estimated. These wells possess, in fact, all the advantages of the Artesian system, without the enormous cost, and are also entirely free from the danger of surface-drainage or the dripping of contaminated water. The advantages which they possess also of passing through several layers of water of different degrees of impurity, and of tapping the special strata which may be desired, is a very great one. These special tube wells were in use during the Ashantee expedition, and were found to be invaluable in obtaining a constant supply of pure water for the troops. The War Office, fully recognising their merits, ordered a quantity to be sent to Cape Coast Castle, and have also given instructions that the Royal Engineers shall be regularly drilled in the working of them. They have been in use for some years in the breweries of Messrs Allsopp, Bass, the Burton Brewery Co., the Carmarthen Water Works, the County Asylum, Lancaster, and very many other large consumers. Whilst these are capable of being sunk to a sufficient depth and capacity to deliver from 2,000 to 50,000 gals. per hour, they are made sufficiently small to be within the means and requirements of the small householder, the diameter of the bore-pipe being in such cases one-and-a-quarter inches internal. For a tube of that dimension the price would be for 15 ft. depth 57. 10s.; 30 ft. 10%., and for depths below that 30 ft. 17. per yard. The tubes, therefore, can be readily sunk below the percolations of soakage water, and solve in a great measure that almost insuperable sanitary difficulty, the water-supply for rural and sanitary districts. For great depths and through strata that cannot be pierced by percussion and displacement of earth, a hole has to be bored before sinking the tubes. By this means the wells can be sunk through any strata and to any depth that may be required. The manufacturers and patentees are Messrs Le-Grand and Sutcliff, 100, Bunhill Row, E. C., who invite inspection of these Abyssinian wells. MAGNESILYNE. MESSRS. KINMOND and Co. of Leamington, have lately introduced a new saline, under this title. The preparation is an extremely elegant one, being perfectly soluble and effervescent. With regard to its therapeutic qualities, the makers guarantee it to contain 60 per cent. of ordinary crystallised citrate of magnesia, in combination with citric acid, bicarbonate of sodium, and sugar. The enumeration of these constituents will at once demonstrate the utility of the compound, in all cases where the occasional or habitual use of a mild aperient is considered desirable; whilst the care with which it is compounded renders it as little unpleasant to the palate as anything of the kind can possibly be. APPOINTMENTS OF HEALTH OFFI- BIRKBECK, Henry, Esq., has been appointed Treasurer to the North BRITTON, Thomas, M.D. Univ. St. And., M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A. CAMERON, Charles Alexander, L. K.Q.C.P. Irel., F.R.C.S. Irel., Ph. D., has been appointed Public Analyst for the County Down, 40% per annum, and 2s. 6d. to 10s. 6d. per analysis. DYE, Mr. James, has been appointed Surveyor, Inspector of Nuisances, and Collector to the North Walsham Urban Sanitary Authority. PONTEFRACT, Samuel, Esq., has been appointed Treasurer to the South Crosland Urban Sanitary Authority. SCOTT, Wentworth Lascelles. F.C.S., etc., has been re-appointed Public Analyst for Staffordshire. STERLING, Robert, L. R.C.S. Irel., L. R.C.P. Edin., L.M. Rot. Hosp. Dub., has been appointed Medical Officer of Health for the Knocktopher Subdistrict of the Thomastown Rural Sanitary District, vice Blunden, resigned. VACANCIES. BILSTON URBAN SANITARY AUTHORITY. Surveyor and Engineer: LEPTON URBAN SANITARY DISTRICT. Medical Officer of Health. SANITARY PATENTS. 492. Improvements in the application of magnetism for the promotion, restoration, and preservation of health. Charles Weightman Harrison, South Kensington, London. 612. Improvements in the manufacture of artificial fuel, and in the treatment of the substance of which such fuel is composed, and in the method of moulding the same into blocks, and of employing the latter for the purposes of combustion. William Haggett, Watford, Hertfordshire. 628. Improvements in the manufacture of a chemical combination or combinations, and in the processes employed therefor, which is or are designed for use either as a purifier or purifiers for bathing or other like purposes, or for the purpose of restoring animal or vegetable substances. Henry Bollmann Condy, Battersea, Surrey. 713. 751. 766. Improvements in apparatus employed for heating or cooking purposes. Joseph William Priestley, Halifax, Yorkshire. Improvements in apparatus for indicating and preventing the escape of gas from main pipes and connections, parts of which are also applicable to water pipes, William John Warner, South Shields, Durham. Improvements in apparatus for clearing and carting mud from roads. Gilbert Smelt Knott, Dulwich, Surrey. 993. Improvements in dry closets or commodes. Charles Sydney Smith, Birmingham. ABSTRACTS OF SPECIFICATIONS. 3120. Preservation of alimentary substances. E. G. Brewer, Chancery Lane. The materials are suspended in chamber, and subjected to fumes from the following composition : 5 per cent. marine salt, 2 per cent. fine pepper, 95 per cent. sulphur. 3157. Water-closets. J. Grave, Manchester. This invention consists in making the basin of an improved shape, that is to say, placing the off passage eccentric to the basin, and in an improved mode of admitting the flushing water to the basin, whereby the basin is thoroughly cleaned by the flushing water. 