No. 144.] 537 



tain the healthy composition of his blood; there will be no diffi- 

 culty in understanding why, if six hundred cubic leet of tainted 

 air be supplied to him instead, and that constantly and habitual- 

 ly, the chance, or rather the certainty, is, that he must die early. 

 The nature of the effluvia arising from cess-pools and other like 

 places is mjst deadly, being chiefly sulphuretted hydrogen, two 

 or three cubic inches of which causes sudden death when injected 

 into a vein, or into t!ie chest, or even beneath the skin of animals. 

 A rabbit died in ten minutes after being enclosed in a bag contain- 

 ing sulphuretted hj'drogen, although its head was left free so as 

 to allow it to breathe the pure atmosphere. Nine quarts injected 

 into the intestines of a horse killed him in sixty seconds: It is 

 impossible to keep horses in fine condition in the vicinity of 

 large water closets, where sulphuretted hydrogen is abundantly 

 given out. A dog was killed by being made to breathe a mixture 

 of one part of this gas with eight hundred parts of common air; 

 and air containing only one fifteen-hundredth part of sulpliuretted 

 hydrogen proves speedily fatal to small birds. Persons employed 

 in cleaning these places often become faint, delirious, and insensi- 

 ble, and are sometimes attacked with convulsions, twitchings of 

 the muscles, and excessive prostration of strength. These effluvia 

 are constantly breathed by the inliabitants of our badly drained 

 back streets and courts, to the constant detriment of their health. 

 No cellar in this or any other city should be allowed to be inha- 

 bited unless situated in a street that is sewered, and where the 

 sewer is below the level of the cellar floor; and every such cel- 

 lar should have a properly constructed drain, communicating 

 with the sewer. It is much to be regretted that our country — and 

 we copy after England in this respect— -should permit public 

 health to occupy such a very subordinate place in the csiimation 

 of the public authorities. In this respect we are both far behind 

 other countries. In France, for example, the promotion of the 

 public health is a constant object of solicitude, not only with 

 the government, but the municipal councils. They have in Paris 

 a Council of HeaUh, appointed by the Prefect of Police, and to 

 this body questions of medical police are constantly referred by 

 the government. In the city of Gmeva, Switzejiand, the average 



