during the progress of the proceedings.-Held that the repealed Act remained available. 40 J. P., 85; L. R., I Ex. D., 102; 33 L. T., 822.

POLLUTION OF WATER BY SEWAGE.

1875. Wood v. Harrogate Commissioners. Non-compliance with an injunction to stop flow of sewage.-Sequestration issued. (Times, December 10, 1875.)

RIGHTS AS TO WATER.

1875. Reg. v. Kettering Union. Filling up a well, overflow from which had been used by a tanner.-Held that compensation was payable. (Times, December 17, 1875.)

Legal Notes and Queries.

LOCAL BOARDS AS BURIAL BOARDS. WITII reference to the circumstances under which powers conferred by the Burial Acts may be exercised by urban authorities (not being town councils) the following information may be given:-1. By 20 and 21 Vict. 81 (amended as to expenses, etc., by 23 and 24 Vict. 64), Her Majesty in Council acting on the petition of a local board or improvement commissioners may order that such board or commissioners be the burial board for their district. In such petition it must appear (inter alia) that the district of the board or commissioners is coextensive with that of the proposed burial board. 2. Where the Burial Act 20 and 21 Vict. 81 is adopted by the vestry of a parish (i.e. a place which has or might have a poor-rate, or an overseer of its own) which is wholly comprised in the district of a local board, the local board may, at the option of the vestry, be the burial board for such parish. If, however, such parish be a ward for the election of members of the local board, the members elected for such ward will be the burial board, and apparently as to this the vestry has no option; that is to say it cannot claim to have a separate burial board. In this latter way a local board or the members elected for a ward, as the case may be, may become the burial board acting for an area not coextensive with that of the local board, but comprised

within it.

MANDAMUS AGAINST A CORPORATION.

Ar a late meeting of the town council of Lincoln, one of the matters on the agenda paper was: To receive a report from the mayor as to the proceedings in the High Court of Justice, at the instance of the Local Government Board, for a mandamus against the corporation.' The mayor said: 'I don't know that I have anything very particular to say. We made a very excellent fight of it, but the three judges were dead against us, and the mandamus will certainly be served on the City of Lincoln unless we at once set about the work of the drainage of the city. One of the justices-I think it was Justice Blackburn said distinctly that it quite depended on the zeal, industry, and energy of the Corporation what the amount of the fine should be, and what should be the future attitude towards the city. That means, if we don't proceed at once, the mandamus, and the fine will be in proportion to our neglect. I thought the better plan would be for us to show that we were not lukewarm in the matter, and I therefore instructed Mr. Hebb to write at once to Mr. Mansergh, asking him at once to complete the plans. The judges were so determined that they actually would not listen to my affidavit. Nor would they hear Mr. Mansergh. Mr. Waddy told me before we went into Court that he had a very bad case. Justice Field had a complete set of our resolutions, which were bandied about from one to another, and when they had read one or two of them the whole body of barristers roared out with laughter.'

The mayor inquired of Mr. Cottingham, a strong opponent of a sewerage scheme, whether he would like a

dying flutter;' and Mr. Cottingham said that he would like one, and he congratulated those who, like himself, had stuck to their principles to the very last, that they had by their delay, which some people called procrastination, saved the town something like 30,000l. or 40,000/. Mr. Rumble also having made a dying speech,' the mayor congratulated the council on having staved off the matter so long, and expressed an opinion that when Lincoln got a system of sewerage it would not be so healthy as now.

Correspondence.

All communications must bear the signature of the writer, not necessarily for publication.

THE DUBLIN SANITARY ASSOCIATION. The following correspondence relating to the high death-rate in Dublin has been forwarded to us for publication:

'Dublin Sanitary Association,

'26, St. Stephen's Green, March 23, 1876.

'Sir, I am directed by this committee to inquire whether Dr. Mapother's report on the present high deathrate in Dublin, which was presented to the Public Health Committee at their meeting on the 17th, and published in opinions expressed by the medical sanitary officers at their the Dublin papers of the 18th inst., fully represents the

recent interview with some of the members and officers of the Public Health Committee.

'I am also to ask your committee to favour this committee with a copy of the recommendations for improving the sanitary condition of Dublin made by the medical officers at the meeting in question.

NORWEGIAN TIMBER HOUSES.

(To the Editor of the SANITARY RECORD.) SIR,-May I be permitted to say a word or two upon timber-house building? I am sure the importation of Norwegian houses is not a fallacious idea, but, on the contrary, one calculated, if acted upon, to direct public attention towards a subject which, in these days of sanitation, becomes an important one, viz., the improvement of middle-class dwellings and of the habitations of those immediately above the extreme poor.