3162. Treating sewage. A. M. Clarke, Chancery Lane. This invention relates to purifying, clarifying, and rendering inodorous, sewage water and other impure waters, and is based on the employment for the purpose of certain chemical reagents, which may be employed either together or separately, viz., first, aluminate of soda, together with chloride of calcium if desired; secondly, aluminate of soda; and afterwards phosphoric acid or an alkaline phosphate, or a soluble phosphate of lime or of magnesia; thirdly, phosphate of soda and a soluble salt of magnesia; fourthly, of nitrous or hyponitrous acids or nitrous vapours. 3174. Heating apparatus. B. Looker, Kingston-on-Thames. This invention mainly consists in an apparatus constructed with a base or stand of circular or other suitable form which has a central opening; upon this a dome-shaped section or inverted cup is placed, which has a corresponding opening through it so made that the material surrounding the opening fits into but does not close the same, and the dome-shaped section or cup piece has perforations in it. Any suitable number of these domes or sectional pieces can be fitted above to any convenient and desirable extent, care being taken that these perforations shall not be directly over one another. NOTICE. THE SANITARY RECORD is published every Saturday morn- Original Papers. SANITARY ORGANISATION. BY H. HEYGATE PHILLIPS, M.D., S.Sc., Cert., Cambridge. THERE are a few points in connection with sanitary organisation to which it may perhaps not be out of place to direct attention just at present; their importance, as well as the facilities for carrying them into effect under the provisions of the Public Health Act, 1875, renders it imperative that they should not be lost sight of, but that they should be brought prominently forward, and attention directed to them, in the hope that we may yet see a more methodical and systematic organisation for health purposes established throughout this country. There is nothing new in these points; their principle has already in great part been conceded, and in some cases they have been partially carried into effect, but what is required is more system and more method in carrying them out. The first of these points to which attention should be directed is, the absolute necessity of a systematic and comprehensive mapping out of the whole country into large districts of convenient size, for the appointment of medical officers of health debarred from private practice, and devoting their whole time to their duties. The second, and one which is intimately connected with the first, is the necessity in any efficient and well digested system of sanitary organisation of utilising the services of the poor law medical officers of the country as local or assistant medical officers of health, of constituting them in fact the intelligence department of the sanitary system, by whom information would be obtained on the spot and transmitted upward till it reaches the chief of the staff. Incidentally other matters may be referred to in connection with the working of the Public Health Acts, which would undoubtedly facilitate the despatch of business, such as the delegating of their sanitary powers to a special committee by rural authorities, and the necessity to the medical officer of health of procuring earlier information of the outbreak of infectious diseases. Several of the points here referred to are foreshadowed in the powers conferred by the Public Health Act, 1875 (sect. 286), on the Local Government Board; and if universally carried into effect there can be no doubt that an immense benefit to the cause of sanitary organisation would be the result. In several parts of the country at the present time, notably in Wales, the first of these points is being more or less developed by the Inspectors of the Local Government Board, but we hear very little about the second. on which any general system should be carried out and organised. With regard to the first of these points, namely, the systematic division of the country into convenient districts large enough to employ the whole time of efficient chief medical officers of health, its principle has been admitted, and it has been more or less acted upon wherever the local authorities have been capable of being induced to see the wisdom and policy of carrying it out; but to be effective it must be general, it must be the rule and not the exception. There may be differences of opinion as to the size of the districts to be allotted to these officers, and also whether they should be appointed by a combination of the local authorities and be resident in their districts, or be in effect an expansion of the present medical department of the Local Government Board, by which each would have a certain portion of the country consigned to his care and make regular circuits through his district for inspection purposes, but the necessity of more method and more universality in these appointments is a matter upon which there can be no reasonable doubt. We have at present combined districts formed almost at random, some large and unwieldy and practically unworkable, others too small to give a sufficient salary to, or provide work to occupy the time of, a highly trained medical officer of health. It appears to be essential that the areas should be determined and mapped out by the central authority, and that they should be formed on a definite system, so as to coincide as far as possible with the natural divisions of the country, whether counties or