IRISH MEDICAL SCHOOLS' AND GRADUATES' ASSOCIATION.

1086 The solution of the difficulty, we venture to think, lies, not therefore of the greatest hygienic importance, since by its preventing the formation of smoke or the products referred adoption, not only is fuel economised and smoke not pro’to, but in destroying the smoke at the moment of its birth duced, but the maximum calorific effect of the fuel is by causing it to be mixed with a sufficiency of atmospheric obtained, the heat being utilised to accomplish the efficient oxygen, and raising the mixture to the temperature necessary ventilation and warming of the room. We may justly express our gratification of the fact that a ’for combination by compelling the unburnt gases to pass through the fire. We have shown in former articles that this system which we voluntarily undertook to investigate and to is practically accomplished in the range invented and intro- submit to a laborious set of experiments has proved to be ’duced by Messrs. Leggott and Marsh. This range was right in theory and practice, and if the solution of the fog - examined and duly reported upon by THE LANCET Commis- question is to be found in the rational and efficient use of sion,1 and while it was found to produce no smoke or coal as fuel we shall have the satisfaction of knowing that soot, numerous analyses undertaken by the Commission we have had some share in indicating a way to secure this showed also the complete absence of objectionable gases end, so that the intolerable evil of smoke may be largely, if In fact, the gases going not wholly, mitigated, the foul fog fiend exorcised, and rin the products of combustion. to the flue consisted entirely of carbonic acid, air, and London freed from the unhealthy outpourings of a legion of nitrogen. This result was due to the ingenious yet simple con- chimneys. The rest we must leave to legislation. struction of the stove, which, as regards outward appearance, ’however, presented little difference from the ordinary range. In the place of bars there are "louvres, "as they are aptly called, - -which consist of three flat plates of iron adjusted in front IRISH MEDICAL SCHOOLS’ AND ,of the fire in the manner of the bars of a venetian blind, GRADUATES’ ASSOCIATION. which when opened act like a hopper in allowing the air to play do7vn upon the fuel. By opening or closing the louvres THE autumnal general meeting of this Association was held <(and they may be closed entirely) the rate of combustion can be regulated to a degree. The firebox itself is closed at the on Wednesday, Oct. 25th, Professor Cuming, M.D., the top and is divided down the middle by a septum of fire-clay President, and a large number of members being present. which is suspended from the top and which runs to within a the autumnal dinner was held in the Egyptian short distance of the bottom, so that the divisions are compar- Subsequently Saloon of the Caf6 Monico. Covers were laid for seventyable to the two limbs of a syphon ; in other words, the firebox members and their guests, and the réunion was one of may roughly be regarded as V-shaped. When starting the eight fire a quantity of small coal is placed in the bottom of the the most successful and enjoyable ever given by the Associagrate as far up as the end of the dividing piece, or, as we tion. The President occupied the chair, and seated to his may call it, the "smoke trap " ; wood is next put upon the coal, right were Sir William Broadbent, Sir T. Crawford, and Drs. and finally the paper on the wood-precisely the reverse of W. Henry, Hare, Cantrell, and Mapother. On the left of the ’the usual method. On lighting the paper the flames are chair were Surgeon-Colonel Hamilton, Drs. Heath and Stephen immediately drawn down to the wood and thence to the coal, Mackenzie, Professor Ayrton, F.R S., Dr. Charles, Professor .and a bright, cheery fire is obtained in a surprisingly short Perry, F.R.S., Mr. E. Hart, Dr. Ernest White, Mr. Glas, Dr. time. Meantime the air is playing down upon the fuel Lough, and Dr. E. A. White. Among the other members and through the louvres, and the moment that distillatory changes guests present were Mr. Hartt, Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenantcommence the resulting products are carried on with air Colonel Gribbon, Mr. Kennpth Campbell, Captain Palmer, through the hottest part of the fire, where they are converted