THE SANITARY CONGRESS AT BRIGHTON.

THE SANITARY CONGRESS AT BRIGHTON.

461 DR. LLOYD ROBERTS performed Porro’s operation at St. not unnaturally held to be sufficient. The authoritiesi will doubtless be careful that, after...

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461 DR. LLOYD ROBERTS performed Porro’s operation at St. not unnaturally held to be sufficient. The authoritiesi will doubtless be careful that, after this, neither is allowed Mary’s Hospital, Manchester, on Thursday, the 21st instant, in a case of extremely contracted pelvis. Both mother and to resume the ruinous exercise of quasi-parental " duty." child are making favourable progress towards recovery. was

CHOLERA SCARES. WE must not be too hard 011 certain of our daily con-r]THE SANITARY CONGRESS AT BRIGHTON. in this dull season, when everybody is out of town and Parliament is not sitting, but if they could avoid THE twelfth annual Congress of the Sanitary Institute the subject of cholera it would certainly be well for theof ( Great Britain was held this week at Brighton, under .community and might not be bad for their own interests.the t presidency of Sir Thomas Crawford, K.C.B., M.D. At this season acute gastric and intestinal storms will The members of the Congress were received at the Royal occur, in spite of, and perhaps largely because of, great Pavilion, ] the place of meeting of the Congress, by the atmospheric variations, with the earth temperature about Mayor of Brighton (Alderman Manwaring), Sir T. Craw1 66°Fahr., that mysterious figure, at which Dr. Ballard hasford, 1 and Sir Douglas Galton, K.C.B., chairman of the shown such cases may be expected, even in the bestiCouncil. At the luncheon which followed the reception regulated communities. But they do not constituteIthe Mayor, in proposing the toast " The Sanitary Incholera, and are not importations from Asia. The manstitute," I said that it was of the utmost importance that whose case supplied our contemporaries last week withthe doctrines which it put forward should be made widely material is convalescent, and the case of the child of five known, and be carried out in as perfect a manner as years, alias " the nurse," as some papers had it, of the possible. Sir Douglas Galton responded. Poplar Hospital, was entirely unrelated to his. It was, in The company subsequently adjourned to another part of fact, a case of acute gastro-intestinal or dysenteric catarrh, the Pavilion, where the Mayor formally opened the Health aggravated by errors of diet, in a tuberculous child. Exhibition, which is being held in connexion with the ConMr. Frank Corner informs us of the fact that the pleural gress, consisting of all kinds of appliances for the better surface of the diaphragm was studded with tubercle. And preservation of health. In the evening the formal opening of the Congress took we ourselves saw one of the motions, which consisted of in the Music Room, when Sir Thomas Crawford deplace blood and mucus-was, in fact, dysenteric rather than livered his presidential address. He strongly urged that choleraic. Yet these two cases were made to do "scare"" the laws governing the origin and spread of preventable are not merely physical, but also moral. The more duty and scare mischief, and to make many nervous people disease common diseases spread mainly by human intercourse, and One of these our unhappy. very days contemporaries may not infrequently they would find mothers visiting such cases have the real "wolf"to cry,and then they may notbe out of curiosity. Danger to the individual should merely heeded if every severe case of English cholera is made to never be permitted to stand in the way of the performance ,do sensational duty. of an obvious duty, but all needful precautions should be taken to prevent the spread of contagion. He thought THE Sydney Evening News states that at a meeting of this was a sphere in which the clergy might exercise great influence for good by making themselves well the Charities Commissioners, held at Melbourne on the informed as to the nature of contagion and the most 18th ult., Drs. Girdlestone, Grant, and Webb, in their effective methods of preventing its spread. They wele evidence, condemned the Melbourne Hospital, root and quite justified in maintaining that the violation of the branch, as a hotbed of disease. The last witness stated moral law in such matters as temperance and chastity that five house surgeons had died of phthisis, contracted in stood prominently forward as a fruitful source of disease. must look to amendments in social laws for a remedy. the hospital through the insanitary condition of their They Much had been done to amend the laws for the protection quarters. All the witnesses concurred in the urgent of public health, and if Bench and Bar would add their influence in simplifying procedure much would be gained. But necessity for the erection of a new building. lessons in personal and domestic hygiene must find a place in the curriculum of the elementary schools before they could for the realisation of all that was practicable in THE sudden death, on the 27th inst., of Mr. Carnelley, the hope of sickness, and the consequent prolongation prevention Professor of Chemistry in the University of Aberdeen, is of life. Proceeding to deal with the reports of the Army ,announced. In 1879 he was elected to the Professorship of Medical Department, he said that the loss to the army Chemistry in Firth College, Sheffield ; in 1882 to the chair through sickness was equal to a force of 10,716 men, and to of Chemistry at University College, Dundee ; and in 1888 the very considerable sum of f557,232. Until there was a trustworthy record of sickness amongst civilians they must to the Chemistry chair in Aberdeen. be satisfied with such approximate estimates as they might be able to obtain. On the authority of Sir James Paget the loss from sickness between the ages of fifteen and THE B ritisli warship Buzzard, which recently arrived at sixty-five in England and Wales amounted to 20,000,000 Halifax from Jamaica, is reported to have had nineteen weeks’ work in the year, or 21per cent. of the whole work cases of yellow fever on board. The report adds that one done by persons between those ages. The records of the Army Medical Department showed that 23,571 out of man died on the voyage, and was buried at Port Royal. 49,172 men ofl’ering themselves for enlistment were rejected. Five of the men, it is expected, will recover. Making all possible allowances, these figures indicated grave defects in the rearing of the lower orders from whom the recruits are drawn. Referring to the researches of Flugge SEVERAL cases of leprosy have, it is reported, been1 and others in the relationship of micro-organisms to disease, he pointed out that while there were micro-organims whose discovered in Englishtown, Cape Breton Island. The agency was limited by the fact that the multiplication of victims are said to have been in constant association with1 infective material took place only under given conditions, the other inhabitants. and required the active intervention of the individual in whose person the contagium was multiplied to transmit it to others, others retained their vitality in the surroundings THERE would appear to be a recrudescence of influenza inz The Vienna. Several cases are stated to have occurred in the of the sick after they were given off from the body.various latter were therefore capable of transmission by hospitals there. In Paris also the disease is said to beeagencies, though the multiplication of the infecting material took place only on the body of the sick. Having pointed reappearing.