otherwise, so that when so formed they may continue permanently, and not be liable to be broken up or altered without due cause, as nothing is more likely to deter men of standing and ability from relinquishing private practice in order to take a large sanitary appointment than the feeling of insecurity created by the fact that at the whim or pleasure of the combining authorities, any one or more of them may withdraw from the combination at the end of a few years, and the salary of the medical officer be cut down to a sum which would no longer make it worth his while to retain the appointment or devote his whole time to the work. If we are to get really good and efficient men for these appointments, they must be permanent, and there must be no uncertainty about their tenure so long as the officer is able and willing to do his duty. Mr. Simon in his evidence before the Royal Sanitary Commission gives the preference to 'superintending medical officers employed by the central office, each having a certain fraction of the country allotted to him as his district, within which he should reside as its superintending sanitary officer, watching the epidemics and sanitary administration of that portion of the country, and reporting from time to time to the central office, from which his instructions It certainly appears to be a happy omen of what is would be derived.' There is much to be said in likely ultimately to be the sanitary policy of the Local favour of this plan; we should thus get highly trained Government Board, that such powers as are conferred sanitary officers acting on a uniform system, and by Section 286 have been seen to be necessary, and thoroughly independent in the discharge of their have been taken, and as to the necessity of their duties, which is a most important point, and one being carried into effect, few who have studied the very difficult to secure under the present system of subject will have any doubt whatever. Of course joint appointment, in which the medical officers must sanitary reform, like all other reforms, must be pro- be more or less under the necessity of keeping in the ceeded with gradually and to some extent tentatively, good graces of their many masters, lest their appointand public opinion must be educated up to it; but ments should not be renewed at the end of their the experience of the last three years has thrown term. These officers would be appointed and paid sufficient light on the subject to show the broad lines by the Local Government Board, just in the same way that the present poor-law inspectors are appointed and paid, and would exercise superintending | and administrative functions in their respective districts, the poor-law medical officers being universally employed as medical officers of health of the first instance. This brings us naturally to the second point, namely the necessity in any efficient system of sanitary organisation of utilising the services of the poor law medical officers as assistant health officers. It cannot fail to strike any impartial observer, who remarks the great stress laid by the report of the Royal Sanitary Commission on the utilisation of the poor-law medical staff for health purposes, how little has yet been done in this direction. On turning to page 34 of the report we find the following statements: "The fitness of the poor-law medical officers for larger sanitary works than they now discharge cannot be doubted, they are all fully qualified practitioners, intimately acquainted with the poorer classes, among whom are the most frequent needs of employing sanitary skill, and the best opportunities for sanitary studies; they are, generally speaking, sensible, humane, and well-informed men, they are constantly engaged in the cure of diseases, and through their intimate knowledge of their several districts have the best opportunities of tracing the sources of disease.' And in many other parts of the report and evidence we have similar emphatic statements as to their fitness for sanitary employment, and the necessity of their being made the 'basis' of the public health staff in this country. Let us contrast with these statements the actual state of affairs as at present existing. In no case have the medical officers of districts yet been employed in the capacity contemplated by the report of the Royal Sanitary Commission, namely in that of assistant medical officers of health. It is true that in some parts of the country they have been appointed, each in his own district, sole sanitary officers, but in this capacity, without an administrative head to co-ordinate and work out their individual efforts, it is hopeless to expect that they can effect much good, or that they will not in many cases drift into a system of more or less inactivity, which they frequently find by experience to be more in accordance with the spirit which pervades their employ ers. We may see a pretty good example of this in the working of the Irish Public Health Act, where the system of appointing the poor-law medical officers as sole medical officers of health has been tried on a large scale, and where there can be no hesitation in saying that they are thoroughly dissatisfied with their position, and that a change must soon be made unless the system is to be allowed to break down altogether; in fact it will not work. This is a very different thing from that of employing the district medical officers in the capacity here advocated; that of assistant medical officers of health to a chief medical officer acting over a large area, to whom their reports and