JANUARY 29, 1876 OPEN CONTRACTS FOR SANITARY WORK. The Ware Union Sanitary Authority is prepared to receive tenders The Directors of the Leicester Waterworks' Company are prepared to The Guardians of the Bedwellty Union are desirous of receiving tenders for the erection of an infirmary and infectious hospital at their workhouse, at Tredegar. Plans and specifications may be seen at the workhouse, any day between the hours of 1o A. M. and 4 P.M., and bills of quantities can be obtained of Mr. Joseph Nevill, architect, Abergavenny, by payment of 10s. for each copy to be returned to persons sending in bonâ fide and non-accepted tenders. Sealed tenders to be sent to me on or before Feb. 1, endorsed 'Tender for Infirmary and Hospital.'-Charles Rice Harris, Clerk, Tredegar. The Sewers and Sanitary Committee of the Vestry of St. Giles, Camberwell, will meet at the Vestry-hall on Tuesday, Feb. 1, at 4 P.M., to receive tenders for the execution of the jobbing and general work connected with the sewers and drains of this parish. Also for the execution of about 300 feet of 15-inch and 120 feet of 12-inch pipe sewer, with gullies, etc. to be laid in North Crossroad, near Lordship-lane, East Dulwich. Particulars, with forms of tender, may be obtained at the Surveyor's Offices, Vestry-hall, Peckham-road, Camberwell, on and after Wednesday, Jan. 26. No tender will be received except upon such form. Contractors or their agents must be in attendance at the time specified. Sureties for the due performance of the contract will be required.-Geo. W. Marsden, Vestry Clerk. SANITARY PATENTS. ABSTRACTS OF SPECIFICATIONS. 2358. Treating sewage. J. Odams, Fenchurch-street, and R. Blackburn, Exeter. Revolving cylinders, one within the other, of perforated metal and wire gauze for separating the solid matter in sewage from the liquid. 2387. Gas stoves. J. M. Holmes, Birmingham. This invention consists of a stove burning a mixture of illuminating It consists of two concentric tubes, the gas and atmospheric air. space between the two tubes constituting an annular chamber in which the gas supply pipe opens, the gas mixing with the air in the said chamber. At the top of this chamber is a ring of wire gauze or perforated metal forming the burner of the stove. This burner opens into the top of the central tube by a lateral opening, where the mixture of gas and air mixes with a current of atmospheric air supplied by the inner central tube. Perfect combustion and a white, or nearly white, flame, together with intense heat, thereby results. Two or more of the stoves described may be combined together. These stoves are specially fitted for cooking, heating, and laundry purposes, but they may also be used for warming rooms and apartments. 2675. Sewage. J. Hanson, York. For the precipitation of the sludge from each 100,000 gallons of sewage water the inventor takes of slacked lime about 20 lb., of black ash about 30 lb., and of soot about lb., and these ingredients he thoroughly mixes, and then mixes them with the sewage mass before it passes into the settling tanks for precipitation. He then for the manufacture of manure from the precipitated sludge mixes therewith fine dry ashes or other suitable absorbent which absorbs the liquid from the sludge, which retains all its valuable fertilising properties. 2340. Universal ventilator. M. Wawn and F. W. Wilcox, Sunderland. The novelty of this invention consists in applying over the delivery tube or other passage in connection with the place to be ventilated a self-acting current inductor or cowl with an expanded mouth fixed on a vertical centre, in connection with a wind vane arranged that the exit of ventilation shall be in the direction of the wind, thereby inducing an active current through the passage or delivery tube. And this mode of ventilation is also applicable to various purposes. 2348. Preservation of food. D. Nicoll, Clement's-inn. Preserving meat, with biscuits and vegetables, in tins; making a medicated food for cattle; making a peculiar sausage for soldiers. Fire stoves. G. Day. Southampton Buildings. 2357The specification of this invention describes that the smoke and other products of combustion escape through an aperture or grating at the back of the fire-grate into a chamber constructed at the back thereof, from which they are led through a suitable flue in a downward direction into a second chamber spreading under the base or hearth of the stove, and thence by an uptake flue escape into the cnimney. 2359. Engineering constructions and walking surfaces. T. Hyatt, Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park. This invention relates to improvements in buildings with respect to weather-proofing, including ornamentation and ventilation, and to methods, materials, and apparatus therefor. To improvements in floor and roof constructions, and materials therefor with reference to protection against fire, and to walking surfaces with reference to illumination, ornamentation, and to methods and processes for cheapening and strengthening the same, and the materials therefor. 