from fever (principally enteric) showed the largest proportional excess in Oldham, Plymouth, and Liverpool.

The annual rate of mortality from all causes per 1,000 of the nearly seven millions and a half of persons estimated to be living in the twenty large towns, which had been equal to 32:3, 30'4, and 29.1 in the three preceding weeks, further declined last week to 27.1. During the thirteen weeks which ended on the 28th ultimo, the death-rate in these twenty towns averaged 25'0 per 1,000, against 252,

224, and 228 in the corresponding periods of 1875, 1876, and 1877.

Brighton during last week, of these twenty towns, showed the lowest annual rate of mortality, 143 per 1,000. The rates in the other towns, ranged in order from the lowest, were as follow:-Portsmouth, 15.8; Oldham, 188; Sunderland, 214; Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 220; Bradford, 22'1; Hull, 22.5; Leeds, 226; Leicester, 228; Sheffield, 24'4; Wolverhampton, 26'4; Nottingham, 26·5; London, 270; Norwich, 27.6; Birmingham, 307; Bristol, 29.8; Plymouth, 31.6; Liverpool, 324; Manchester, 352; and the highest rate during the week, 361, in the borough of Salford. The high death-rate in Salford was due to the fatal prevalence of zymotic diseases; the excess in Manchester, however, does not appear to be susceptible of a similar explanation.

In Inner, or Registration Lendon, the death-rate from all causes last week was equal to 270 per 1,000, while the zymotic rate was 30; these rates were almost identical with those that prevailed in the aggregate of the nineteen large provincial towns. Among the nearly nine hundred thousand persons estimated to be living in the outer ring of suburban districts around London, the death-rate from all causes did not exceed 18.7, and from the seven zymotic diseases 17 per 1,000, respectively. Scarlet fever caused 3 deaths in Croydon, 2 in Bexley, 2 in Brentford, and 2 in Acton; while four fatal cases of measles occurred in West Ham.

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-Sir

HERR C. RECLAM has made a detailed report of the cremation at Gotha, of which we gave an account in the SANITARY RECORD of Dec. 20, 1878. He calculates the cost of each cremation at about 4/., which in case the furnace is in continual use, so that between two processes it has not time to cool, would be reduced to 37. W. Jenner has resigned his professorship of Morbid Anatomy at University College and Hospital, which he has held since 1849.- -The Local Government Board have issued an order constituting the township of Church, Lancashire, a Local Government district, with a board of twelve members. In the event of a contest the voting papers are to be collected on February 5.- The Manchester Corporation propose to reintroduce their Thirl