recommendations would be sent, and who would thus have both the local information and the co-operation necessary to carry out the provisions of the sanitary acts as occasion required. The converse system, that of employing a single medical officer of health over a large area, without giving him the local assistance of the district medical officers as coadjutors and assistants, has been largely tried here in England, and in this case also more or less failure has been the result, but from a different cause. How often do we find the complaint made by medical officers of combined districts of the difficulty, nay the impossibility, of getting information of the occurrence of contagious diseases. It is often not until several deaths have taken place, representing many cases of sickness, that the medical officer of health hears anything at all about the existence of these diseases in a place, and then perhaps the seeds of infection have been spread broadcast far and wide, where had the first case been promptly brought to his notice it might have been isolated, and in fact stamped out by judicious measures taken in time to prevent the spread of contagion. In Section 286 of the Public Health Act, 1875, it is provided that there may be assigned by the Local Government Board to the district medical officer of a union such duties in rendering local assistance to the medical officer of a combined district as the board may think fit, etc.; but this part of the section does not appear yet to have been acted upon by either the Local Government Board or the local authorities, and therefore has remained up to the present to all intents and purposes a dead letter. The nearest approach to a recognition of anything of the kind is to be found in a correspondence which took place in September last between the board and Dr. Horace Swete, medical officer of health for the Droitwich urban and rural sanitary authorities, with reference to returns of sickness, in which it is stated that 'the board consider it is competent for the urban sanitary authority, if they think proper to do so, to make an arrangement to pay the district medical officers reasonable remuneration for supplying him as medical officer of health with information which he requires for the efficient discharge of his duties.' It would appear, however, from the wording of the section itself that the discretion rests not so much with the local authority as with the Local Government Board, who have the power to assign specific health duties to the district medical officers, and to call upon the local authority to pay for them; until this has been done it is not likely that the local authorities will have the inclination to take the initiative even if they have the power. What is wanted in 'fact is, as has been before stated, first the employment of the district medical officers (each in his own district) as officers of health of the first instance; and secondly, taking the district as the unit, the grouping together of all of them lying within a particular area into a large combined district presided over and superintended by a highly qualified chief officer of health, devoting his whole time to the duties. Both of these are necessary to success, it is to the combination of the two that we must look for an efficient system of sanitary organisation; either without the other must be incomplete and more or less inefficient. The scheme proposed by Mr. Henley for the county of Oxford in 1873, originally to a great extent embodied this principle of combination, and it is much to be regretted that it was only partially carried out. By him it was proposed, in the first place, to appoint one medical officer of health for the union county of Oxford, and secondly, to give him local assistance by appointing the district medical officers in the various unions as assistant officers of health, with an addition to their salaries. The first part was acted on and carried out by the local authorities, but the second unfortunately was postponed by them to a more convenient season, which has apparently not yet arrived; the only point in which the scheme here advocated differs from his is that the district medical officers should be appointed and paid by the local authorities, but the chief medical officer should be appointed and paid by Government. There are two other points, a few remarks upon which may not be out of place before concluding this paper. The first is the advisability of constituting a special committee of the board of guardians in rural districts to all intents and purposes the rural sanitary authority instead of the whole board. For practical purposes a sanitary committee of this sort would take more interest in their duties, and the sanitary work of the district would be more efficiently and vigorously carried out. Where the board as a whole acts as the sanitary authority, and meets first (as it usually does) for the discharge of poor law work proper, the sanitary business being brought on later, perhaps at the fag end of the meeting, it is only natural to expect that this last should come off second best. Having perhaps spent several hours in poor law work, and many of the members coming from a distance and anxious to get away, it is sometimes difficult to induce a sufficient number to remain to constitute a quorum, and but little interest is apt to be taken in the proceedings by those who do remain, whereas in most boards of guardians there might easily be found a sufficient number of members, who, if specially appointed as a committee for the despatch of sanitary