2377. Flushing. F. J. Smith, Taunton, Somerset. The features of novelty which constitute this invention are-First the arrangement of mechanism whereby a periodical flushing of the pans of water-closets, urinals, drains, or common sewers is effected. Secondly, an equilibrium of water wheel or cup placed in communication with a syphon tube as and for the purposes hereinbefore described. 2378. Concrete buildings. E. Guthrie, Manchester. This improved apparatus consists of a pair of planks which are jointed to links and can be moved upwards as the wall is being built in parallel steps. The planks are connected together by bolts, and held at a proper distance apart by light metal triangular frames forming gauges. NOTES, QUERIES, AND REPLIES. All communications must bear the signature of the writer, not necessarily for publication. THE IRISH CATTLE TRADE AND CATTLE DISEASE, (To the Editor of the SANITARY RECORD.) As considerable misapprehension appears to exist amongst farmers in Great Britain relative to the views held by Irish farmers and graziers on the subject of cattle diseases of a contagious nature, I respectfully request that you will kindly permit me to offer some remarks on this subject in your columns. For some time past it has been the practice amongst writers in newspapers, speakers at meetings of chambers of agriculture, and members of parliament on circuit amongst their constituents to aceuse Irish agriculturists as being opposed to the introduction into Ireland of those means for preventing the spread of disease amongst cattle which were enforced throughout Great Britain. They were represented as being so unmanageable on this point that their stubbornness operated as an obstacle, which could not be overcome, to stamping out disease in Great Britain, seeing, as it was asserted, that fresh supplies of disease were introduced into England and Scotland with every fresh importation of cattle from Ireland. Irish farmers had no resource but tamely to submit to those charges. They had no chambers of agriculture through which to express their opinions on the subject. Irish members of parliament do not go on 'the stump' like their fellow legislators of England and Scotland; and although the Irish Farmers' Gazette might protest against the accusations made against those whose interests are represented by that journal, those protests were disregarded, and, therefore, week after week statements, which have since been proved to be without foundation, were repeated until English and Scotch farmers have now become imbued with the idea that Irishmen are hopelessly impracti cable on this matter, and that Irish cattle from one end of Ireland to the other are saturated with disease. The result has been that Irish agriculturists were compelled to unite and form The Irish Cattle Trade Defence Association.' This is no mere combination of a few farmers and cattle dealers; it is a thoroughly representative body, including in its ranks landed proprietors of great influence, farmers of all classes, banks, and commercial men whose interests are bound up in the prosperity of the agricultural portion of the community. "The Irish Cattle Trade Defence Association' did not lose time in expressing their views on the measures which should be adopted in Ireland for the prevention of cattle disease. Those views were expressed in the following resolutions, which were passed unanimously by the association :-- 1. That it is most desirable that the regulations with regard to contagious diseases in animals should be uniform in Great Britain and Ireland. 2. That, on the part of the landowners, farmers and cattle dealers in Ireland, this committee is prepared to accept any regulations, however stringent, which the Privy Council may see fit to adopt with respect to rinderpest, pleuro-pneumonia, sheep pock, and glanders. 3. That, with respect to foot-and-mouth disease, this committee adopts the conclusions arrived at by the House of Commons of 1873 on Contagious Diseases (Animals), and is of opinion that the Privy Council regulations with respect to this disease should be withdrawn. 