mere Water Bill in Parliament. An effort is being made by the United Sanitary Authority of South Shields, Jarrow, and Hebburn-on-Tyne, to erect a district hospital for the treatment of infectious diseases.-Febrile disease is still very prevalent on the banks of the Tyne, and the mortality therefrom is considerably above the average.. -During the recent heavy fall of snow in the north, the streets of Newcastle were nearly impassable for a fortnight; consequent complaints to the municipal authorities have resulted in the initiation of an official investigation into the matter. -The Rev. Henry Campbell Watson, M.A., Vicar of St. James's Church, Croydon, has died of a rapid attack of diphtheria. The deceased gentleman preached on the 5th inst., but was shortly afterwards attacked by the fatal disease, to which he succumbed on the 8th inst.. -At the quarterly general court of the governors of the Seamen's Hospital Society, Greenwich, held on Friday last, the committee reported that the whole of the sewers of the hospital had been ventilated and properly trapped under the direction of Mr. Ernest Turner, of 246 Regent Street, upon a plan approved by Mr. Robert Rawlinson, C.B., of the Local Government Board.The prevalence of lead poisoning amongst the men engaged in double bottoms and other confined spaces of ships at Portsmouth, has been taken up by the Treasury, who have called upon the officers of the yard to report upon the best means of preventing the continuance of the poisoning. A report has been transmitted, and it is expected that the Treasury will shortly issue an amended code of instructions with regard to the men engaged in this dangerous work.The death is announced of Dr. Tardieu, President of the Consultative Committee of the Paris Société d'Hygiène, and one of the editors of the Annales d'Hygiène Publique.'An exhibition of gas-burners, gas-stoves, engines, and other appliances for the economic use of gas for domestic and manufacturing purposes is to be opened at Bradford on Feb. 17.- -Dr. Oxland, the public analyst for Devonport, in his last quarterly report, states that no article has been submitted to him for analysis, a state of things probably arising from the refusal of some magistrates to convict in cases of proved adulteration, under the plea of non-prejudice to the purchasers.'— In the course of an inquiry in connection with the proposed artisans' dwellings in Dublin, Mr. Andrews, Q.C., is reported to have said, in reference to some condemned houses; You need only wink at them and they will come down. At the annual meeting of the British Orphan Asylum, held on the 14th inst., it was stated that much anxiety had arisen during the latter months of the past year from a large number of children having been attacked by a mild form of diphtheria. There had been over forty cases, but happily none had proved fatal. The outbreak of the epidemic could not be traced to any local causes of defective drainage or ventilation, but it was feared contagion was brought to the schools by some pupils returning from their midsummer holidays.- -A portion of the parish of East Budleigh, Devon, has been constituted a Local Government district. It is to be called the Budleigh-Salterton District, and to have a board of nine members. Notice of election is to be published on the 22nd instant, and the voting papers are to be issued on the 26th.

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At a recent meeting of the French Society of Hygiene, Dr. Landeer, in the course of some interesting observations on the subject of small-pox, said that he remarked that it was in houses exposed to the north that small-pox raged the least, and he suggested that inquiry should be made whether certain winds did not exercise a particular influence on the development of the disease.

Special Reports.

VENTILATION.

AT a recent soirée of the Leeds Philosophical Society, a patent for ventilating houses and workshops was exhibited by Messrs. A. R. and J. W. Harding. For the admiss on of fresh air and its diffusion in a room without draughts, an opening or air-passage is formed from the exterior to the interior of the apartment, and inside the room the opening is covered with a box or chamber. This is perforated with any required number of holes or slots, these having a diagonal upward direction. In order to properly diffuse the air, hollow ferrules or tubes of any desired length are fitted into the holes or slots provided in the box. These ferrules or tubes give the desired direction to the various streams or jets of air, in the same manner as the barrel of a rifle or gun gives direction to projectiles, and the elevation of the mouth or outlet of each ferrule or tube varies the trajectory or line of delivery in the same manner as the elevation or depression of a rifle or gun. The box or chamber is of a conical or pyramidal form, so as to give direction to the ferrules or tubes. A stop-valve is employed for regulating the supply of air.

INFANT MORTALITY IN EXETER.

THE subject of infant mortality having been brought before the Exeter guardians by their medical officers. (see SANITARY RECORD for Oct. 4, 1878), the matter was referred to a sub-committee to investigate and At a recent meeting of the board of guardians report. their report, which had been previously considered in private, was adopted. The committee stated that they had taken a large amount of evidence from medical and clerical witnesses as well as from other residents in the stated that the evidence of medical men was to the effect city. With regard to the ignorance of mothers, the report that most of the infantile diseases which presented themselves to the dispensary and hospital physicians were due, directly or indirectly, to improper food and feeding, and unscientific medication. The use of gin, brandy, and soothing-syrups, so freely resorted to, was strongly condemned. As to illegitimate children put to nurse, the committee state: 'It would be well to give information as to the number of illegitimate births in the city, and the number of illegitimate infants who die under one year old. In the seven years ending August 1878, the deaths registered were 163, of which 94 occurred at and under three months, 39 between three and six months, and the remaining 30 between six and twelve months. The number of illegitimate births in the seven years ending 1876 was 502. The proportion of deaths (163) to births (502) is 324 7-10 per 1,000 as compared with the general average selected in our preliminary tables, we find, taking an of 173. On comparing Exeter with the towns already average of seven years, ending with 1876, that the proportion of illegitimate births to 1,000 actual births was :-In Exeter, 67; in Coventry, 47; Devonport, 30; Leicester, 45; Plymouth, 50; Southampton, 44.' clergyman stated that he had known houses inhabited by persons who took in infants where children never lived more than six months. The committee pointed out that foster-mothers who took one child did not come under the