business, and holding special meetings for that purpose alone, would take more interest in the work, which would therefore be more efficiently done. In cases where the decision of the committee would involve a large expenditure for permanent works beyond a certain fixed amount, it might perhaps be advisable for them to have to refer back to a committee of the whole board, but in all other cases their decision should be final, and they should be, in fact, the sanitary authority for the despatch of all ordinary business connected with public health. This may seem a small matter, but it appears to have been found in practice to be a fact that, in unions where this suggestion is carried out, the sanitary supervision and working of the authority is much more efficient and satisfactory. In The last point which will be alluded to here, and it is one to which many medical officers of health have already drawn attention, is the necessity for an amendment of the law whereby it may be made compulsory on some person to give immediate notice to the medical officer of health of the occurrence of a case of infectious disease in a house. cases where a medical man is called in the duty might devolve upon him; in other cases the householder or head of the family should be made responsible that notice is given, a penalty being attached in default. If we had some such enactment as this, the power of the medical officer of health to grapple with epidemics would be immensely strengthened, and the spread of contagion be confined within much narrower limits than it is at present. This last point would be in a great measure gained by the poor-law medical officers being appointed assistant health officers, as the most dangerous cases and those in which contagion would be most liable to spread would probably come under their care, and they would, as a matter of course, at once report all such cases to the chief officer, and in concert with him be able to take effective measures to prevent the spread of disease. HASTY BURIALS. BY MAURICE DAVIS, M.D. THE subject of early interments, as practised by the Jews since their dispersion, and which is now engaging the serious attention of the council of the United Synagogue, is not by any means a new question. It was debated under the leadership of the celebrated philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn, a century ago; but the Conservative element, having been very strong, prevailed so as to leave the practice in its wonted groove until the recent occurrence of one or two hurried burials aroused the attention of the authorities and stimulated them to make inquiries into the extent, advantages, and risks of the custom. This practice appears to be only half of that which was followed when the Jews were a nation; at that time, the bodies of the dead, closely watched, were exposed for three days within a cave, upon the ledge of some rock, and then, the signs of death being unmistakable, were buried without a coffin. Hence the uses of the cave of Machpelah and other similar places, serving the purposes at once of concealment and exposure. In cases of execution, wherein there could not be any doubt of actual extinction of life, burial was immediate; as the presence of man slain by violence was regarded as a reproach to the Creator in whose image he was made. The burial of a criminal before sun-down is a distinct Biblical mandate, and authorities have inferred from this a general command to bury the dead out of sight; and hence it was the practice in all cases of death by violence or accident to bury without delay. But this rapid removal of cases of undoubted death did not prevent the tender and anxious watching exhibited towards those who might be the subjects of suspended animation, instances of which are frequently recorded in the Talmud, and against which caution is as frequently enjoined. Moreover, learned Jews regard the resuscitation of the widow's son, by Elijah, and that of the man thrown into the grave against the bones of Elisha, as cases of suspended animation, and not miracles. As circumstances changed, and caves were no longer available to the scattered people, who now took refuge in crowded towns, they did not forget their early lessons to bury the dead out of sight, but omitted to observe the first part of their early custom intended to establish that the quiet of the tomb was that of actual death, and not that of suspended life. Hence the necessity for this inquiry. The Council of the United Synagogue appointed a committee to search into the question, and their report represents thorough and careful work, in which, no doubt, they received marked assistance from their able secretary, Dr. Asher, who combines with his profound knowledge of Hebrew and Jewish history, the special knowledge of a well-trained and experienced physician. The committee took care to fortify themselves at the onset with a letter from the Chief Rabbi, Dr. Adler, who says: Jewish law is certainly stringent in enforcing that the burial of a corpse shall not be needlessly delayed. . . . But at the same time there can be no doubt that the prohibition directed against unnecessary delay in interment applies only to those cases in which absolute certainty exists that death has taken place.' The committee cite the evidence of witnesses, consisting of watchers of the dead and undertakers, disclosing some startling instances of suspended animation; and then follows a consideration of the report of M. Devergie read before the Academy of Medicine in Paris, 1873, which concludes thus: "In the result it is