It would be absurd for it to be understood that I was advocating unsubstantial or undignified building, or that I would attempt to encourage those who possess the means to rush after unsuitable cheapness, but my argument in favour of the importation of these houses lies in a nutshell. It is this: they are of a handsomer appearance, both within and without, than our ordinary stereotyped villa (wood being more susceptible of ornamentation than either brick or stone), they are cleaner and more comfortable, will need less repair, are equally durable, and are, above all, cheaper. These seem to me to be the great desiderata in house-building. Timber-house building is carried on to perfection in North America, and in the United States wooden houses are abundant; in fact, in the open country

this is an undoubted fact.

a brick or stone building is the exception rather than the rule, and we have it on the authority of Mr. Ware, a Boston architect, who lectured here a year or two back, that wooden buildings are infinitely preferred to all others, for they are deemed warmer, drier, and absolutely more comfortable in every way. In Norway and Sweden also It follows, therefore, that the same rule should apply to England, and, but for the incomprehensible perversity which invariably characterises the English mind in matters of building, we should have more of these economical and comfortable dwellings than we have. Absurd popular prejudices always interfere where a judicious and wholesome domestic reform is suggested, and many sound thinkers and advocates of good ideas are discouraged in their vain attempts at improvement by the sneers and derisions of an unthinking public.

The only possible objection, so far as I can comprehend, that can be raised to these houses is their supposed liability to fire. The Times remarked, whilst reviewing the celebrated Norwegian house in Devonshire: That houses of wood are generally liable to fire is certain, but it is possible that proper precautions taken in their construction and management may very materially reduce the risk. A practical proof that some such result may be obtained is found in comparing the Norwegian with the English charge for insurance. Here the rate of an ordinary risk is Is. 6d. per cent. ; in Norway, it is one dollar (4s. 6d.) per thousand dollars or 25. per cent.—an excess not indicating a much greater danger, and, in fact, easily to be accounted for by the smaller amount of business transacted by the Norwegian fire-offices. One fertile source of danger is removed by the total separation between the flues and the rest of the buildings. That common cause of fire, the beam heated by too close proximity to a fire-place, cannot occur in a house constructed as these houses.' Herr Thrap Meyer, the distinguished architect of Christiania, in a letter to me, thus speaks of the 'devouring element' in connection with wooden houses: Danger of fire has never been in this country a subject for deliberation, or given as a reason why wooden houses should not be built; and I apprehend that in these days, when the system for prevention of fire is so perfect, there is less need for fear and alarm on this score. All the insurance offices here include wooden houses in their risks.' I will not occupy your valuable space by recounting the various experiments more or less successful which have been invented for the preservation of wood from fire, but I may say that Mr. Macomber's, of the Adelphi, seems to me the most practicable.

The Scandinavian climate, if possible, is more trying than ours to wooden buildings. The variations of temperature are greater and the average rainfall is higher, but for all that there are many wooden buildings of great antiquity in Norway. I can bear witness to the fact of many dwelling-houses, though very old, being apparently as sound as when first built, and, what is more, they do not require the constant reparation our suburban speculatively built houses do. The church at Hittedal, Norway, was built in 1300, and that of Fortundal 800 years ago; surely these are evidences that timber erections are durable. If, then, as we are informed by the letter which has recently been published by Messrs. Esdaile and Co., of the City Road, these houses can be built in Norway, pulled to pieces, and re-erected more economically than our ownand, as we know, they are warmer, drier, and handsomer than our ordinary houses-is there any reason at all why workmen's dwellings, miners' cottages, country houses, lodges, railway stations, pavilions, etc., should not be imported to this country? Under any circumstances, whether we go to a foreign country or build ourselves, timber architecture should not be neglected. I am, Sir,

5, Great Queen Street,

Westminster, S.W.,
April 4, 1876.

Yours obediently,

FRANK E. THICKE.

COSTLESS VENTILATION.

(To the Editor of the SANITARY RECORD.) SIR,-A constant supply of fresh air is so important to our well being, and in the prevention and cure of disease, that the subject needs no comment; an attendance, however, at any public meeting is only necessary to convince how much this axiom is ignored—or, if admitted, how unsuccessfully met-'crowded to suffocation,' indeed, being the conventional term used to express a full assemblage.

For some time I recommended to my patients the plan of opening the window-sash at the top, and stretching out on a frame a corresponding depth of tarlatan to intercept blacks and prevent draughts; but the principle is wrong and the result unsatisfactory, as the draught is directed downwards on the sitter, and not upwards towards the ceiling; the screen, too, is anything but ornamental, and becomes clogged with blacks, so as to require removal and repair.