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provisions of the Infant Life Protection Act of 1872. No opportunity was afforded of inspection, and there was cruelly treated. They recommended that the attention of reason to believe such infants were often neglected and

the Secretary of State be called to this defect, and they suggested the appointment of a person to look after infants at nurse. According to medical testimony, the sanitary state of the lower quarter cannot be condemned in too strong terms; and as to infant insurance, the committee were of opinion that it was mischievous, frequently offered strong temptation to crime, and might beneficially be abolished.

JANUARY 17, 1879

manner.

THE DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE.

IN one of the Public Health lectures recently delivered at Glasgow, Dr. William Wallace pointed out that sewage was a very mixed liquid, and that that was one of the chief difficulties in the way of the satisThe question to be solved, he factory disposal of it. afterwards remarked, was how to get rid of it in the most convenient, least injurious, and least expensive If sewers Underground sewers generated gas. could be kept on the surface, and the supply of water was plentiful, there would be no danger from this cause, although that might be more or less offensive to sight and smell. Perhaps the most perfect town from a sanitary point of view would be one in which a small stream of water flowed down the centre of each street, with the stream connected with the houses and a fall of water Water per se, sufficient to prevent the lodgment of matter. it was pointed out, had no purifying quality whatever. In ordinary cases the air more than the water had to be depended upon for oxidation, though in the river Clyde there was a sufficient quantity of water to dilute the actual The first step and the sewage with 1,600 parts of water. only manner by which sewage could be satisfactorily disposed of was by the appointment of Conservancy Boards. There could be little doubt that it would be of little use to introduce for the purification of the Clyde a system which did not embrace the upper reaches of the river, and this could only be accomplished by means of a Conservancy Board. Proceeding to discuss the merits of the two systems of disposing of excreta-the dry system and carriage by water-Dr. Wallace described the former as the most rational and most consistent with public health and national prosperity. The methods of disposing of the sewage after it entered the river were then considered in detail, and preference was expressed for that of precipitation by lime.

In the course of the lecture specimens of McEvoy and Guyton's, and Buchan's traps were shown; also of the latter's fixed ventilators. Carrick's dry closet was also exhibited.

HYGIENE APPLIED TO DWELLINGS.

MR. B. H. THWAITE, of Bolton, recently read a paper on Hygiene applied to Dwellings' before the ManHe said that seeing the chester Architectural Association. principal questions of the day are how to revive our languishing trade, and our position as a trading country in the future, a few words on the subjects, and their relation to architects, will not be out of place. In an interesting article on the retrograde movements in British trade, Mr. Edmund Ashworth, of Bolton, states that the falling off in British exports for the four years following 1873 equalled the enormous sum of 158,264,051/. This result he clearly proves to be principally owing to foreign competition, and it is palpable that if foreigners can and do obtain all the latest improved machinery, our success in competition will depend upon the superior physique and energy of our working population. We have certainly the advantage of a more temperate climate than the Continentals, and a more bracing and invigorating atmosphere, but the latter advantage may be rendered nugatory by allowing the working population to breathe impure air, deteriorating the physique, and rendering them incapable of procreating healthy offspring. Mr. Fergus Ferguson, surgeon, stated that the number of children of thirteen years physically unfit for work goes on increasing year by year; he also stated that the physical vigour of the factory operatives had deteriorated during the last fourteen years. The ill-ventilated dwellings and schools contribute the first elements of disease, and the ill-ventilated workshops complete the quota of the Pulnecessary requisites to break up the constitution. monary consumption is the commonest form in which the disease exhibits itself. Mr. Collins, analytical chemist, had kindly allowed him to make use of some recent analyses he has made in the neighbourhood of a manufac