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462 out many causes of disease which might be prevented, it was generally thought that measles should be included in the most important of which was overcrowding, he the list of diseases affected by the Act of Parliament. said that the best safeguards against disease-producing referred to in the paper. The Hon. F. A. R. Russell read a paper on a National micro-organisms were pure air and water, the direct light of the sun, absolute cleanliness, and ample open Health Service. Infectious diseases, he said, arising from spaces around buildings. In conclusion, he pointed to the well-known causes could be greatly reduced by the general statistics of sickness in the army medical records, to the application of principles already well understood. A negreduction of the death-rate in London and Brighton, and lected village might be the means through ordinary busiexpressed the belief that with the improved laws which were ness intercourse of distinctive epidemics in neighbouring there was a fair prospect of seeing the mortality towns. For the proper administration of Health Acts he promised in towns reduced to 10 in 1000 before very many years thought a Ministry of Health should be instituted, which should have under it county boards and health oincers.—Dr. passed. A vote of thanks to the President for his address was Alfred Carpenter was of opinion that much good might be of health were sufficiently moved by the Mayor and seconded by Mr. Baldwin Latham. effected if the salaries of increased to attract medical men of high standing, and to. On Tuesday the Congress resumed its sitting, the day enable them to devote themselves entirely to the duties of being devoted to papers and discussions in Section D- such appointments. Sanitary Science and Preventive Medicine. In Section Professor T. R. Smith delivered his address, Dr. Vivian Poore, President of the Section, in his address as President 2,of the on Baths. The Baths and " on The Living Earth," said that it was of great import- Washhcuses Act had Section, in his opinion, gone far enough, not, ance to sanitarians that they now possessed the knowfor the prices charged at public baths were scarcely within ledge that the upper stratum of the ground on which the reach of working people. He thought that if they lived was teeming with life. Saprophytes and their simple, cheap, and accessible establishments were bathing allies abounded everywhere. Organisms that flourished in formed in crowded would become neighbourhoods they the body ceased to multiply in the soil. Sanitation, lie contended, was purely an agricultural question ; and in the popular. Sir Thomas Crawford, in moving a vote of thanks to country, where every cottage had, or ought to have, its Professor Smith for his address, called attention to the patch of garden, there ought to be no difficulty in the daily want in seaside towns of tepid sea-water baths for removal of refuse from the house without any risk of con- great the convenience of invalids at moderate charges. taminating the water-supply. The panacea for all sanitary After had been read by Mr. W. H. Hallett, J. P., ills was still " drainage," which was only a means of fouling on the papers Waterworks ; Mr. T. J. May on Brighton Brigh ton every natural source of pure water. as a Health Resort; and Mr. R. E. Middleton on Water.’ Sir Douglas Galton, in moving a vote of thanks to Dr. work!4 Regulations, the Congress adjourned till Thursday. Poore for address, contended that water was a great purifier. In towns in which drainage was established the of the inhabitants was much better than in those places where removal by cartage was employed. AMENDMENT OF THE FRENCH CONTAGIOUS Mr. A. G. Henriques, in seconding the motion, thought DISEASES ACT BY THE PARIS Dr. Poore that had under-estimated the influence of the air in oxidising. MUNICIPALITY. Mr. James Turton, chairman of the Sanitary Committee of the Brighton Town Council, then read a paper M. PICIIARD’s report on the working of the Contagious on some points in relation to Septic and Infectious Disease. He said that insanitary conditions which lead to Diseases Act in Paris, which we have analysed at some the contamination with organic matter of air, food, or rise to a