The method I now use is simple, economical, quite free from draught, can be regulated to a nicety, and does not get out of order. Raise the lower sash of the window, and place in front of the opening at the bottom rail a piece of wood of any approved depth-from two to three inches is sufficient; this leaves a corresponding space between the meeting rails in the middle of the window, through which the current of air is directed upwards towards the ceiling; heavy blacks cannot ascend with the air, which is driven so high as to be warmed before it descends; light blacks are not admitted in ordinary conditions of the atmosphere, though doubtless they are in cases of violent commotion caused by very high wind-the more the lower sash is raised, the more the difficulty of blacks entering between the meeting rails is increased. The principle may be modified in various ways, making the wire blinds supersede the strip of wood, or if this be placed above and the top sash drawn down to a corresponding depth, the same result will obtain in a word, open the lower sash of the window two or three inches, and block it up anyhow, and the air enters the space in the middle and is carried to the ceiling. In the Sanitary Hints' I have circulated in the district to which I am medical officer of health, it is more tersely described thus-'Raise the lower sash of the window two or three inches, and fill the opening underneath the bottom rail with a piece of wood-this leaves a corresponding space between the meeting rails in the middle of the window, through which a current of air enters, and is directed towards the ceiling, whence it should escape by a valvular opening.'

:

Notwithstanding that this plan of 'Costless Ventilation' was first described in the Builder, March 1, 1862, and elsewhere, and has been repeatedly alluded to as my suggestion by numerous eminent sanitarians; that a description, with diagrams, was suspended in the International Exhibition of 1862; of Paris, 1864; and the unpatented models have been deposited, with description, in the patent museum at South Kensington these ten years, -it is with some amusement and some degree of astonishment I notice that about every twelve months some one appropriates, without acknowledgment, the above simple and efficacious mode of ventilation ;* and that it has lately formed the basis and best portion of the patented methods of 'the Columbus of Ventilation,' as he has been most absurdly dubbed by the head of the press-still more so, the Newton' by others! 'Whoever first made a deeper recess for the lowest sash bar, so that when the window was slightly raised the opening would be only where the two sashes overlap, and the admitted air was thus thrown upwards, originated Mr. Tobin's principle of getting the admitted air diffused in the upper part of the room (Westminster Review, July, 1875);' in the most recent work on hygiene (Dictionary of Hygiene and Public Health. A. Wynter Blyth, page 622) it is thus referred to:-'A

*The Sanitary Review, March 18, 1876, p. 191; the SANITARY RECORD, vol. 1., pp. 204 and 228, etc.

method of ventilation advocated by Mr. Tobin has been recently brought before the public very prominently, and some of the leading journals have mentioned it in terms so eulogistic that the public actually consider some great discovery to have been made in the matter; this, however, is not so, it is merely a simple means of conveying cold air into rooms, and as such will be found useful in summer and mild weather. The plan is to introduce the air through horizontal shafts under the floor, and deliver it into the room through perpendicular shafts at different points about five feet from the floor; the current of fresh air ascends to the ceiling, and then curves down imperceptibly into the room. In fact, the principle is exactly the same as that of Mr. Hinckes Bird; indeed it is questionable whether carrying out Mr. Bird's suggestion would not be quite as effective as Tobination, and it certainly is cheaper,' and for carrying out this, the siphon ventilator of Chowne, patented some years since-a revival of Tredgold's idea (1836)—and the tubular plans of many inventors, a patent has been taken out and ventilating companies (limited) formed, forsooth! The cost of a license varies with the size of the room or rooms to be ventilated.'

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus ;-
Populus vult decipi et decipiatur,—

and on account of this precious patent, according to Public Health, March 17, the London School Board intends compromising some meddle and muddle by paying 250.another instance how they play ducks and drakes' with the public money (wrung from long-suffering and highly taxed ratepayers) committed to their charge-make it fly in fact. The London School Board have been accused, and justly, too, with the grossest extravagance.' 300l. for a Turkey carpet sounds comfortable, if not luxurious, at least they get some return for their money; but the amount for dabbling in 'Tobination' is indeed paying dearly for their ventilation whistle, with apparently nothing to show for it.

