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INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN ENGLAND AND WALES DURING THE WEEK ENDED JULY 6TH, 1929.
RESEARCH IN THE BREWING INDUSTRY.
has reached its final stage, but there are still certain properties on the area which are not insanitary, but are essential to the scheme and which will have to be acquired by arbitration. The gathering ground of the water-supply is being extended and it is expected that the new source of supply will be available during the summer of the present year. The gathering ground is on the borders of Dartmoor and the water, although soft, contains sufficient lime and magnesia to prevent any solvent action on lead. Housing remains a difficult problem and there are still a large number of applicants living under bad conditions. The new houses erected numbered 198, of which only 20 were subsidy houses, all municipal. A vitaglass sun lounge has been erected by the council The record as an adjunct to the medical baths. kept of the results of the acetone methylene-blue tests shows that Torquay is high up among the places keeping such records, and the hours of bright sunshine numbered 1845-6. area
Tunbridge Wells. Dr. F. C. Linton says that one patient was admitted to the small-pox hospital, which serves Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding districts, and made a good recovery. There is an increasing demand for the beds at the maternity home, which is a " volun" tary institution, serving the surrounding district. Ninety-four of the patients admitted were Tunbridge Wells residents, for nine of whom the corporation paid the fees according to agreement. The question of the extension of the home is now under consideration. For half the year Tunbridge Wells is supplied with water from springs in the Tunbridge Wells sandstone. During the remainder of the year this supply is supplemented by artesian wells bored through the Wadhurst clay to the Ashdown sand. Until the dry season of 1921 these two sources were adequate, but at the present time the work for a further supply, by boring down to the Ashdown sand in another position, is in hand. The number of new houses erected was 94, of which 34 were municipal and nine private enterprise subsidy houses. The construction of an open-air school was to have been begun in the autumn of 1928, but at the last moment the site was discarded and a search is being made for a new site with more advantages. In the meantime voluntary workers are making provision for some of the delicate children who need an open-air school. The work of the aural clinic for the school-children, which is held at the Eye and Ear Hospital, shows a large increase and on April lst an orthopaedic clinic was established at the General Hospital under the auspices of the The rainfall, about 34 inches, education authority. exceeded the average, largely owing to a fall of seven inches in October. The 1810 hours 18 minutes of bright sunshine made Tunbridge Wells an easy first for sunshine amongst the inland health resorts.
Chelmsford. Dr. Richard H. Vercoe reports that at the end of the year the scheme to obtain water from the river Chelmer was nearly completed. The treatment tanks are divided into nine compartments. Sulphate of alumina solution and lime-water are added at the point of entry and carbonic acid gas is diffused in the water in the penultimate compartment. After storage the treated water is pumped through Paterson pressure filters to the service reservoir, chlorine gas being added to the water both, before and after filtration. There is a well-equipped laboratory, where -constant tests will be made by a resident chemist. There are a large number of houses in Chelmsford which are constantly in need of repairs to keep them fit for human habitation, and in some cases demolition is the only satisfactory remedy. About 50 are only fit for demolition ; and 300 more On the municipal estate 62 need regular repairs. houses were completed during the year and 56 are contracted for. An antenatal clinic was held monthly at the Chelmsford Hospital and attended by 34 expectant mothers. The report of the veterinary
145
inspector, Mr. W. Mulvey, states that all the cowsand cowsheds are inspected at least once in every two months. The sheds number 11 and the cowpopulation is about 250. Twenty-two cows were removed from the cowsheds during the year and 20’ cows tested with tuberculin.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN ENGLAND AND WALES DURING THE WEEK ENDED JULY 6TH, 1929. Notifications.-The following cases of infectiousdisease were notified during the week : Small-pox, 153. (last week 160) ; scarlet fever, 1;898 ; diphtheria, 990 ; enteric fever, 44 ; pneumonia, 909 ; puerperal fever,
49 ; puerperal pyrexia, 98 ; cerebro-spinal fever, 12 ; acute poliomyelitis, 7 ; encephalitis lethargica, 22 ; continued fever, 1 ; dysentery, 14 ; ophthalmia neonatorum, 115. No case of cholera, plague or typhus fever was notified during the week. The number of cases in the Infectious Hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board on July 9th-10th was as follows : Small-pox, 209 under treatment, 6’under observation (last week 196 and 8 respectively) ; scarlet fever, 1320 ; diph-theria, 1660 ; enteric fever, 8 ; measles, 231 ; whooping-cough, 437 ; puerperal fever, 28 (plus 9 babies)’; encephalitis lethargica, 124 ; other diseases," 30. At St. Margaret’s Hospital there were 18 babies (plus 9 mothers) with ophthalmia "
neonatorum.
