POPULAR MISCELLANY, 



283 



high out of the water." A month later, the 

 people were awakened between one and two 

 o'clock in the morning by a series of shocks. 

 A frantic terror, causing neglect of domestic 

 concerns, riot, and a suspension of business 

 enterprise, possessed all classes for several 

 weeks afterward. It was heightened by a 

 prediction that a third earthquake would 

 occur in April, and all who could left the 

 city ; others spent their nights out of doors. 

 A quack made his fortune during the panic 

 by selling pills which he warranted to be a 

 sure preservative against injury by earth- 

 quakes. Only slight shocks have since been 

 felt in the metropolis. 



Impnre Air and Disease. Dr. J. Ward, 

 health-officer of an English sanitary district 

 of considerable extent and population, has 

 given in the " Sanitary Record " an account 

 of a large number of instances which have 

 come un-der his immediate observation, in 

 which impure air, arising either from de- 

 fective ventilation or noxious surroundings, 

 has appeared to be directly associated with 

 the production of diseases of the lungs and 

 other organs. Of eight fatal cases of pneu- 

 monia occurring within a year among chil- 

 dren and persons in middle life, in all but 

 one the air was defiled from some neigh- 

 boring source of filth. In about ninety 

 fatal cases of diseases of the respiratory 

 organs, other than pulmonary consumption, 

 most of which were acute or subacute, un- 

 doubted defects of ventilation existed. In 

 some cases there was no fireplace or air 

 exit in the room ; in some, such opening, 

 where it had existed, had been closed tight ; 

 in some the bed, with many in it, was in a 

 close corner ; in others the air was defiled 

 by some neighboring household or farm 

 nuisance. Similar defects were observed 

 in nearly all of thirty cases of disorders of 

 the lungs following measles ; in forty cases 

 following whooping-cough in sixteen of 

 which last, " filth influence from immediate- 

 ly contiguous byre, pig-styes, stable, water- 

 closet, or sewer, was noticed." The sani- 

 tary investigation of the interior and sur- 

 roundings of houses where inflammatory 

 affections of the brain have occurred has 

 forced upon Dr. Ward the conclusion that 

 diseases of this class are also frequently, and, 

 .it may be inferred, causatively, associated 



with similar insanitary conditions. In twenty- 

 eight fatal cases of this nature, seventeen 

 cases of tubercular meningitis, and twenty- 

 two cases of convulsions in children, the 

 air was either confined or polluted. Dr. 

 AYard draws frcra these observations the 

 obvious lesson that it should be the aim of 

 sanitary administration to secure for each 

 habitable room, especially in the crowded 

 cottages of the poorer classes, some suitable 

 provision for a constant change of air. 

 Particularly should care be taken in fixing 

 the position of the bed so that it shall not 

 be in a close corner remote from the in- 

 fluence of the door, window, and fireplace, 

 but should be near some opening through 

 which a constant circulation may be relied 

 upon. In transforming old houses, the pro- 

 vision of fresh air, now neglected and too 

 often prevented in the arrangement of the 

 partitions, should be carefully looked after 

 else the sanitary condition of the house 

 may be made worse than it was before. 



An ImproTed Filtering Apparatus. 



Some experiments that have lately been 

 made in France on the working of the 

 Farquhar apparatus for filtering sewage 

 have been attended with quite satisfactory 

 results. One of the chief obstacles to the 

 purification of foul waters by filtration has 

 arisen from the accumulation of an imper- 

 vious, slimy deposit on the matter which 

 prevents the liquid from reaching the filter- 

 ing surface. The Farquhar apparatus is 

 designed to obviate this difficulty by means 

 of a provision for the continuous removal 

 of the slime. The filter-bed, which may be 

 composed of any suitable material, is con- 

 tained in a closed cylinder in which is 

 worked a cutter-plate continually scraping 

 off the top of the deposit. The liquid to 

 be filtered is forced in throuirh a hollow 

 in the screw-spindle by which the cutter- 

 plate is worked, direct to the underside of 

 that instrument, where it is uniformly dis- 

 tributed over the surface of the filter-bed. 

 The cutter-plate is caused, by suitable ma- 

 chinery, to revolve during the process of 

 filtration, and may also be made to descend 

 if that is desired. The accumulating de- 

 posit is scraped off, and forced up the 

 inclined plane of the knife, as shavings are 

 forced up through a carpenter's plane, to 



