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The adulteration of textile fabrics
646
Diphtheria in G e r m a n y
[PublicHealth
towns, and students of folk-lore in many lands, will be staggered by Nil Filatow's statement that in some parts of South Russia, when a child has died of diphtheria, pieces of cake are put between its lips, to be eaten by the others as a charm against the disease ! This, however, is not done even in Polish Prussia. Dr. Aust puts the whole question of the closure of schools during epidemics of diphtheria in a nutshell when he says that its utility in towns is often very doubtful, since it simply substitutes for the association of children in a place which may be brought under skilled supervision, their wholly uncontrolled association m the streets and playgrounds ; but that in rural districts, where the children are drawn from villages and detached cottages widely separated one from another, and who therefore would not otherwise have met, they are brought together in one building, the infection being thus conveyed from one locality to others miles apart. Here, he says, the early closure of the school may have the effect of limiting the outbreak to the village or group of cottages where the first cases appeared, and thus averting an epidemic. In towns the better course would, in his opinion, be to place the schools under strict medical inspection so soon as the occurrence of a number of cases in the district affords reasonable grounds for apprehending danger, and excluding every child presenting suspicious symptoms, together with those from the same families or houses. In Leipzig, where school medical officers have been appointed for some years past, no fewer than 1,264 cases of infectious diseases, that from the apparently trivial character of the symptoms had not been notified in the ordinary course, were in the year 1893 thus brought to the knowledge of the sauitaryauthorityand duly isolated. In the case of infectious diseases breaking out in the famihes of the teachers, such teachers should be at once suspended from duty, and if the teacher's house be within the precincts of, or communicating with, the school, prompt closure would be imperative. So, too, during the prevalence of an epidemic young persons from infected houses or localities should be excluded from Confirmation classes, Sunday-schools, dancing-classes, excursions, and like entertainments, and the same precautions be observed in the admission to day-nurseries and kindergarten.
T H E A D U L T E R A T I O N OF T E X T I L E FABRICS. CERTAIN manufacturers of cotton and other textile fabrics are in the habit of weighting their goods by means of chemicals. Not only sheeting, but shirting, flannelettes, blankets, linings, ticks, etc., have been shown on analysis to be heavily adulterated with chloride of zinc, chloride of magnesium, sulphate of magnesium, and other chemicals. In one case a blanket weighing 7 lb, was shown to owe 1 lb. of its weight to such treatment. In some instances woollens were found to be as heavily adulterated as cottons. That such fabrics are dangerous to health has just been strikingly illustrated at Birmingham. I t appears that a body of sixty men had been employed by the authorities in clearing snow from the streets. Most of them complained to the Public Works Committee of serious skin eruptions about the wrists, hands, and knees. This led to the men's clothes being examined. The garments were practically new--in fact, they had just got their first wetting. Dr. Hill made an analysis, which showed that the dye with which they had been prepared was largely impregnated with chloride of zinc. The committee called in the whole of the coats (300), and in ~heir place others will be supplied.mBritish Food Journal.
Diphtheria in G e r m a n y
[PublicHealth
towns, and students of folk-lore in many lands, will be staggered by Nil Filatow's statement that in some parts of South Russia, when a child has died of diphtheria, pieces of cake are put between its lips, to be eaten by the others as a charm against the disease ! This, however, is not done even in Polish Prussia. Dr. Aust puts the whole question of the closure of schools during epidemics of diphtheria in a nutshell when he says that its utility in towns is often very doubtful, since it simply substitutes for the association of children in a place which may be brought under skilled supervision, their wholly uncontrolled association m the streets and playgrounds ; but that in rural districts, where the children are drawn from villages and detached cottages widely separated one from another, and who therefore would not otherwise have met, they are brought together in one building, the infection being thus conveyed from one locality to others miles apart. Here, he says, the early closure of the school may have the effect of limiting the outbreak to the village or group of cottages where the first cases appeared, and thus averting an epidemic. In towns the better course would, in his opinion, be to place the schools under strict medical inspection so soon as the occurrence of a number of cases in the district affords reasonable grounds for apprehending danger, and excluding every child presenting suspicious symptoms, together with those from the same families or houses. In Leipzig, where school medical officers have been appointed for some years past, no fewer than 1,264 cases of infectious diseases, that from the apparently trivial character of the symptoms had not been notified in the ordinary course, were in the year 1893 thus brought to the knowledge of the sauitaryauthorityand duly isolated. In the case of infectious diseases breaking out in the famihes of the teachers, such teachers should be at once suspended from duty, and if the teacher's house be within the precincts of, or communicating with, the school, prompt closure would be imperative. So, too, during the prevalence of an epidemic young persons from infected houses or localities should be excluded from Confirmation classes, Sunday-schools, dancing-classes, excursions, and like entertainments, and the same precautions be observed in the admission to day-nurseries and kindergarten.
T H E A D U L T E R A T I O N OF T E X T I L E FABRICS. CERTAIN manufacturers of cotton and other textile fabrics are in the habit of weighting their goods by means of chemicals. Not only sheeting, but shirting, flannelettes, blankets, linings, ticks, etc., have been shown on analysis to be heavily adulterated with chloride of zinc, chloride of magnesium, sulphate of magnesium, and other chemicals. In one case a blanket weighing 7 lb, was shown to owe 1 lb. of its weight to such treatment. In some instances woollens were found to be as heavily adulterated as cottons. That such fabrics are dangerous to health has just been strikingly illustrated at Birmingham. I t appears that a body of sixty men had been employed by the authorities in clearing snow from the streets. Most of them complained to the Public Works Committee of serious skin eruptions about the wrists, hands, and knees. This led to the men's clothes being examined. The garments were practically new--in fact, they had just got their first wetting. Dr. Hill made an analysis, which showed that the dye with which they had been prepared was largely impregnated with chloride of zinc. The committee called in the whole of the coats (300), and in ~heir place others will be supplied.mBritish Food Journal.