November i, 1889.] 



SCIENCE 



293 



similarity may indicate that the germs have a similar nature, but 

 the facts are given as a coincidence. 



Edward Atkinson, LL.D., of Boston, Mass., read a paper on 

 "The Art of Cooking." A form of oven heated by an oil-lamp, 

 with great saving of heat and fuel, was shown, and food prepared 

 before the audience. 



For the reports of this day we are indebted to The Medical 

 Record. 



The first paper on Thursday, Oct. 24, was by Health Commis- 

 sioner Martin of Milwaukee, upon the disposal of garbage in that 

 city. He considered various methods of getting rid of the refuse 

 of cities. Many forms of crematories were in the market for burn- 

 ing garbage, but none worked with absolute satisfaction, and some 

 were intolerable nuisances. Dr. Martin claimed that the cremation 

 of garbage had had its day. He strongly favored the Merz system, 

 which has been in use in Milwaukee since June last. From June 

 II last, the quantity of garbage collected is forty tons daily, which, 

 with that brought to the works by the commission dealers, whole- 

 sale men, and grocers, brings the total up to fifty tons, which is 

 promptly disposed of. The works are situated in the slaughter-house 

 district, and the building is a two-story frame, 62 by no feet. The 

 garbage-teams drive up an inclined roadway to the second story, 

 where the garbage is thrown on the floor to be scraped into the 

 driers, of which there are eight. The time occupied in drying the 

 garbage varies, of course, with the quantity and amount of moist- 

 ure, but is usually from eight to eleven hours. 



Dr. S. S. Kilvington, health commissioner of Minneapolis, pre- 

 sented a paper upon " Statistics on River-Pollution, with Observa- 

 tions Relating to the Destruction of Garbage and Refuse Matter." 

 He said, that, out of thirty-five health officials he had communi- 

 cated with, twenty-three favored the cremation system. He also 

 said that in the Mississippi River, during the past year, eight cities 

 alone deposited 153,675 tons of garbage and offal, 108,250 tons of 

 night-soil, and 3,765 dead animals. In the Ohio River five cities 

 in the same period dumped 46,700 tons of garbage, 21,157 tons of 

 night-soil, and 5,100 dead animals. In the Missouri River, four 

 cities cast 36,000 tons of garbage, 22,400 tons of night-soil, and 

 31,600 dead animals. No theory of self-purification of running 

 water will dwarf the magnitude of this sanitary crime. The 

 speaker doubted the practicability of using garbage as a fertilizer, 

 because, while it contained fertilizing elements, they were not suffi- 

 ciently concentrated for agricultural use. The trouble with the 

 Merz system was, that it dealt only with garbage which had to be 

 separated from other refuse. He urged the cremation of animal 

 and household waste as far as possible in kitchen ranges and fur- 

 naces. Dr. Kilvington said that he had found no reason in the 

 last year to change his belief that cremation, if not a perfect pro- 

 cess, is at least the most desirable method for the disposal of the 

 greater part of a city's refuse. After a few more speeches. Dr. 

 Gibbon of the Marine Hospital offered a resolution providing that 

 the committee on garbage be increased from eight members to 

 nine, and be asked to report at the ne.xt convention as to the best 

 method of handling refuse. This was adopted. 



An important paper upon " Food in its Relation to Health " was 

 presented by Professor W. O. Atwater. He spoke of the evils of 

 over-eating, and gave tables of dietaries of various people, going to 

 show that people in this country over-ate enormously, especially in 

 the matter of meat and sweetmeats. Charts were shown on which 

 the dietaries of people of various countries were displayed, com- 

 pared with a standard dietary. The smallest dietary on which 

 persons had lived for any great length of time was that of the Greely 

 party in the Arctic regions. The standard as estimated by Ger- 

 man physiologists was exceeded by nearly all classes of workers in 

 this country. Dr. Atwater compared the amount of food eaten by 

 college professors, students, and famiHes in New England, and 

 gave many details of experiments. He said that the amount of 

 food needed for intellectual exertion had not been estimated, and 

 would require long and complex experiments, but it would be done 

 some day. Much smaller quantities of food were needed than 

 were actually used by many people in this country, with the result 

 of undermming health to a great degree. The great cattle and 

 pork business of the West, and the great corn-crop of this country, 

 were responsible for the immense consumption of meat, and the 



cheapness of sugar was responsible for the enormous consumption 

 of sweetmeats. 



