30 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 336 



refrigerating purposes it is already in successful use in Paris, and 

 -to a modified degree it may well serve to reduce the tempera- 

 ture of houses in hot climates. The production of intense heat for 

 metallurgical purposes, and the aerification of water, are also two 

 other practical uses of which the ultimate list will probably be a 

 ■long one. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 The Mortality in the City of New York for 1888. 



A PRELIMINARY report in relation to the mortality of the city 

 "for the year 1888 has just been presented to the board of health by 

 Dr. Roger S. Tracy, the assistant sanitary superintendent ; and the 

 deductions made in it, as we find them summed up in the Boston 

 Medical and Surgical Journal, are somewhat remarkable. The 

 sanitary police took a census of the tenement-house population 

 during the year, which includes all the houses that are more or 

 less constantly under the supervision of the board of health, but 

 not the better class of apartment-houses. The entire population 

 included in this census was 1,093,701 persons, among whom there 

 were 24,842 deaths, while the total number of deaths in the city 

 was 40,175. The highest death-rate, 26.60 per thousand of the 

 population, is in the district south of 14th Street and west of 

 Broadway; the next highest, 23.52, is in the district west of Fifth 

 Avenue and between 14th and 59th Streets, in which are situated 

 ■a large proportion of the residences of the wealthiest citizens ; and 

 the third highest in the district east of Broadway and south of 14th 

 Street, the most densely populated part of the city, and containing 

 almost exclusively a tenement-house population. 



The general tenement death-rate was 22.71, while the general 

 death-rate of the city in 1888 was 26.33 ; ^fd this fact would seem 

 to indicate that the population of the city has been underestimated, 

 and the quoted death-rate too high, or that all the deaths belong- 

 ing in tenement-houses had not been credited to them, or else that 

 the death-rate is actually lower for the tenement-house population 

 than for the rest of the city, which would certainly seem most ex- 

 traordinary. It might be that deaths that should have been credited 

 to the tenement-houses have not been so credited ; but of the total 

 number of deaths in institutions, 7,774, the former place of resi- 

 dence of the individuals was ascertained in 3,444, and these deaths 

 have all been credited to the houses in which they had lived. In 

 all the districts the death-rate of persons five years of age and 

 •over, as a rule, decreases as the number of tenants increases ; while 

 the death-rate of children under five years of age increases up to 

 a certain point, diminishing when there are more than eighty ten- 

 ants to a house. The general death-rate is highest in houses con- 

 taining from sixty to eighty tenants ; and this is caused by the 

 higher death-rate among the children, which reaches in these 

 houses 114.04 per 1,000 living. 



The results of the investigations are summed up by Dr. Tracy as 

 follows : " The death-rate in tenement-houses is less than the gen- 

 eral death-rate of the city. The death-rate in the large tenement- 

 houses is less than in the smaller ones. While diarrhoeal diseases 

 and diphtheria show a greater death-rate in the larger houses, 

 phthisis and pneumonia show comparatively little difference ; that 

 difference, however, being in favor of the larger houses. The 

 greatest general death-rate among persons over five years of age, 

 the next to the highest death-rate from diarrhoeal diseases and 

 pneumonia, and markedly the highest from phthisis, are in the dis- 

 trict south of 14th Street and west of Broadway. The excessive 

 mortality in this part of the city is probably connected with the 

 great number of old houses and the dampness of the soil. These 

 results are much at variance with what was expected. It seems 

 to be sufficiently established that people do not live under such ex- 

 tremely bad sanitary conditions in the tenements as they have been 

 supposed to." 



Contagious Consumption. 