Deaths.-In the aggregate of great towns, includingwas one death from small-pox, 5 (1)
London, there
from enteric fever, 42 (8) from measles, 5 (0) from scarlet fever, 30 (8) from whooping-cough, 16 (7) from diphtheria, 48 (7) from diarrhoea and enteritis under two years, and 25 (5) from influenza. The figures in parentheses are those for London itself. The single death provisionally classified to small-pox was assigned to Stepney. Liverpool reported 12 deaths from measles, Wallasey, Salford and Leeds each 3. Three deaths from whooping cough occurred at Sheffield. The highest figures for diarrhoea were Birmingham and Liverpool each 8,. Manchester 5, Nottingham, Warrington and Salford each 3.
The number of stillbirths reported during the week was 276 (corresponding to a rate of 40 per 1000 births),. including 49 in London.
RESEARCH IN THE BREWING INDUSTRY. ’
MANY industries in this country have been carried on foror in some cases for thousands, of years on purely empirical lines, and it is only since the later decades of thenineteenth century that science, with its exact knowledge based upon definite facts, has intervened to displace gradually the former universal rule-of-thumb methods. Even nowthere are business men who consider science of little value apart from its immediate application to their own problems and the production of increased profits They do not realise that " Science moves but slowly, slowly creeping on from point to point." But the industrialist does appreciate the value of a sound knowledge of fundamental principles, and the 1929 Memorandum of the Research Scheme of the Institute of Brewing is a good illustration of this fact. This memorandum summarises a number of investigations carried out under the aegis of the Research Committee, many of them in collaboration with other bodies. They include the production of new varieties of barley and hops, the effects of various agricultural conditions, chemicals and biological methods for the evaluation of hops and methods of defence against their field parasites, and the utilisation of the nitrogenous constituents of wort by yeast. The magnitude of the undertaking may be realised when it is considered that the whole of the factors under investigation, from the breedingof the barley and hops, must be correlated singly and in conjunction with the qualities of the finished beer. The Research Scheme is administered by a committee in conjunction with various advisory sub-committees, the members ofwhich are representative of all branches of the brewing industry, together with botanists, chemists, bio-chemists and Team work of this kind maygrowers of barley and hops. well have results of value outside the brewing trade, in which. it is not forgotten that the brilliant bacteriological researchesof Pasteur, when applied by Lister, revolutionised the practice of surgery.
hundreds,
has reached its final stage, but there are still certain properties on the area which are not insanitary, but are essential to the scheme and which will have to be acquired by arbitration. The gathering ground of the water-supply is being extended and it is expected that the new source of supply will be available during the summer of the present year. The gathering ground is on the borders of Dartmoor and the water, although soft, contains sufficient lime and magnesia to prevent any solvent action on lead. Housing remains a difficult problem and there are still a large number of applicants living under bad conditions. The new houses erected numbered 198, of which only 20 were subsidy houses, all municipal. A vitaglass sun lounge has been erected by the council The record as an adjunct to the medical baths. kept of the results of the acetone methylene-blue tests shows that Torquay is high up among the places keeping such records, and the hours of bright sunshine numbered 1845-6. area
Tunbridge Wells. Dr. F. C. Linton says that one patient was admitted to the small-pox hospital, which serves Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding districts, and made a good recovery. There is an increasing demand for the beds at the maternity home, which is a " volun" tary institution, serving the surrounding district. Ninety-four of the patients admitted were Tunbridge Wells residents, for nine of whom the corporation paid the fees according to agreement. The question of the extension of the home is now under consideration. For half the year Tunbridge Wells is supplied with water from springs in the Tunbridge Wells sandstone. During the remainder of the year this supply is supplemented by artesian wells bored through the Wadhurst clay to the Ashdown sand. Until the dry season of 1921 these two sources were adequate, but at the present time the work for a further supply, by boring down to the Ashdown sand in another position, is in hand. The number of new houses erected was 94, of which 34 were municipal and nine private enterprise subsidy houses. The construction of an open-air school was to have been begun in the autumn of 1928, but at the last moment the site was discarded and a search is being made for a new site with more advantages. In the meantime voluntary workers are making provision for some of the delicate children who need an open-air school. The work of the aural clinic for the school-children, which is held at the Eye and Ear Hospital, shows a large increase and on April lst an orthopaedic clinic was established at the General Hospital under the auspices of the The rainfall, about 34 inches, education authority. exceeded the average, largely owing to a fall of seven inches in October. The 1810 hours 18 minutes of bright sunshine made Tunbridge Wells an easy first for sunshine amongst the inland health resorts.