turing town: Atmosphere of Public Park, carbonic acid,
Sitting-
per cent., o'0394; oxygen, per cent., 20.97.
room of dwelling, carbonic acid, per cent., 0·127; oxy.
gen, 20.71. School-room, carbonic acid, o 203; oxygen,
Ac-
20 64. Card-room of mill, carbonic acid, 0.211.
cording to the late Dr. Parkes, the amount of carbonic
acid in the air should never be allowed to exceed six
volumes in 10,000, and here we have in dwelling, school,
and card-room an average of 20 volumes of carbonic acid.
The physique of the working population may well deterio-
rate. According to Mr. Ashworth, the Continentals work
72 hours per week, and we are limited to 56; so it is
clear our working hours must be increased to enable us to
But let the dwellings, schools, and
compete with them.
workshops be ventilated, and our working population will
become more vigorous and energetic, and the longer hours
with good ventilation will not exhaust them as much as
the present working hours with deficient ventilation.
Architects, by the construction of healthy dwellings,
schools, and workshops, may thus effect a great and
beneficial change in the physical condition of the working
population.

BACK-TO-BACK HOUSES IN THE DEWSBURY
REGISTRATION DISTRICT.

DR. THORNE, whose work we have before had occa-
sion to commend, has recently made, by direction of the
Local Government Board, a detailed inquiry into the
in Yorkshire, which comprises as many as fourteen separate
sanitary condition of the registration district of Dewsbury,
sanitary districts. His report, which has just been pub-
lished, illustrates in a very forcible manner the evils which
pace with the growth of population. In hardly a single
inevitably ensue when sanitary improvement does not keep
sewerage, or the method of excremental disposal, or the
district inspected was either the water-supply, or the
found to be anything but very unsatisfactory. In the words
dwelling accommodation, or the repression of nuisances,
of Dr. Thorne :-" Together with a large development of
trade, there has been during the past twenty years a great
increase of population throughout the district. Villages
have rapidly become towns, and districts which were all
but uninhabited are now busy centres of life. The oppor-
tunity for controlling this increase of population and of
prosperity by an effective sanitary administration has been
one of extreme rarity. Large towns and boroughs, whose
sanitary experience has been dearly bought, are numerous
within a comparatively small radius of the district, and they
afforded abundant proof as to what were the sanitary evils.
which in their cases had been associated with the rapid
development of population. With but rare and but recent
exceptions, however, this opportunity has not been taken
advantage of, for not only have those sanitary defects,
which in the older boroughs were most glaring and most
injurious to health, been often copied in almost every
detail, but the defective conditions once having been
allowed to arise, they have been all but continuously per-
petuated up to the present date.'

Especially is this the case as regards the dwelling accommodation. In every district reported on, Dr. Thorne has to complain of the existence of houses without To this question, then, as a matter of through ventilation, by far the majority of them being built back to back. more than local importance, we shall confine our attention, as with our limited space it would be impossible for us to follow Dr. Thorne through his lengthy description of the sanitary deficiencies of each district, even if there were, which unhappily for sanitary progress there is not, anything We confess we cannot understand how the numberexceptional in the filthy conditions detailed in the report. less examples of back-to-back houses existing in this district should have been left completely unnoticed by the inspectors who made the inquiry for the Local Government Board as to this class of dwellings (see Vol. IX., p. 312), except on the supposition the sanitary evils arising from their use were too patent to be explained away.