4. That our secretary communicate these resolutions to the Chief Secretary for Ireland, with a request that he will transmit them to the Lord President of the Privy Council.' These resolutions, and other steps taken by the 'Irish Cattle Trade Defence Association,' have been supported by the North-East Asso ciation of Ireland, by the Cork Farmers' Club, by an influential meeting held at Wexford, and by various Boards of Guardians and other public bodies throughout Ireland. It has been asserted over and over that Irish farmers were utterly opposed to uniformity of action with regard to cattle diseases, and to the extension to Ireland of the resolutions adopted by the select committee of the House of Commons in 1873. The resolutions passed by the Irish Cattle Trade Defence Association' effectually dispose of those assertions; but, strange to say, with the exception of Mr. C. S. Read, not an individual in England or Scotland who has written or spoken on the subject of cattle disease has taken the slightest notice of the very decided expression of opinion set forth in those resolutions. They have been entirely ignored; articles have been written, and speeches have been made upon the subject, as if those resolutions had never been passed, notwithstanding that full publicity was given to them. Even those who have been silenced by the resolutions have never taken the slightest notice of them. Being deprived of any feasible cause for growling and grumbling against Irishmen, seems, in fact, to have given them offence. There is, however, some consolation to be found in the thought that if Irishmen do not get credit for what has been done by their 'Cattle Trade Defence Association,' a stop has in some degree been put to the systematic detraction to which they had been for so long a time subjected. There is one point in which Irish agriculturists are opposed to the mode of dealing with cattle diseases which has been adopted in Great Britain: they do not believe in 'Local Authorities.' They find those bodies chiefly remarkable for want of uniformity of action, and for a habit of doing that which they ought not to have done, and of leaving undone that which they ought to do; and until there is a total refor mation of the same 'Local Authorities,' Irishmen will have none of them. It has been asserted that Ireland is 'the great nursery of cattle disease,' and this has been done so persistently by certain newspaper writers and chambers of agriculture orators that it can only be regarded as a case of Irish cattle on the brain, or that facts have been so superficially regarded as to be put altogether out of account. Except by a very few persons-and those persons whose opinions carry no weight-the great source of contagious cattle diseases is universally held to be the cattle imported into British ports from the continent. Not one of those cattle reach Ireland, with the exception of a few beasts from Portugal, and these, so far as importations into Ireland are concerned, have been invariably found free from disease. Contagious diseases appear in England and Scotland before they are found in Ireland. In all cases those diseases come to Ireland through live stock imported either from England or Scotland. Sheep purchased at Falkirk Tryst have at different times brought foot-andmouth disease with them when brought across the channel; in 1869 the disease first appeared amongst certain Ayrshire cattle brought to Ulster, and more recent outbreaks have been distinctly traced to calves brought to Ireland from Cheshire and other parts of the west of England. There are many extensive cattle rearing districts in Ireland where foot-and-mouth disease is unknown, simply because no strange cattle are ever taken into those parts of the country. It may, however, be said, 'What you state may be all perfectly correct; but we know that foot-and-mouth disease is of frequent Occurrence amongst store beasts brought from Ireland and sold in fairs in England and Scotland.' I am quite aware such is the fact, and yet I know, from cases within my own experience, that cattle which became so affected left Ireland quite free from disease. There is no mystery in the matter. Those cattle have been carried on the decks of steamboats, and afterwards in railway trucks, every plank of which is saturated with the virus of disease; and they have been placed in cattle pens at railway stations, and kept in cattle lairs, which are well known to be pestiferous in the extreme. Irish store cattle dealers cannot avoid such places; they have no choice, because they are obliged to job their beasts about from fair to fair, and they must take such accommodation as can they get; but if the local authorities throughout Great Britain made it their business to see that everything was done, by cleansing and disinfection, to prevent such places from remaining in a foul state, Irish cattle travelling through England and Scotland would be much less exposed than they have been to the risk of contagion. Instead of this, the local authorities visit their own sins of omission on the heads of men whose property is depreciated through the careless neglect of proper sanitary preventive measures by those who have the power to carry such into effect. There is another point in connection with the alleged liability of Irish cattle to be affected with foot-and-mouth disease when imported into Great Britain to which I may allude. It very frequently happens that store cattle