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THE HOMELESS IN MANCHESTER.
954
hospital funds. London grows day by day and seller or not, an offence within the meaning of the Act, as it coincidently with its growth appears that of sickness, is obvious that the presence of a poison in a small quantity. pain, and accident. We therefore earnestly hope that the is often an indication that there is distinct danger of a sum necessary for St. Mary’s Hospital to benefit by the dangerous quantity being introduced at any time. Lastly, Zunz bequest will be forthcoming even although the present Mr. Tattersall points out that one of the lessons of the outtimes are hard for those who have to depend upon charity. break is that some improvement should be made in the the
Subscriptions
may be sent to Mr. Alfred de
Mary’s Hospital, Paldington; to the bankers of the hospital, the London and County Banking Company, Limited, Connaught-street, Edgware-road, London, W. ; or to the secretary at the hospital. THE HOMELESS IN
to the health authorities of outbreaks of disease, and that there is urgent need forsome provision whereby regularly scientific investigation intothe constitution of foodstuff and their adulterants can be carried on continuously. Apart from beer these are points which the Royal Commission on Arsenic Poisoning were appointed expressly to inquire into with a view to better and’
Rothschild, the arrangements for the notification
treasurer, at St.
MANCHESTER.
more
shock to learn that there are something One night so many of the "submerged" in Manchester. about a week ago the police raided some brick kilns in Cheetham, Manchester, and apprehended 54 men and youths whom they found huddled together for warmth by the oven fires. "These wretched outcasts," as they are called in a newspaper report, were charged at the city police-court on March 13th with 11 sleeping out" and sentenced to terms of imprisonment varying from a day to a month. On some of them, perhaps, sympathy would be wasted, but others may be homeless without much fault of their own. In the latter case it would seem absurd to punish for the poverty that cannot provide a bed under a roof if it were not for the existence of the casual ward which theoretically is equal to all demands ; but it is sufficiently unpopular to make many IT
comes
with
prefer imprisonment.
of
-
ARSENICAL POISONING BY BEER IN THE COUNTY BOROUGH OF SALFORD.
’
protective legislation.
a
THE report of Mr. C. H. Tattersall, the medical officer of health of the county borough of Salford, has been printed and it is of special interest as dealing with that area in which the remarkable and now happily historic outbreak of arsenical poisoning by beer occurred. The report includes Professor Delépine’s report on the chemical investigation and Mr. Tattersall has added Dr. E. S. Reynolds’s account of the clinical symptoms which appeared in THE LANCET of Jan. 19th, 1901, p. 166, while some valuable information supplied by brewers, sugar manufacturers, acid manufacturers, and maltsters is appended. Professor Delepine arrives at conclusions which are already well knownnamely, that the outbreak was due to a toxic amount of arsenious acid or arsenites in the beer consumed, that the toxic amount of arsenious acid was derived from brewingsugars, and that the arsenic present in the sugars was due to the use of impure sulphuric acid manufactured from arsenical pyrites. He considers that when beer, sound or otherwise, does not contain more than one-hundredth of a grain of arsenic per gallon in the form of arsenious acid or of an arsenite it is probably quite a safe drink. When regard is had to the wide distribution of arsenic in nature and of the probability of its normal occurrence in food products in minute amount some definite limit should be laid down as to what may be regarded as a poisonous quantity. Mr. Tattersall suggests that it would be unreasonable to forbid the use of substitutes, providing that some means are devised by which the carelessness of one or more individuals can be prevented from endangering the lives and health of the public. At the same time, it should be recognised that any person replacing a natural substance by a manufactured article in the preparation of any foodstuffs takes upon himself the responsibility of seeing that no injury should ever result from such substitution. Mr. Tattersall holds, further, that the Food and Drugs Act should be amended so as to make the contamination of foodstuffs with poisonous matter in appreciable quantity, whether to a dangerous extent or not, and whether to the knowledge of the
A LOW ESTIMATE OF SANITARY MEDICINE. THE sanitary authority of Axminster has distinguished itself by devising a new principle for selecting candidates. for the office of medical officer of health. The principle is that of accepting the lowest tender. Th& applicants for the office were asked to name theirterms and the appointment was given to the gentleman Save as a reward of who asked least for his services. this seems us an entirely unworthy to possible modesty the doubt as to the fitness of raising strongest procedure, the sanitary authority for the discharge of its responsibleduties. The function of such an authority is to save its constituents from preventable disease and death, and the notion that this function is discharged by electing the medical man who charges least for his services is not one which we should like to apply to a dairyman or a druggist. We. gather that the Axminster rural district includes a population of 10,000 and covers a sanitary area equal to 642 squaremiles, for which the late medical officer of health received £45 per annum, equal to 1d. per head of the population, or r 4 ’d. per acre, or 14s. per square mile. Ihe late medical officer of health complained that he had held the office for 13 years and obtained no notice of the termination of his engagement. The ethics of this remarkable procedure onthe part of the authority are of a piece with the intelligencewhich it had displayed and they should be duly studied by the Local Government Board. The interest of medical officers of health and of the population alike requires that. appointments should be made on very difeerent principles.