Dr. Thorne appears to be quite in accord with us as to the undesirability of sanctioning the erection of back-toback houses, although his remarks are couched in official and therefore studied, phraseology. He says that the question of the construction of back-to-back houses in the Dewsbury district is one of very grave importance, for the steady and rapid multiplication of houses which have no means whatever of through ventilation must necessarily act prejudicially upon the health of the population, the evils becoming more and more marked as the district becomes more and more densely populated. Probably the only justification for such houses which should at any time be entertained, is the necessity of providing for certain of the labouring classes an entirely separate dwelling in a district where the price of land is such that this cannot be done in any other way; but even then their erection should be subjected to the most stringent regulations with a view of diminishing their unwholesomeness. Whether the circumstances in any part of this district are such that it is impossible in some way to build small houses having through ventilation at a reasonable rent is a point which deserves the earnest consideration of the sanitary authorities, who in arriving at a determination in the matter should ascertain the grounds on which, in populous towns such as Manchester, it has been found possible to prevent the construction of back-to-back houses. It certainly appeared to him that houses having through ventilation could be built at no greater cost, if not at a less cost, than is now in some parts of this district being expended on some of the backto-back houses, which are in reality in some cases fourroomed and even five-roomed villas, having at times even a narrow strip of garden in front. And further, if backto-back houses are in any case a necessity, no portion of any one of them should under any circumstances be sub-let as a separate tenement; for if houses are required for the purposes of sub-letting, there can be no reasonable difficulty in providing them with means of through ventilation.

As a rule, back-to-back houses in the Dewsbury district are constructed in long rows, half the houses fronting the street and the other half fronting into a yard behind, which is reached at either end of the row, and often also by means of one or more tunnelled passages at various points in the row; this yard, too, generally contains the middenprivies. Many of these houses are ill-constructed, but others again are, except in so far as they lack through ventilation, very well built; they are often faced with stone, and at times they are provided with three windows abreast and a central passage or hall, and command a rent as high as 14. or 157. a year. Others again are in some districts built in groups of four only with an intervening open space; but, as a rule, unroofed midden privies occupy this space, and hence no windows can be constructed at the sides of the houses. In numerous instances these back-to-back houses are sub-let, the lower rooms forming a separate tenement, the others being approached by an outside staircase opening on to a balcony on a level with the first floor. Where, however, the rows are built on a rapidly sloping surface, it often happens that the houses occupying the lowest site have one room more at the basement than those fronting the other way, and in these instances this single room, built partly into the adjoining soil or rock, with perhaps a small cellar, constitutes one tenement.

To this general description, Dr. Thorne adds in the various sections of his report particulars as to the back-toback houses in each separate district. From these it would appear that this sort of dwellings is still being erected throughout the district, being in fact in several places 'rapidly on the increase,' notwithstanding that the bylaws of at least half the authorities distinctly prohibit any such erections. Of course, amongst Dr. Thorne's recommendations appear several tending to prohibit the building of any such houses, and to render their supervision, if erected, more strict and exacting; but we should not like to say how far those recommendations will be carried out now that the Local

Government Board has 'conceded the principle' of backto-back houses. It would have been interesting to have had from Dr. Thorne so me statistics of the deaths from preventable causes in this description of buildings; but probably this was im possible for him, and the several medical officers of health, who are most miserably paid,. could hardly be expected to give the time for such an investigation. Of this, however, we are certain, that had the sanitary supervision of the several districts been properly looked after, so that inter alia back-to-back houses were not allowed to be built, Dr. Thorne would not have had to have chronicled that the mean death-rate of the district for the seven years 1871-7 was 23.8 per 1,000, that the deathrate from fever was 83 per 10,000, that the infantile mortality was 18.2 per 100 births, and that the mortalities from diarrhoea and from enteric fever, which have become endemic in the district, have, in at least six out of the last seven years, reached epidemic proportions.

DIPHTHERIA AT WREXHAM.

It is as satisfactory as it is unusual to come across an authority which has so far carried out the recommendations of a Local Government Board inspector as to induce the Whitehall authorities to express their satisfaction at the steps which have been taken. The authority which is in such harmonious relations with the central board is. the Town Council of Wrexham.