Chelmsford. Dr. Richard H. Vercoe reports that at the end of the year the scheme to obtain water from the river Chelmer was nearly completed. The treatment tanks are divided into nine compartments. Sulphate of alumina solution and lime-water are added at the point of entry and carbonic acid gas is diffused in the water in the penultimate compartment. After storage the treated water is pumped through Paterson pressure filters to the service reservoir, chlorine gas being added to the water both, before and after filtration. There is a well-equipped laboratory, where -constant tests will be made by a resident chemist. There are a large number of houses in Chelmsford which are constantly in need of repairs to keep them fit for human habitation, and in some cases demolition is the only satisfactory remedy. About 50 are only fit for demolition ; and 300 more On the municipal estate 62 need regular repairs. houses were completed during the year and 56 are contracted for. An antenatal clinic was held monthly at the Chelmsford Hospital and attended by 34 expectant mothers. The report of the veterinary
145
inspector, Mr. W. Mulvey, states that all the cowsand cowsheds are inspected at least once in every two months. The sheds number 11 and the cowpopulation is about 250. Twenty-two cows were removed from the cowsheds during the year and 20’ cows tested with tuberculin.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN ENGLAND AND WALES DURING THE WEEK ENDED JULY 6TH, 1929. Notifications.-The following cases of infectiousdisease were notified during the week : Small-pox, 153. (last week 160) ; scarlet fever, 1;898 ; diphtheria, 990 ; enteric fever, 44 ; pneumonia, 909 ; puerperal fever,
49 ; puerperal pyrexia, 98 ; cerebro-spinal fever, 12 ; acute poliomyelitis, 7 ; encephalitis lethargica, 22 ; continued fever, 1 ; dysentery, 14 ; ophthalmia neonatorum, 115. No case of cholera, plague or typhus fever was notified during the week. The number of cases in the Infectious Hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board on July 9th-10th was as follows : Small-pox, 209 under treatment, 6’under observation (last week 196 and 8 respectively) ; scarlet fever, 1320 ; diph-theria, 1660 ; enteric fever, 8 ; measles, 231 ; whooping-cough, 437 ; puerperal fever, 28 (plus 9 babies)’; encephalitis lethargica, 124 ; other diseases," 30. At St. Margaret’s Hospital there were 18 babies (plus 9 mothers) with ophthalmia "
neonatorum.
Deaths.-In the aggregate of great towns, includingwas one death from small-pox, 5 (1)
London, there
from enteric fever, 42 (8) from measles, 5 (0) from scarlet fever, 30 (8) from whooping-cough, 16 (7) from diphtheria, 48 (7) from diarrhoea and enteritis under two years, and 25 (5) from influenza. The figures in parentheses are those for London itself. The single death provisionally classified to small-pox was assigned to Stepney. Liverpool reported 12 deaths from measles, Wallasey, Salford and Leeds each 3. Three deaths from whooping cough occurred at Sheffield. The highest figures for diarrhoea were Birmingham and Liverpool each 8,. Manchester 5, Nottingham, Warrington and Salford each 3.
The number of stillbirths reported during the week was 276 (corresponding to a rate of 40 per 1000 births),. including 49 in London.
RESEARCH IN THE BREWING INDUSTRY. ’
MANY industries in this country have been carried on foror in some cases for thousands, of years on purely empirical lines, and it is only since the later decades of thenineteenth century that science, with its exact knowledge based upon definite facts, has intervened to displace gradually the former universal rule-of-thumb methods. Even nowthere are business men who consider science of little value apart from its immediate application to their own problems and the production of increased profits They do not realise that " Science moves but slowly, slowly creeping on from point to point." But the industrialist does appreciate the value of a sound knowledge of fundamental principles, and the 1929 Memorandum of the Research Scheme of the Institute of Brewing is a good illustration of this fact. This memorandum summarises a number of investigations carried out under the aegis of the Research Committee, many of them in collaboration with other bodies. They include the production of new varieties of barley and hops, the effects of various agricultural conditions, chemicals and biological methods for the evaluation of hops and methods of defence against their field parasites, and the utilisation of the nitrogenous constituents of wort by yeast. The magnitude of the undertaking may be realised when it is considered that the whole of the factors under investigation, from the breedingof the barley and hops, must be correlated singly and in conjunction with the qualities of the finished beer. The Research Scheme is administered by a committee in conjunction with various advisory sub-committees, the members ofwhich are representative of all branches of the brewing industry, together with botanists, chemists, bio-chemists and Team work of this kind maygrowers of barley and hops. well have results of value outside the brewing trade, in which. it is not forgotten that the brilliant bacteriological researchesof Pasteur, when applied by Lister, revolutionised the practice of surgery.
hundreds,