Some of the appropriators * have suggested that the board of applied wood should be five or six inches deep,' which imparts an ugliness, heaviness, and obstructiveness, without any additional advantage. To such I may remark with Horace

Si quid novisti rectius istis
Candidus imperti, si non his utere mecum,

as rendered by Francis thus

If a better system's thine, Impart it frankly, or make use of mine; but if you do, at least give me the credit of first proposing the plan, and do not, in attempting to improve on it, mar and disfigure it with meddlesome ingenuity. The idea is so simple that it must naturally have occurred to others, but more satisfactory than the statements of plausible pilferers having used it for thirty years would be a reference to any printed description previous to that given in the Builder, 1862. 'Palmam qui meruit, ferat.' Indeed, the plan of having the bottom heading of the window made from two to three inches in depth, according to that of the bottom rail, as I have myself on some occasions had done, and have recommended to those about to build, should be primarily adopted by architects, surveyors, and builders; the means of efficient ventilation would then be always at hand, and absolutely costless.' With the advance of sanitary science, general education, philanthropy, and disinterestedness, possibly a century hence, at our present rate of progress, this may be effected; the asphyxiation of a nobleman, or the blood-poisoning of a bishop would, no doubt, be a wonderful stimulus to the application of common sense to house ventilation.'

For years I have had windows, especially in staircase, bath, and bed rooms, fixed open in the above described way nine months out of the twelve. An objection has

A Paper on Ventilation, with Apparatus.' By G. Goldie, Medical Officer of Health, Leeds, 1875.

been raised by a writer in the SANITARY RECORD-' But this homely manner of admitting air into the room is, after all, more fit for the upper rooms than for the ground floor ones. In rows of houses shutters are mostly used; and, where there are none, how are the sashes to be fastened, since an ordinary sash fastener would be now useless?' The intelligent police take the trouble to inform householders that ordinary sash-fasteners' are worse than useless, as they give a false security, and are as easily as possible slipped back by a flat knife from outside. A screw or wedges firmly fixed above the lower meeting rail would secure constant ventilation and safety from burglarious entrance, or two metal catches of suitable form fixed on each side would secure the windows both when open for 'costless ventilation' and when closed.

The opening between the meeting-rails will doubtless be found to admit more air than the various patented plans so erroneously applied to the top of the sash, whether of wire gauze, perforated zinc, or glass louvres, as can be readily demonstrated by the use of a costless anemometer -two or three strips of tissue paper, the top end gummed to the glass. The employment of wire gauze, etc., across the inlet to the air channels, so frequently seen, for the supposed purpose of diminishing or moderating the draught, is often alone sufficient to annihilate the ventilation of the building.

In Tobination answering all the requirements of ventilation!' (Tobin's Specification, page 5) the importance of the existence of an outlet for hot, impure, devitalised air is not only ignored, but apparently denied, exhibiting an ignorance of physics and physiology, dense, total, complete, and thorough. Mr. Tobin's experiments early led him to the conclusion that the prevailing notions about the necessity for carefully planned outlets were fallacious, and that if proper inlets are provided the outlets may generally be left to themselves!' ` ̄ (Times, April 12, 1875.)

On this point, Dr. Reid, who may be justly termed 'the Nestor of Ventilation,' remarks: The expired air is, as a whole, specifically lighter under ordinary circumstances than the surrounding atmosphere, in consequence of its temperature and the moisture associated with it, and, therefore, it remains above. If, then, the vitiated air be removed by an opening above, it will be carried away with the least chance of contaminating the remaining atmosphere; whereas in apartments where the air is withdrawn at a low level, and the usual temperature retained, the products of respiration must perpetually tend to return upon the body from which the air has been expired.' (Illustrations of the Theory and Practice of Ventilation,' by B. D. Reid. London: 1874. P. 87.) With any or all of these simple means of admitting air, there should also be an opening for getting rid of the foul air; this may be accomplished by a valve in the chimney opening over the gas-chandelier or a slit near the cornice having a valve.' (A. Wynter Blyth, op. cit., p. 622.)

In the case of windows, chiefly drawing-room, with French casements, the upper portion, so frequently immovable, should be made to work on a pivot in the centre, or to fall back on hinges.

But, although the above plan answers for ordinary daily ventilation for windows without overhanging drapery -at night, with gas in crowded rooms, it is not at all equal to the occasion. In these cases I adopt the following, also costless, very efficacious, and which may be used with overhanging draperies:

At nine inches above the height of an ordinary person, say six feet six inches, place a small hook in moulding of shutter case farthest from the window on each side, and another two inches below the moulding on each side, in front of window-sill; tightly stretch across the window a length of linen or calico, with small loops or rings to attach to the four hooks, leaving the calico nine inches larger than required, to hang down loosely on each side; this forms what is, I believe, technically called by architects a 'hopper.' Throw up the lower sash as required, and draw the blind down to the lower rail of the window sash,

Original Papers.

