EDITOR'S TABLE. 



415 



tific knowledge that teaches how hfe is 

 to be protected and prolonged, disease 

 prevented, health heightened, and hu- 

 man existence made more valuable. 

 "While at Cambridge they have been 

 assiduous in conserving the more worth- 

 less kinds of knowledge and preventing 

 thoroughness in any, in London men 

 have been voluntarily combining to se- 

 CHre the more thorough application of 

 sciientific methods to household sanita- 

 tion. Great multitudes die from un- 

 healthy habitations. Their dwellings are 

 poisoned by noxious emanations that 

 give rise both to slow undermining mal- 

 adies and to swift malignant diseases. 

 Prominent among these destructive con- 

 taminations is sewer-gas, and science has 

 at length grappled with the problem of 

 getting effectually rid of it. It was at 

 first supposed to be an easy task. 

 *' Traps " were interposed to prevent 

 the refluence of sewage exhalations, 

 and all was supposed to be well. But 

 disease and death were still rife, and 

 further investigation showed the inefB- 

 cacy of the mechpanical arrangements, 

 and. that " foul gases will pass steadily, 

 continuously, and certainly through 

 water in traps." Yet it can not be for 

 a moment doubted that it is possible to 

 obtain absolute protection in dwellings 

 against sewer-air. The difficulty is to 

 get the ignorant classes (including the 

 educated) to give that serious attention 

 to the subject which its gravity de- 

 mands. The work must be done by 

 the comparatively few who have mas- 

 tered the science of the question. 



Much has been accomplished by such 

 men in this country as well as abroad. 

 But we observe that they are organiz- 

 ing in London for the most effectual 

 prosecution of this important work. 

 A Sanitary Assurance Association has 

 been formed under the presidency of 

 an eminent physician, Sir Joseph Fay- 

 rer, the design of which is to unite the 

 professions of medicine and architecture 

 to secure the thorough supervision of 

 sanitary arrangements and drainage in 



the houses of the metropolis. It seems 

 not to be a movement of evasion by 

 getting up a cry for more " government 

 inspection," but a voluntary association 

 of qualified men who are ready to meet 

 the responsibilities of the task they 

 undertake. Assuming that defective 

 drainage is a " great enemy to public 

 health," and that " there is a terrible 

 absence of all supervision of sanitary 

 arrangements," the Sanitai-y Assur- 

 ance Association will make a careful 

 investigation of the health-conditions 

 of houses, and give certificates to those 

 that are in perfect sanitary order. This 

 will be of most important service to 

 the public, because people generally are 

 incompetent to determine what houses 

 are healthy and what are unhealthy. 

 The names of the men who are fore- 

 most in this movement are a guarantee 

 that it will be well directed, and, if it 

 achieves the success that it promises, 

 kindred associations will spring up in 

 many other places. A writer, giving a 

 notice of this organization in " Natui-e," 

 remarks : " It is surely as necessary to 

 be assured against preventable diseases 

 as it is to be assured against fire, and 

 we see from the preliminary prospectus 

 issued that it is intended to give per- 

 sons who place their houses on the As- 

 surance Register certificates that their 

 houses are in a satisfactory sanitary 

 condition, and to endorse such certifi- 

 cates from time to time ; this latter 

 point is of great importance, as it is 

 only by regular inspection at stated in- 

 tervals that it is possible to ascertain 

 that all continues to work satisfacto- 

 rily." 



A FIELD-NATURALISTS' CLUB. 



"We have been much gratified in look- 

 ing over a modest pamphlet of sixty- 

 two pages that has been sent to us, 

 bearing the title of " Transactions Jfo. 1 

 of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club." 

 Several young men of that Canadian 

 city, interested in the subject, discussed 