Surgeon-Major Lamprey, A.M.S., Dr. Starling, Mr. Noble, into the complete products of combustion-carbonic acid and Dr. Dixon, Dr. Tabb, Dr. McCaskie, Dr. Lehane, Dr. Leith ’water. In other words, part of the coal is converted into Napier, Dr. W. H. Bourke, Mr. Keetley, Dr. Abraham, inflammable gas, which, instead of escaping, burns at the back Dr. Alderson, Mr. Odell, Professor W. H. Thompson, Dr. of the fire. As combustion is complete it follows that there are Vaughan Harley, Professor Boyce, Dr. Wells, Dr. Waterhouse, .a great economy of fuel and a maximum yield of heat. A Brigade - Surgeon - Lieutenant - Colonel 0. M. White, Dr. - description embodying all these details was, however, given Stewart, Dr. Cagney, Dr. Cullingworth, Mr. Battle, Surgeonin the report of THE LANCET Commissionalluded to, but the Major Carte, Grenadier Guards ; Mr. Martin, Mr. P. Hayes, principle at the time of the investigation was only applied Dr. T. C. Hayes, Dr. Burghard, Dr. C. W. Hamilton, Dr. Since then it is interesting to learn Davison, to the kitchen range. Captain Webster, Mr. Campbell Boyd, Dr. H. G. ’that the range has been in use in a large number of kitchens Thompson, Dr. O’Callaghan, Rev. R. O’Callaghan, LL.D., with very satisfactory results. It burns the cheapest quality R.N., Captain Milner, Mr. R. J. Swan, Mr. and Mrs. Macof coal, slack or small coal-which in normal times may be donogh, Surgeon-Captain Stoney, A.M.S., Miss Chapman, had at 12s. 6d. a ton-being well adapted for the kitchener. Dr. and Mrs. Hadden, Dr. and Mrs. Stoker, Dr. and We ventured the hope and expressed the probability of the Mrs. Esler, Mrs. Belas, Miss Widdup, Dr. Burkitt, Dr. same principle being applied to a stove adapted for warming and Mrs. Beale, Mr. Bokenham, Dr. McKinley, and Dr. the air of rooms ; but, of course, the construction of a and Mrs. W. P. Morgan. Toasts were proposed and responded stove for this purpose would obviously have to undergo some to the President, Dr. Lough, Surgeon-Colonel Hamilton, by modification in its structure, but it is interesting to add that Dr. Richard Heath, Sir William Broadbent, Professor Ayrton, ’our speculations in this direction have been realised and our Mr. E. Hart, and Mr. Keetley. Excellent songs and F.R.S., theories satisfactorily confirmed. Quite recently we have recitations were contributed by Mr. G. L. Bokenham, watched the working of a stove made on these lines, Mr. W. B. Martin, Mr. P. Dr. Cullingworth, Mr. Odell, Hayes, but also suitable for the drawing-room, and we find that in and Carte. Surgeon-Major :pite of its more open construction, so that the cheery appear,,ance of the glowing coal is not obscured, the results are just as satisfactory as regards the completeness of combustion as ’those already described when the kitchen range was under ’examination. A further important improvement, by which a greater utilisation of the heat is effected, consists in attaching at the back of the grate a chamber, and providing flues running under the floor to supply this chamber LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT. with fresh air from the outside atmosphere. The fresh, cold .air enters through the flues on either side of the stove, REPORTS OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH. .ascends into the chamber and becomes warmed, and passes Bolton Urban Sanitary District -With a population over out into the room. Ventilators are also provided at the ’bottom of the stove, so that if necessary fresh air may be 116,000, Bolton yielded during 1892 a general death-rate of made to come in without circulating through the warm 22 7, an infantile mortality of 185, and a zymotic death-rate chamber. This arrangement provides for a constant supply of 3 29. All these are rates which place Bolton in a not very of fresh air into the room of a temperature equal to the enviable position among the thirty-three large towns. Two - outside air or of a degree as high as is desirable for healthy cases of typhus fever occurred during the year, one of which inspiration. This system, with its latest improvements, is was supposed to have been contracted in Birmingham. The deaths from typhoid fever were evidently fewer than in 1891, and in this connexion it may perhaps be mentioned that since 1 THE LANCET, March 5th, 1892. 2 THE LANCET, March 5th, 1892. 1891, as a result of Dr. Adams’s suggestion, improvements in

Public Health and Poor Law.