ON VENTILATION.

BY WALTER NOEL HARTLEY, F.C. S., Demonstrator of Chemistry, King's College, London.

THE food of man consists of gaseous, liquid, and solid materials. Neither one nor the other can be dispensed with; but that for which we have the most immediate necessity is the gaseous food called air. Starvation is a matter of days with solids, hours with liquids, but of minutes with air. So much attention has been drawn to the importance of drinking pure water that no one would deny the danger incurred in drinking from a well contaminated with sewage to an extent so small that nothing but the most delicate chemical analysis can detect its presence. Yet it is so strangely different with air, that an average body of men feels no repugnance to breathing impurities in such quantities that the amount of pollution may be instantly detected by the nose. The quantity of water that even a teetotaller would drink in a day may certainly be limited on an average to three pints; the amount of air necessary on a moderate computation is 1,500 gallons. If water contained only one part of organic nitrogen in 1,000,000, this would be a startling quantity from a sanitary point of view, though the unwholesomeness might nevertheless be quite unperceived in drinking. Observations on the spread of cholera and typhoid fever in this country have shown that the fluid might be bright, sparkling, colourless, odourless, and tasteless, and yet be acting as so much poison. The organic nitrogen in water is the index of a certain inexactly determined amount of organic matter. In dealing with the atmosphere, we have in the proportion of carbonic acid in the air of 'close' places a certain index of the organic matter which is likely to be just as hurtful, and is certainly more constantly injurious than that in water; but it does not show its effects in the outbreaks of epidemics, and so fails to attract attention and cause alarm. works silently, but in a deadly manner; for the reports of medical men tell us that a very large proportion of cases of phthisis and other pulmonary complaints are owing to the breathing of a vitiated air.

It

The atmosphere, considered as a mere mixture of gases, is of remarkably constant composition; owing partly to its vast extent, partly to its being agitated by the action of winds and imperceptible air-currents, and partly to the decomposition of the carbonic acid produced by animals and the restoration to the air of the oxygen it contains by means of plant life. Nevertheless, the air varies constantly and very widely in composition; but the variations are confined within very small limits. An atmosphere containing three volumes of carbonic acid in 10,000 of air in excess of that usually present, commences to be offensive to the nose and loathsome to the senses when entering from the outer air, by reason of the accompanying organic effluvia. This alone renders the importance of breathing fresh air self-evident; but ignorance and negligence too often disregard this. Impurities in water are carried into the stomach, and in a healthy subject may be destroyed by the gastric juice; but impurities in the atmosphere find their way through the lungs into the blood, a much more serious matter. The oxy

genation of the blood, and the removal of carbonic acid and other effete products from the body, is the function performed by respiration. All practical experience proves that to get as high a percentage of oxygen at all times as Nature will afford, is to insure to a great extent immunity from a certain deadly class of diseases. The researches of Angus Smith have shown that in the air of towns there exists a certain amount of carbonic acid in excess of that usually present in the country. This excess is, on an average, about one volume in 10,000 of air; but it varies in different towns, in different quarters of one town, and even in different streets. The following table, arranged from the figures given in Dr. Angus Smith's 'Air and Rain' indicate this : November, 1869.

All experimenters are agreed with M. Felix Le Blanc, who, in 1842, came to the conclusion that the most exact indication of air contamination was the proportion of carbonic acid present. This is found to rise with the proportion of organic matter when pollution is due to vital processes. Organic matter, however, is not so constant in quantity as carbonic acid in the air of open places except in towns where it is, to a great extent, the effete matter and refuse cast out by the inhabitants. Those solid particles recognisable by the microscope which are found floating in the air consist of soot, tarry matters, starch granules, particles of woody fibre, cotton, wool, hairs and fragments of bread, but in greatest numbers are found the spores of fungi, such as beget mould and mildew; and at certain seasons of the year the pollen of plants and grasses. The various pollutions in town air may be recognised not only by delicate, microscopical and chemical analysis, but are seen collectively on looking through a sufficiently thick layer of the atmosphere. The direction of such places as Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and London, is indicated at a distance of several miles by the dull grey haze hanging over them, and making a blot in the blue sky on a fine day.

Those who live on Sydenham and Highgate Hills cannot failed to have noticed the vast haze overhanging London, and the change in character it exhibits according to the amount and direction of the wind, the dryness or dampness of the air, and the extent, duration, and recent occurrence of the previous rainfall. It is rarely before or after the