The large mortality from diphtheria at Wrexham having attracted the attention of the Local Government Board, Dr. Airy was sent down to make inquiry into the circumstances. Perhaps wisely, Dr. Airy does not attempt to draw any conclusions as to the origin and virulence of the outbreak from the facts detailed in his report. Wrexham, it appears, stands on a deep bed of sandy gravel, and is traversed west to east by a small brook running in a narrow valley and occasionally much polluted by the overflow into it of sewage from the settling tanks of the sewerage system of the borough, which was planned by Mr. Rawlinson, C.B., in 1863. The main part of the town lies on the north side,' on the high plateau of gravel. In the valley, close beside the brook, are very large leather works and breweries, and one or two nests of dwellings of the lowest class. On the north side of the little valley runs a street called Mount Street, in which the first cases of diphtheria occurred, in November of 1877. Apparently there had not previously been any recognised case of diphtheria in the town for many months. The first case of all occurred at a cleanly kept but confined and ill-ventilated alehouse, and the fact that the fir-t case occurred at an inn is at first sight suggestive of importation from without. But Dr. Airy says that, although diphtheria had for some months been prevalent in villages not far distant from Wrexham, none of the infected families in the country of whom inquiry was made had had any communication with this inn; indeed, it is. not a house at which the country folk were at all in the habit of calling, as it has no stabling and is only licensed for the sale of beer and porter. Its customers are, with few exceptions, persons living in the town.

From the child first attacked the disease spread to two families who were intimate with the first, and the infection then appears to have been carried to the school which the children of all these families attended. Early in December fresh cases appeared in other families sending children to the same school, but living in quite another part of the town, in a crowded nest of low-class tenements called Pierce's Square, on the south side of the brook. In this square there were at least thirteen cases and five deaths in four families. Another case occurred in a family where the child attacked had attended this particular school.

Subsequently the outbreak extended to families sending children to other schools, which thus appear to have become new centres of infection. Most of the families attacked were of the working class, and obtained medical treatment at the dispensary which is attached to the Wrexham Infirmary. The house surgeon estimated that he

had had 80 or 90, or perhaps 100 cases of diphtheria under treatment in the first three months of 1878. The names of 78 persons, said to have been attacked from November 1877 to April 1878, were obtained by the inspector, the attack ending fatally in 27, including two outlying cases; but this list was, no doubt, very incomplete. The medical officer of health for the borough had received information of only 28 cases. The ages of those attacked ranged from a few months to thirteen years; there was also one exceptional case, which proved fatal, in a very delicate woman of forty-eight. It deserves to be stated that Dr. Airy took pains to inquire into the possible relations of the rainfall with the epidemic, but without any satisfactory results.

Law Reports.

THE PAYMENT OF GOVERNMENT WATER

ANALYSIS.

An

WE last week noticed an important case in reference to this point, in which Mr. Edward Tudman, banker, was summoned by the rural sanitary authority for having a well, which supplied five of his cottages, totally unfit for drinking purposes. It will perhaps be better to recapitulate the facts of the case. Dr. Thursfield, medical officer of health for Shrewsbury, had said the water was impure, and a Birmingham firm of analysts that it was pure. The Bench then ordered an analysis to be made at Somerset House, when it was reported that the water was too impure to be safely used for drinking purposes. The magistrates ordered the well not to be used until it had been rendered free from sewage, or an alternative supply provided. application was made for the defendant to pay the costs of the Government analysis, but this the Bench, according to the 70th section of the Public Health Act, had no power to order. An eminent legal authority, however, informs us that the Court may, if they see fit, cause the water complained of to be analysed at the cost of the local authority applying to them under this section, 38 & 39 Vict., c. 55, s. 70. It is to be noted that analysis of water can only be obtained under this section, as water is excluded from the definition of food' in the Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1875. That Act, by the 22nd section, gives power to the justices before whom any complaint may be made, or the appeal court, at the request of either party, in their discretion, to send any article of food or drug to be analysed at Somerset House, and we suppose by analogy, for as above stated the Act does not apply to water, the justices thought fit to select the Somerset House analysts, cr probably at the request of the sanitary authority.

ADULTERATION OF FLOUR.