only either cadaveric rigidity or decomposition which is the sure test of actual death having occurred.' Many able men entertain great confidence in the indications of the thermometer as showing the gradual cooling of the body for determining the absence of life, but Casper speaks of a 'case of an old and very fat woman who had been strangled; the body cold, indeed, externally, but internally, in both throat and abdomen, retaining a degree of heat quite perceptible to all bystanders.' The ligature, also, appears at first sight worthy of confidence, but it is possible, although circulation must go on, even if life be suspended, yet that the current may be too slow and the stream too small to be detected by any such means. All the other early signs, even when they concur, do no more than indicate a high probability of death; and these require a special knowledge for their interpretation even to prove that probability. The so-called certificate of death demanded by law from the medical attendant is really only a certificate of disease, as shown by the permission to insert 'died, as I am informed'; hence in the case of an early interment it may be left to the judgment of an uninstructed person to solve a problem by signs of uncertain import even to the minds of qualified observers, and thus there may be delivered to the grave a body manifesting such indications of death as have been repeatedly proved to be quite compatible with life. Except in cases of death from infectious diseases, for which the committee recommend appropriate treatment, there is no danger from the presence of a corpse until decomposition has set in, and therefore there cannot be any reason beyond that of convenience for hurrying an interment, and convenience can never be urged as a justification for a possible homicide. Different opinions favour indications more or less worthy of reliance, but all authorities coincide in estimating post mortem rigidity and decomposition as the most certain signs; and as these phenomena can be recognised as well by the general public as by skilled observers, there appears to be no question that the time at which one or both shall arrive ought to be the earliest period at which the interment of a body, dead from natural causes, should be permitted. Thus, then, as the law of the land does not demand a bona fide certificate of death; as it is not the practice for the medical attendants, in all cases, to inspect the bodies of the supposed dead; and as, if they did, they could not pronounce with absolute certainty the presence of death until after the lapse of a certain though varying time, it follows that it is imperative to wait for such marks as shall testify, beyond a doubt, that life is not only probably but absolutely extinct. The recommendation of the committee travels further than this, and urges that although bodies should be admitted without a certificate to the mortuaries, yet that 'no body should be admitted to a cemetery for interment unless it be certified by a competent medical practitioner that he has seen the body, and that death has absolutely occurred, and that either cadaveric rigidity has taken place, or that decomposition has set in.' Since the above was written the council have adopted, with some modifications, the report of the committee, and have resolved to establish mortuary houses, and regulate the interval between death and burial, thus taking the first step in this country towards legislating for the safety of the trance-bound. This regulation may be ranked with those early Jewish laws which directed extra-mural interments, and enjoined that no intelligent person shall dwell in a city which has not proper drainage, a physician, a surgeon, and a public bath. THE SANITARY RECORD. SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1876. The Editor will be glad to receive, with a view to publication, announcements of meetings, reports of proceedings, and abstracts or originals of papers read before the members of any sanitary or kindred association. METROPOLITAN BREATHING SPACES. IT is encouraging to notice the growing interest which is felt by Londoners in the preservation of The vast area of bricks and breathing spaces. mortar which we call the Metropolis is perpetually extending outwards and taking in new tracts of the country, and it is of course whilst this process is going on, that the opportunity should be seized of saving open spots here and there 'all round,' in order to add-if the simile may be allowed-to the cellular tissue which makes the 'lungs' of this vast city. It is most essential that such provision should be made as and when the opportunity occurs; because land that is once built upon is practically gone for ever, for no one ever dreamed of making open spaces by adopting the cumbrous process of pulling down houses. But a difficulty lies in the way of the more easy and practicable mode of securing open spaces for big cities. The greatest need for such spaces naturally exists in the more central and densely populated parts of the town; and it is in such parts too, that their absence is most keenly felt. But unless spaces already exist there—although perhaps previously devoted to purposes other than those of recreation and enjoyment -they cannot be had. In the suburbs, where it is comparatively easy to secure any amount of space, which can be obtained simply by refraining from building, people naturally, as a rule, do not set so much value upon the retention of open spaces because of the fact that they live so near to the open country, and do not therefore feel a |