The following report on consumption as a contagious disease 

 ■was approved July 9 by the Health Department of New York 

 City: — 



" Pulmonary tuberculosis (consumption) is directly communicated 

 from one person to another. The germ of the disease exists in the 

 expectoration of persons afflicted with it. The following extract 



from the report of the pathologists of the Health Department ex- 

 plains the means by which the disease may be transmitted : — 



" ' Tuberculosis is commonly produced in the lungs (which are 

 the organs most frequently affected) by breathing air in which 

 living germs are suspended as dust. The material which is 

 coughed up, sometimes in large quantities, by persons suffering 

 from consumption, contains these germs often in enormous num- 

 bers. . . . This material when expectorated frequently lodges in 

 places where it dries, as on the street, floors, carpets, handker- 

 chiefs, etc. After drying in one way or another, it is very apt to 

 become pulverized, and float in the air as dust.' 



" By observing the following rules, the danger of catching the 

 disease will be reduced to a minimum : — 



"I. Do not permit persons suspected to have consumption to 

 spit on the floor or on cloths, unless the latter be immediately 

 burned. The spittle of persons suspected to have consumption 

 should be caught in earthen or glass dishes containing the follow- 

 ing solution : corrosive sublimate, one part ; water, one thousand 

 parts. 



" 2. Do not sleep in a room occupied by a person suspected of 

 having consumption. The living rooms of a consumptive patient 

 should have as little furniture as practicable. Hangings should be 

 especially avoided. The use of carpets, rugs, etc., ought always 

 to be avoided. 



" 3. Do not fail to wash thoroughly the eating utensils of a per- 

 son suspected of having consumption as soon after eating as possi- 

 ble, using boihng water for the purpose. 



" 4. Do not mingle the unwashed clothing of consumptive pa- 

 tients with similar clothing of other persons. 



" 5. Do not fail to catch the bowel discharges of consumptive 

 patients with diarrhoea in a vessel containing, corrosive sublimate, 

 one part ; water, one thousand parts. 



" 6. Do not fail to consult the family physician regarding the 

 social relations of persons suffering from suspected consumption. 



"7- t)o not permit mothers suspected of having consumption to 

 nurse their offspring. 



" 8. Household pets (animals or birds) are quite susceptible to 

 tuberculosis : therefore do not expose them to persons afflicted 

 with consumption ; also do not keep, but destroy at once, all house- 

 hold pets suspected of having consumption, otherwise they may 

 give it to human beings. 



" g. Do not fail to thoroughly cleanse the floors, walls, and ceil- 

 ings of the living and sleeping rooms of persons suffering from 

 consumption at least once in two weeks." 



Ten thousand copies of the report were ordered to be printed for 

 distribution. 



Preventing Tuberculosis by Military Orders. — The 

 German war minister has decided, says The Medical Record, that 

 the chest of every soldier shall be examined once a month. If 

 the chest does not reach a certain breadth, and does not develop 

 with drill and athletic exercises, the soldier will be disqualified, and 

 regarded as being predisposed to phthisis, and, moreover, hkely to 

 infect his comrades. 



Pasteur's Method. — In his brief report for the year ending 

 May I, 1889, the director of the Pasteur Institute, Paris, announces 

 the treatment of 1,673 subjects, of whom 6 were seized with rabies 

 during, and 4 within a fortnight after, the process. But 3 only 

 succumbed after the treatment had been completely carried out, 

 making i death in 554, or, including all the cases, i in 128. 



Professorships of Hygiene. — The University of Kiel, as 

 we learn from The Medical Ne-ws, has inaugurated a professorship 

 of hygiene, and Dr. Bernard Fischer has been appointed to the 

 chair. There now remain only two Prussian universities — those 

 of Bonn and Konigsburg — without such chairs. Dr. Fischer was 

 one of Professor Robert Koch's pupils, and accompanied him on 

 that memorable journey into Egypt and India which resulted in 

 the discovery by Koch of the bacillus of Asiatic cholera. Another 

 companion on that voyage was Dr. Gaffky, now professor of 

 hygiene at Giessen. Other pupils of Koch occupy the same de- 

 partment of instruction in other universities, as Dr. Gartner in 

 Jena, Dr. Loflier in Greifswald, Dr. Hiippe in Wiesbaden, Dr. 