DR. SAUNDERS, medical officer of health for the City, applied to the Lord Mayor for an order for the condemnation of seventy-nine sacks of flour which was unfit for human food. Dr. Saunders said the application was made under the 2nd section of the Nuisances Removal Act 1863, that the Lord Mayor would give an order preventing the consumption as human food of seventy-nine bags of stuff which was called flour, and which had been imported as meal, and had been sold as such. This meal he had ascertained by analysis consisted of seventy-nine per cent. of sulphurate of lime or plaster of Paris. As far back as September last the sanitary inspector of the district received information that 100 sacks of this meal had been imported by a member of what was called the Long Firm who had been endeavouring, by giving sampling orders and otherwise, to sell the stuff as meal or flour. At that time he (Dr. Saunders) was unable to get a sampling order, as he was unable to find the consignees, Jackson and Co. The flour came by the Baron Osy from Antwerp,

in August last, and, failing to get the sampling order, he made application for the condemnation of the stuff, but he was advised that unless he positively obtained a sample and analysed it the authority he required could not be obtained. The thing, therefore, remained in abeyance until Mr. Alexander, manager of the Belgian Bank, Lombard Street, applied to him privately to analyse some of this very flour, upon which he had advanced 30%. Through Mr. Alexander he obtained a sampling order in connection with eighty sacks of flour described as meal. The Lord Mayor: Why does Mr. Alexander not prosecute? Dr. Saunders: That is not a question for me. The Lord Mayor: But it is a very pertinent one for me to consider. Dr. Saunders: I am acting simply as the guardian of the public health. In the meantime, and while the ulterior proceedings are pending, this stuff may be sold; in fact, I am informed that it has already been sold to a French baker. I would ask your lordship to put your veto, and say it shall not be removed. The Lord Mayor: No; I cannot put my veto on it at all. The first step is for the person who has been taken in to proceed by summons or warrant against those who have taken him in, for obtaining advances by false pretences. I must see if I cannot punish the party for importing such stuff. Besides, I have no proof that this was sold as flour. The party may come here and say that he has not offered it as flour, and that he does not intend to sell it as such. Dr. Saunders said he had already seized the stuff. The Lord Mayor: Then let the party who has been deceived come forward and prosecute. Dr. Saunders: I have no power to deal with the stuff until your lordship condemns it. It is not fit for human food. The Lord Mayor: I do not know that it has been offered as food. Dr. Saunders: That is the difficulty. The Lord Mayor: With all due respect to the position you hold, Dr. Saunders, I am bound to protect the public here. The first step is to bring forward evidence of the party disposing of the flour. Dr. Saunders: With all respect I submit that I have nothing to do with Mr. Alexander or anyone else. The Lord Mayor: I have nothing further to say. That is my decision. [It is somewhat difficult to disentangle this case. The decision of the Lord Mayor has been severely commented on, but was the matter rightly brought before him? It does not appear from the report to whom the flour belonged, or who wa the party charged, who in the terms of the 2nd section of the Nuisances Removal Act 1863, has the burden cast upon him of the proof that the same' (that is the flour) was not exposed or deposited' for the purpose of sale or preparation for sale, and intended for the food of man.' It appears to us that the case was not properly before the Lord Mayor in order to secure a conviction, and to obtain an order for the destruction of the flour. We hope in a matter of so much importance that Dr. Saunders will again bring the matter into court, supported by proper evidence.-ED.]

Legal Notes and Queries.

UNFLAGGED FOOTPATHS IN ISLINGTON.

A LETTER has been sent by the Islington Vestry to the Metropolitan Board of Works, asking if a loan would be granted or authorised to enable the Vestry to flag the pathways of a number of streets not yet flagged at the expense of the occupiers of the houses abutting upon the footways. As this was the first application of the kind, and involved, as Mr. Runtz said, an entirely new principle, it was referred to the Works and General Purposes Committee. This mode of flagging at the expense of the occupiers would have to be done on notices issued under the 78th section of the Metropolis Local Management Amendment Act, and has not been carried out to any extent,

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