In the discussion. Dr. Jerome Walker gave some facts from the 

 experience in his own family. He claimed that meat once a day 

 was enough for any ordinary person. The practice of children 

 consuming large amounts of crackers was sharply condemned. 



Edward Atkinson of Boston said he had carefully estimated the 

 average size of the American man from facts obtained from dealers 

 in ready-made clothing, and had found an increase. Mr. Atkinson 

 said he had tried to reduce his waist withoiit success, and by 

 avoiding fat and sugar he had brought in seven devils worse than 

 the first. 



At the afternoon session the first paper was read by Dr. E. 

 Plater of Ottawa, Can., on " The Prevention and Restriction of 

 Tuberculosis in Man." He dwelt upon the importance of lung de- 

 velopment as a means of prevention, and favored systematic exer- 

 cises in the schools, calculated to produce such development. 



Dr. P. H. Kretzschmar of Brooklyn read the next paper, on 

 " The Prevention of Pulmonary Consumption." He said there 

 was no such thing as consumption without bacilli. For that rea- 

 son he had no doubt that the disease could be spread by contagion. 

 Dr. Kretzschmar then went on to treat of the influence of heredity 

 on pulmonary disease. He laid down the following propositions : 

 First, If there are many children in a family, those born after the 

 sixth or after the seventh are apt to develop pulmonary consump- 

 tion ; Second, If the children in a large family are born at short in- 

 tervals, say, one year, the younger ones are apt to develop pulmo- 

 nary consumption ; Third, If the offspring of healthy parents, born 

 under conditions named above, escape the disease, their children 

 are apt to develop pulmonary consumption. 



The doctor confessed that these views were novel, but said he 

 believed that they were fully justified by his own experience and 

 that of other physicians who had recorded their observations. Out 

 of 556 cases which had been treated in Dr. Brohmer's sanitarium 

 in Goerhersdorf, 4 were suffering from other diseases than con- 

 sumption, 46 failed to give a satisfactory account of their family 

 antecedents, 184 were offsprings of consumptive parents or grand- 

 parents ; in 65 cases the disease came from the father, in 76 from 

 the mother, in 14 cases from both sides, 16 times from the father's 

 parents, 12 times from the mother's parents, and twice from the 

 grandparents of both father and mother. Of the 322 remaining 

 cases, log were from families with many children, and none of them 

 were earlier born than sixth or seventh ; 32 belonged to families 

 where children had followed one another rapidly, mostly at inter- 

 vals of one year ; 147 were cases of acquired disposition. Of the 

 175 cases unaccounted for, 135 had parents who were born subject 

 to conditions described in the doctor's first proposition. 



In the discussion. Dr. Hibbard of Richmond, \'a., dwelt chiefly 

 on the necessity of easy-fitting clothing as a means of prevention. 

 Then Dr. Plater took the floor in radical opposition to the whole 

 theory of hereditary consumption. He was briefly answered by 

 Dr. Kretzschmar. 



Dr. Cyrus Edson of New York read a paper of great interest to 

 medical men on the use of sulphur dioxide as a disinfectant. He 

 had found this of great importance in tenement-house work against 

 contagion in New York. This statement precipitated a discussion 

 in the course of which the views of Dr. Edson as to the value of 

 this agent were supported by Dr. Gray of Montreal, who told 

 about its use in successfully stamping out a terrible epidemic in 

 his city within six months. He said sulphur dioxide was of doubt- 

 ful value only in the case of diphtheria. 



Dr. Raymond of Brooklyn said the use of water with this agent 

 was absolutely necessary. He asked whether the New York au- 

 thorities had any record which would show the permanent effect of 

 disinfection at any given time. Dr. Edson replied that the New 

 York record showed every thing about the sanitarj' history of every 

 house in the city where contagious diseases had occurred for three 

 years back. Dr. Maxwell of Florida opposed Dr. Edson's con- 

 clusions, and insisted that it was doubtful whether sulphuric fumes 

 were a safe disinfectant in any form. He backed up his position by 

 reverting to the complete failure of this disinfectant in the yellow- 

 fever epidemic at Tampa, Fla., Memphis, Tenn., and elsewhere in 

 the South. 