lengthy debate in the Paris Municipal drink might be the cause of disease, or be the means of con- length, gave This discussion lasted four days, and is full of£ Council. veying the germs derived from pre-existing cases of disease; interest for those who study this most delicate, difficult, and the common symptoms of such diseases might be rebut as the efforts of nature to eliminate the poison. important subject. As usual, the principal contention garded He mentioned a case in which septic poisoning was caused was between the members of the Municipality and the by the rotting of some joists which supported the flooring representative of the national or central authorityof a kitchen, and from this he concluded that all collections the Prefect of Police, M. Loze. Fortunately, on of putrescent organisms were capable of producing sym- namely, this question the Prefect showed himself very desirous to ptoms of septic poisoning. Dr. J. Ewart read a paper on the Sanitary Advance of adopt any proposal so long as it did not lessen the efficacy Brighton, and, after some discussion, a resolution was of the protective measures taken. He readily admitted that carried, on the motion of Mr. A. J. Henriques, recommend- it was not right to send women to the St. Lazare Prison. He ing to the Council of the Institute the expediency of intro- recognised that the food given in this prison was insufficient, ducing and promoting a Bill in Parliament making landlords and that the women did not deserve the harsh treatment and owners liable for all sanitary improvements in dwellingthey received. The Prefect of Police proposed a counterhouses. of reform, which only differed in some points from Dr. A. T. Schofield read a paper on the Value of Hygienic project that drawn up by M. Richard. The police authority showed in which he recommended the to Women, Knowledge a disposition to treat the matter merely as a question of instruction of women in the principles of hygiene. Professor Corfield read u, paper on House Sanitation from public health, and to relinquish the draconian powers of persecution which caused so much terror and suffering a Householder’s Point of View. In the evening Mr. W. H. Preece lectured on the among the women, without in any way contributing to reduce the prevalence of disease. Sanitary Aspects of Electric Lighting. He argued that The principal bone of contention was the question of all sources of illumination which necessitated the absorpminors. No one challenged the statistics given establishtion of oxygen were inj urious to health. Lighting by means of electricity, however, was entirely free from such objections. ing that by far the greater number of cases of syphilis were He thought that the same authority which regulated the propagated by minors. Of all women, they are by far the sanitation of dwellings should also control the purity of the most dangerous. Nevertheless, it was strongly felt that it was not right to inscribe as a prostitute a girl under the ail they breathed and the light they worked by. age of twenty-one. Before she was allowed to give herself On Wednesday, in Section 1, Dr. Arthur Newsholme up to such a life and her position as a prostitute be. read a paper on the Bearing of School Attendance upon came legalised, she should have reached her majority. If the Spread of Infectious Disease. He did not think that her parents, as is often the case, drove her on to the the spread of infectious disease through school attendance streets, if for this or other causes she could not be made to was so great as it was generally supposed to be. He strongly lead a respectable life, then such person should be treated condemned the practice of schoolmasters sending children as a child "morally abandoned" and sent to a technical to look after absentees. Measles and whooping-cough school, and there taught a trade till she had reached her should, he thought, be added to the diseases of which twenty-first year. The Prefect of Police accepted this in notification was required under the Act of Parliament.— principle, but declared that he would still continue registerIn the discussion which followed the reading of the paper ing girls as prostitutes who were not of age, though more

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