HYDROGEN A NORMAL CONSTITUENT OF THE AIR. THERE seems little room for doubt that hydrogen is a. normal constituent of the air to the extent of two in 10,000 parts by volume. Normal air, therefore, contains hydrogen to the extent of about one-half of the The difficulty normal amount of the carbonic acid. of detecting and estimating hydrogen in such a large volume of air would account for the fact that its presence hitherto in the atmosphere has not been determined for certain. This difficulty has been overcome by that untiring investigator, M. Gautier of Paris, and his success. has led to some interesting revelations. It should be remarked, however, that Professor Liveing and ProfessorDewar in their experiments on the liquefaction of air obtained a fraction which consisted of nearly one-half hydrogen and which by well-known means was madeto explode. M. Gautier in his researches relied upon combustion methods, which were carried out with remarkable precision, and these demonstrated the presence in addition to hydrogen of hydrocarbons, at any rate in town air and country air. The hydrocarbons diminished in air taken from the region of mountain heights. and far out at sea, but even at these places the hydrogen remained approximately two parts per 10,000. The air of
hospital funds. London grows day by day and seller or not, an offence within the meaning of the Act, as it coincidently with its growth appears that of sickness, is obvious that the presence of a poison in a small quantity. pain, and accident. We therefore earnestly hope that the is often an indication that there is distinct danger of a sum necessary for St. Mary’s Hospital to benefit by the dangerous quantity being introduced at any time. Lastly, Zunz bequest will be forthcoming even although the present Mr. Tattersall points out that one of the lessons of the outtimes are hard for those who have to depend upon charity. break is that some improvement should be made in the the
Subscriptions
may be sent to Mr. Alfred de
Mary’s Hospital, Paldington; to the bankers of the hospital, the London and County Banking Company, Limited, Connaught-street, Edgware-road, London, W. ; or to the secretary at the hospital. THE HOMELESS IN
to the health authorities of outbreaks of disease, and that there is urgent need forsome provision whereby regularly scientific investigation intothe constitution of foodstuff and their adulterants can be carried on continuously. Apart from beer these are points which the Royal Commission on Arsenic Poisoning were appointed expressly to inquire into with a view to better and’
Rothschild, the arrangements for the notification
treasurer, at St.
MANCHESTER.
more
shock to learn that there are something One night so many of the "submerged" in Manchester. about a week ago the police raided some brick kilns in Cheetham, Manchester, and apprehended 54 men and youths whom they found huddled together for warmth by the oven fires. "These wretched outcasts," as they are called in a newspaper report, were charged at the city police-court on March 13th with 11 sleeping out" and sentenced to terms of imprisonment varying from a day to a month. On some of them, perhaps, sympathy would be wasted, but others may be homeless without much fault of their own. In the latter case it would seem absurd to punish for the poverty that cannot provide a bed under a roof if it were not for the existence of the casual ward which theoretically is equal to all demands ; but it is sufficiently unpopular to make many IT
comes
with
prefer imprisonment.
of
-
ARSENICAL POISONING BY BEER IN THE COUNTY BOROUGH OF SALFORD.