before being shipped at an Irish port have been driven rapidly over hard roads for a considerable distance. They arrive at the ship's side done up with fatigue, covered with sweat, and foot sore. They are exposed on deck all night, chilled by the cold sea winds, and wetted with the spray, and when they arrive at the port of disembarkation, they present a very sorry appearance, their backs arched, their bellies tucked up, and the foot-soreness caused by the journey to the shipping port developed into serious lameness. Some vigilant inspector sees them in this state, and forthwith condemns them as being affected with foot and mouth disease Mistakes of this kind have occurred, and if any one will say that a veterinary inspector could not mistake foot lameness for foot-andmouth disease, I maintain that veterinary surgeons, even the best of them, are liable to be mistaken. But a short time ago there was a battle-royal amongst the most noted veterinary surgeons in Scotland regarding a case of foot disease amongst some sheep, I believe, in Dumfriesshire. One set of vets maintained that it was footand-mouth disease, while another set, equally eminent in their profession, upheld that it was ordinary foot-rot. When the best men in the country could not agree on such a case as that, is it beyond probability that Irish cattle have been condemned as affected with foot-and-mouth disease when they were only suffering from bad treatment and exposure? I trust that the subject of disease in connection with Irish cattle will henceforth be discussed on your side of the channel more judiciously than has hitherto been the rule, and that some degree of credit -we are thankful in Ireland for very small favours-will be given to the strong desire so clearly evinced by Irish agriculturists of every class to co-operate with their brethren in Great Britain in order to secure uniformity of action in the steps taken to prevent the introduction and spread of disease. I know it is hard to convince some people that such is the case, but it is nevertheless the fact that Irishmen have been more sinned against than sinning' in this matter. Yours, etc., THE quarterly report of Dr. Robinson, Medical Officer of Health for Dover, contained the following paragraph :-'The death-rate is 17 per thousand; one old patriarch died at the ripe age of ninety-eight This old gentleman illustrated the adage that married life is conducive to longevity, as he enjoyed the society of four wives, and became the father of twenty-eight children. THE SPREAD OF LONDON. THE new assessment of London, which has just been completed, reveals some interesting facts with reference to what is going on around us. The grand improvements which have for some years been going on in the city of London have reduced the number of inhabited houses within its precincts; but all around, on the north, east, west, and specially on the south, London continues to extend, not slowly, but rapidly, and so surely that land once taken from the country never falls back to its primitive uses. St. Pancras' Parish, although no longer the largest, is one of the richest of the Metropolis. Its area is 2,600 acres, and it is twenty and a half miles in circumference, and contains a population of about 230,000. Islington is very nearly as extensive, but not quite so populous, although the spread of new dwellings on this side London, especially since the building of the Alexandra Palace has been carried out, has been very marked, Kensington, at the extreme west, is the most rapidly-increasing parish north of the Thames, and not only in the number of its dwellings, but in their rateable value. Lambeth and Camberwell are now joined and mixed up without any appreciable line of demarcation, as are the once country villages of Peckham, Dulwich, Norwood, Clapham, and Wandsworth, all of which within the last three years have covered the open green fields which divided them from the London suburbs and from one another. OUR DRAINS. (FOR USE OF SCHOOL BOARD SCHOOLS.) OUR drains! our drains! our foul, leaking drains! They poison the air of our streets and our lanes, In city and suburb, in hamlet and town, 'Neath dwellings and workshops wherever laid down. Can reasons still fail young and old to convince That sewer-gas slaughters both peasant and prince? How can we have health if the blood in our veins Is poison'd by breathing foul air from the drains? Our drains! our drains! our badly made drains! That give out their smells ere and after it rains, Sickening the robust man walking the flags, Prostrating the half-nourish & worker in rags; Swift-stealing through panels where fashion and rank Sit proudly on cushions, in drives from the Bank. But headache and faintness, and death-boding pains, Go home in the carriage to tell of the drains. Our drains! our drains! our death-dealing drains! Choked up, with no outlet for rotten remains; Chronic hotbeds of typhoid, full of foul silt, Reflecting our ignorance, proving our guilt, And showing that we have been riding rough-shod O'er Nature, and morals, and maxims of God. For pure air and water, in cities and plains, Spell health, if we keep right our dwellings and drains. (The Builder.) NOTICE. THE SANITARY RECORD is published every Saturday morn ing, and may be ordered direct from the Publishers. Annual Subscription, 175. 