6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



when it is so abundantly supplied by the experience of every medical 

 man, and, indeed, of almost every intelligent citizen ? The history 

 of civilized nations for the last few years is replete with startling 

 examples of valuable lives sacrificed in this manner. From sewer-gas 

 the Prince of Wales nearly lost his life in one of the princely houses 

 of England, and the Duchess of Connaught had to be removed from 

 Bagehot to escape death from the same cause, after about two hun- 

 dred thousand dollars had been expended to put the house in order on 

 the occasion of her confinement. We have still fresh in our memories 

 the terrible sewer-gas disaster at the National Hotel in Washington, 

 the fatal outbreak at the Philadelphia Centennial Fair-Grounds, the 

 Springfield boarding-school, and Princeton ; not to mention many 

 equally signal examples in our own city, in Brooklyn, and in many 

 parts of the United States, in all of which not a doubt could exist as 

 to the cause of sickness and death. 



What special forms of sickness or of disease may be caused or con- 

 veyed by sevier-gas ? 



Asphyxia, sudden death, or death occurring in a few hours after 

 exposure. Examples of this variety or degree of septic infection are 

 rare, and have seldom occurred, except when persons have entered the 

 sewers. Now and then, however, ever since sewers were first con- 

 structed, occasional reports of such cases have been made through 

 medical journals or other channels. 



A general malaise, or dyscrasy, of an undefined character, but 

 indicated by a loss of appetite and of strength, by diarrhoea, nervous 

 prostration, or by a general impairment of health, which conditions 

 are known to predispose to the occurrence of other diseases, and espe- 

 cially to the diseases of infancy and childhood, including diphtheria 

 and scarlatina. It is known, also, as stated by Dr. Barker in the 

 quotation already made, that these conditions of the general system, 

 caused by the long-continued inhalation of sewer-gas, complicate the 

 contagious or zymotic diseases of infancy, from whatever source they 

 have been derived, and render them more intense and fatal. 



To be more explicit, sewer-gas fertilizes the human soil, and renders 

 it more capable of receiving and developing the germs of specific dis- 

 eases. 



Infants and children are in general constitutionally better prepared 

 for the reception and development of these germs, excepting, perhaps, 

 the typhoid, than adults. 



It has been asked why, if these gases are so poisonous, plumbers 

 do not suffer. The answer is, that they do suffer frequently, and that 

 they would much more often were they not, when exposed, in most 

 cases in the full vigor of adult life and of health. Muhlenberg says 

 that " if the vitality of a rabbit is lowered by the administration of 

 phosphorus, micrococci, which under other circumstances do no harm, 

 increase so rapidly as to be fatal." 