’
protective legislation.
a
THE report of Mr. C. H. Tattersall, the medical officer of health of the county borough of Salford, has been printed and it is of special interest as dealing with that area in which the remarkable and now happily historic outbreak of arsenical poisoning by beer occurred. The report includes Professor Delépine’s report on the chemical investigation and Mr. Tattersall has added Dr. E. S. Reynolds’s account of the clinical symptoms which appeared in THE LANCET of Jan. 19th, 1901, p. 166, while some valuable information supplied by brewers, sugar manufacturers, acid manufacturers, and maltsters is appended. Professor Delepine arrives at conclusions which are already well knownnamely, that the outbreak was due to a toxic amount of arsenious acid or arsenites in the beer consumed, that the toxic amount of arsenious acid was derived from brewingsugars, and that the arsenic present in the sugars was due to the use of impure sulphuric acid manufactured from arsenical pyrites. He considers that when beer, sound or otherwise, does not contain more than one-hundredth of a grain of arsenic per gallon in the form of arsenious acid or of an arsenite it is probably quite a safe drink. When regard is had to the wide distribution of arsenic in nature and of the probability of its normal occurrence in food products in minute amount some definite limit should be laid down as to what may be regarded as a poisonous quantity. Mr. Tattersall suggests that it would be unreasonable to forbid the use of substitutes, providing that some means are devised by which the carelessness of one or more individuals can be prevented from endangering the lives and health of the public. At the same time, it should be recognised that any person replacing a natural substance by a manufactured article in the preparation of any foodstuffs takes upon himself the responsibility of seeing that no injury should ever result from such substitution. Mr. Tattersall holds, further, that the Food and Drugs Act should be amended so as to make the contamination of foodstuffs with poisonous matter in appreciable quantity, whether to a dangerous extent or not, and whether to the knowledge of the
A LOW ESTIMATE OF SANITARY MEDICINE. THE sanitary authority of Axminster has distinguished itself by devising a new principle for selecting candidates. for the office of medical officer of health. The principle is that of accepting the lowest tender. Th& applicants for the office were asked to name theirterms and the appointment was given to the gentleman Save as a reward of who asked least for his services. this seems us an entirely unworthy to possible modesty the doubt as to the fitness of raising strongest procedure, the sanitary authority for the discharge of its responsibleduties. The function of such an authority is to save its constituents from preventable disease and death, and the notion that this function is discharged by electing the medical man who charges least for his services is not one which we should like to apply to a dairyman or a druggist. We. gather that the Axminster rural district includes a population of 10,000 and covers a sanitary area equal to 642 squaremiles, for which the late medical officer of health received £45 per annum, equal to 1d. per head of the population, or r 4 ’d. per acre, or 14s. per square mile. Ihe late medical officer of health complained that he had held the office for 13 years and obtained no notice of the termination of his engagement. The ethics of this remarkable procedure onthe part of the authority are of a piece with the intelligencewhich it had displayed and they should be duly studied by the Local Government Board. The interest of medical officers of health and of the population alike requires that. appointments should be made on very difeerent principles.
HYDROGEN A NORMAL CONSTITUENT OF THE AIR. THERE seems little room for doubt that hydrogen is a. normal constituent of the air to the extent of two in 10,000 parts by volume. Normal air, therefore, contains hydrogen to the extent of about one-half of the The difficulty normal amount of the carbonic acid. of detecting and estimating hydrogen in such a large volume of air would account for the fact that its presence hitherto in the atmosphere has not been determined for certain. This difficulty has been overcome by that untiring investigator, M. Gautier of Paris, and his success. has led to some interesting revelations. It should be remarked, however, that Professor Liveing and ProfessorDewar in their experiments on the liquefaction of air obtained a fraction which consisted of nearly one-half hydrogen and which by well-known means was madeto explode. M. Gautier in his researches relied upon combustion methods, which were carried out with remarkable precision, and these demonstrated the presence in addition to hydrogen of hydrocarbons, at any rate in town air and country air. The hydrocarbons diminished in air taken from the region of mountain heights. and far out at sea, but even at these places the hydrogen remained approximately two parts per 10,000. The air of