4d.; free by post, 19s. 6d. Reading Covers to hold 12 numbers of THE SANITARY RECORD have been prepared, and may be had direct from the Publishers or through any Bookseller, price 3s, each. Original Paper. THE SOLDIER'S RATION. BY SURGEON-MAJOR F. S. B. F. DE CHAUMONT, IN spite of Jackson's saying, that it may be confidently asserted that if high living be the life of the gentleman it is the death of the soldier,' it is seldom that the latter has had much chance of endangering his life in that way. It is a little difficult to understand what so acute a man can have meant by such a statement, for he could hardly have contemplated the probability of the soldier being fed with turtle soup out of a gold spoon,' as the gentleman in 'Hard Times' declared was the universal desire of the poorer classes. It is true that many campaigns have been won by troops both badly fed and badly clothed, but surely no one could say with truth that those conditions were the cause of their victory; other things being equal, it is obvious that the best fed and the best found army will win the day. Fortunately, in the present time, enough is known of the source of bodily force to render it unnecessary to -argue much on this point, and it is generally accepted that we can get no more out of a man than we put in, without expending the man altogether. In the good old times, in the beginning of this century, the only meal actually provided for the soldier was the dinner, and he was left to get his breakfast and supper as he best could. Too often the breakfast was a dram and a piece of tobacco, and the supper the same if they could be procured. It was a very considerable step in advance when a regular breakfast of tea or coffee was given, scanty though it was as a meal for a young and hungry soldier. It is not a little amusing to turn back and see the alarm with which this innovation was regarded by the military and naval men of the period. Tea was thought a relaxing beverage, and all that Trotter admitted was that there might be conditions of health when tea could do no harm, such as in the strong and athletic,' whilst Sir Gilbert Blane found it necessary to defend its use as follows: 'I would ask whether British courage and hardihood appear in the late exploits by sea or land less splendid than at Cressy or La Hogue? Whether there is to be found in the results of the battles of Trafalgar and of Waterloo any proof of British nerves being unbraced by the habitual use of this beverage? and whether the physical and moral energies of our officers and men will not stand a comparison with those of their forefathers, or of their enemics, neither of whom were drinkers of tea?'* It was not for some time after this that the evening meal was instituted, and during all that time the soldier had nothing between his mid-day dinner and his breakfast, scanty as it was, on the following day, except what he might purchase himself. As was natural, the spare cash found its way too often to the public-house rather than to the baker. Down to the sitting of the Royal Commission of 1857, the diet of the soldier, improved as it was, was of a despairing monotony, and when a man enlisted, he might have foretold with accuracy his daily meals for the next twenty-one years; bread and tea (or coffee) * See Sir George Ballingall's Outlines of Military Surgery for some instructive extracts. for breakfast; boiled beef and broth for dinner; bread and tea (or coffee) for supper. The monotony was such that the men sickened of it and all the rations were not eaten although the men were far from being satisfied. Since the report of the Commission considerable attention has been paid to the cooking of the rations, and it has been much improved in consequence and more variety been introduced; but for long it has been evident to careful observers that the quantity and relative proportions of the constituents have been insufficient to keep men in the highest efficiency. The Medical Department has never ceased to urge some increase, and the question has formed the subject of lectures and papers in various works and periodicals. It is not likely that there is any fear entertained now-a-days about pampering the soldier, and the probable reason why the suggestions and representations have not been acted upon has been the expense. A quarter of a pound of meat additional for 100 000 men is a serious item, for if the cost be no more than 6d. per pound, it amounts to 225,cool., whilst at 8d. it would be 300,000l. per annum. Of course this is a small sum to be placed in comparison with the efficiency and well-being of our army, but still large enough to make ministers hesitate unless well assured that they carry both right and public opinion with them. To ascertain the right in the matter, it is necessary to examine the ration in connection with what is expected from the soldier in the way of work, and to see whether the constituents are in sufficient quantity or not, and if their form and proportions are such as the circumstances of the case demand. In order to do this we may first inquire what is wanted from the soldier. In time of peace his duties are not excessive, consisting of parades, drills, guards and picquets, as regular military work, to which must be added fatigue duties of various kinds. At certain seasons he is called upon to perform marches and field manoeuvres of varying degrees of severity. The simplest calculation of his work is to be found in an ordinary march, adopting Haughton's formula, and working out the result in foot-tons. For every pound avoirdupois a man weighs, he does per mile on level ground an amount of work equal to 0.118 foot-tons, so that a man weighing 150 lbs. (10 stone 10 lbs.) in his clothes and accoutrements does 177 foot-tons per mile in light marching order. A march of twelve miles would thus be equal to 2124 foot-tons, which with the addition of other duties required of him would make the day's work amount to 250 foot-tons or more. In heavy marching order, that is, with valise, great-coat, ammunition, havresack, arms, etc., he will weigh altogether about 200 lbs., so that each mile will be equal to 23.6 foot-tons. Ten miles at this rate would give 236 foot-tons, so that the day's work would not be less than 300 foot-tons. His other duties are less easy to calculate correctly, but it will be generally admitted that he ought to be prepared for actual work of not less than 300 foot-tons per diem, for if at times he is called upon to do less than this, it will at others be compensated for by an extra strain, such as heavy fatigues, long field-days, extra guards, etc. Now 300 foot-tons are generally accepted as the numerical expression of a fair day's work, and the amount and character of the diet required for it has been calculated. In a state of * See, among others, a Lecture on Military Hygiene, delivered at the United Service Institution, May, 1870, by Surgeon-Major F. de Chaumont, M.D. This gives a total of 23:33 ounces of water-free food, yielding 257 grains of nitrogen, 4,725 of carbon and 358 of salts. Comparing this with the standard diet we find a deficiency of about 20 per cent. in the albuminates, of more than 60 per cent. in the fats, and more than 20 in the salts; whilst the carbohydrates are 30 per cent. in excess. The potential energy of the diet is : 628 foot-tons. This is short of the standard diet by 167 foottons; not a very large amount, but considerable when we look to its source. Thus by reference to the table we find that in the standard 21 per cent. of the energy is due to the albuminates, 26 to the fats, and 53 to the carbo-hydrates; but in the soldier's ration only 17 per cent. is due to albuminates, only 10 to fats, and no less than 73 to the carbo-hydrates. There is thus an increased strain of nearly 40 per cent. of carbo-hydrates, which is relatively more than the assimilative processes can advantageously bear. The table which we give at the head of the following page presents a general view of different diets, showing their proximate and ultimate constituents, their potential energy, and their relative proportions. From this table we may see that there is a general uniformity of proportion between the constituents of all the three diets proposed by the German experimenters, and that where there is any marked difference (as in Ranke's) it is in the direction of a large increase of fats. There seems to be little doubt, from the experiments of Parkes and others, that, with the exception of the fat, Ranke's numbers are too low; Wilson, for instance, found that prisoners at hard labour (which we may take to be equal to about 300 foot-tons) lost weight with TABLE SHOWING THE PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE CONSTITUENTS OF DIETS, THEIR POTENTIAL ENERGY AND THEIR RELATIVE PROPORTIONS. Total 8.71 2'63 I'21 2'38 o'91 0'21 35'86 4'87 3'72 17'34 0*98 This gives us 26'91 ounces of water-free food, rather above the standard diet, the excess being chiefly in the carbo-hydrates, which could only be It is curious to observe that the same errors have per- reduced by diminishing the amount of bread. As it vaded the diets of all European armies, viz., too little nitrogen, an absurdly small amount of fat, and an excess of starch. stands the diet would yield the following: Net total 67'17 |