29 + 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 352 



Many delegates took part in this debate. Dr. Edson said that 

 the use of water with sulphur dio.xide was a point on which he had 

 not touched. Unhappy memories in his experience were connected 

 with this practice. He tried it on 500 pairs of children's trousers. 

 The water made a bleaching powder out of the disinfecting agent, 

 and he had to pay damages on the trousers. 



A general impression seemed to prevail, that, while sulphur was 

 of use, it needed to be used with great care and thoroughness. 

 Some delegates favored the substitution of chlorine. In answer to 

 a question, Dr. Edson explained that in New York, when a room 

 was to be disinfected, three pounds of sulphur were used for every 

 thousand cubic feet of air. The sulphur Was put on a dish in a 

 tub of water, four ounces of alcohol to every three pounds were 

 poured over it, and the alcohol was ignited. 



Dr. John H. Roach of Chicago sent in the following preamble and 

 resolution : " Whereas Asiatic cholera, leaving its usual restricted 

 bounds, threatens to advance by the same lines that it has followed 

 in the last four epidemics, be it resolved, that the American Public 

 Health Association desires to call renewed attention to this fact, 

 and to urge that quarantine authorities on the Atlantic and Pacific 

 seaboards, and Boards of Health throughout the country, make 

 every effort to prepare for this threatened danger." The resolution 

 was at once referred to the executive committee. 



In the evening a paper on " Sanitary Entombment," by the Rev. 

 Charles R. Treat of this city, was the first. A carefully written 

 paper on " Do the Sanitary Interests of the United States demand 

 the Acquisition of Cuba .' " was read by Dr. Benjamin Lee, secre- 

 tary of the Pennsylvania State Board of Health. He summarized 

 his conclusions as follows : — 



" The exigencies of traffic and travel render rapid and constant 

 communication between the United States and Havana a necessity. 

 Havana is one of the most notorious breeding-places of yellow- 

 fever, and is never free from its presence. The only means by 

 which the germs of this disease can be eradicated are a proper 

 system of sewerage and drainage, which shall deliver the filth of 

 the city at a distant point into the waters of the ocean, and the re- 

 moval of all the feculent soil. There is no hope that the Spanish 

 Government will ever undertake a work of this magnitude for a 

 dependency. 



" The introduction of yellow-fever into the United States through 

 both legitimate and illegal channels of trade must be of frequent 

 •occurrence so long as this condition of things continues. A 

 single widespread epidemic of yellow-fever would cost the United 

 States more in money — to say nothing of the grief and misery 

 which it would entail — than the purchase money of Cuba. 



" The precautions against the spread of small-pox in Cuba are 

 entirely inadequate, and are rendered meffective by reason of the 

 superstition of a large proportion of the inhabitants : hence epi- 

 demics of that loathsome disease are of frequent occurrence. 



" Leprosy prevails in Havana and the island of Cuba to a serious 

 and constantly increasing extent. Leprosy is absolutely unre- 

 stricted in this island. While there is an immense and admirably 

 administered leper-hospital in Havana, its inmates go and come 

 among the residents of the city and country at will, until locomo- 

 tion is rendered impossible by mutilation. The ravages of the dis- 

 ease are confined to no class or race. Leprosy has already ob- 

 tained a foothold in the United States in the ports nearest to and 

 in most constant communication with the island of Cuba. Leprosy 

 has but one history, that of constant progression unless it is checked 

 by isolation of the most absolute and unrelenting character. No 

 centre of leprosy has ever originated in the United States. The 

 importation of the first case of a series can always be distinctly 

 traced." 



A paper on " Railway Sanitation," by Dr. Samuel W. Latta, 

 medical examiner for the Pennsylvania Railroad Voluntary Relief 

 Department, was read, and, after some general discussion, the as- 

 sociation adjourned till Friday. 



On Friday the first paper read was by D. E. Salmon, D.V.M., 

 chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, Washington, D.C., upon 

 " The Necessity for a More Rigorous Inspection of Meat-producing 

 Animals at the Time of Slaughter." 



Dr. Albert M. Gihon, U.S.N., read a paper on "The Causes of 

 Infant Mortality," prepared by Dr. R. O. Beard, assistant commis- 



sioner of health of Minneapolis. The various causes of the deaths 

 of infants were carefully considered, being classified as arising from 

 the bacillus tuberculosis and from nutritional and nervous disor- 

 ders. For the first class the remedies were to be found in fresh 

 air, disinfection, and the application of heat to all forms of infant 

 food. The prevention of infantile disorders would be greatly pro- 

 moted by the education of the people in sanitary matters. One of 

 the great mistakes of the present day was to regard infants' stom- 

 achs as of a different character from those of adults. The writer 

 said, " How long would the best of us of mature years with- 

 stand the terrors of marasmus if we should be confined in one 

 or two close, stove-warmed or furnace heated rooms for an entire 

 winter, without an excuse for ventilation or a sniff of outdoor air ; 

 if we were strangers, born and bred, to the taste of pure water or 

 of any water ; if we were compelled to be perpetually ' hungry ' in 

 order to get any thing to drink ; if we revelled in ten or twelve 

 square meals a day, and lunched at pleasure through the live- 

 long night ? And yet this is no parody upon the lives of infants 

 in the majority of families in the humbler walks of life, and even 

 among the educated classes. It devolves upon the medical profes- 

 sion, in the face of this prevailing ignorance, to educate the public 

 in the principles of infant hygiene." 



The paper further considered the various forms of food for chil- 

 dren, and the writer said in conclusion, " The too frequent feeding 

 of infants is a vice almost universally prevalent, and quite generally 

 countenanced, or actually encouraged, by the profession. It is 

 grounded in custom as absurd as the incasement of Chinese in- 

 fants' feet in permanent baby-shoes. It is intrenched behind that 

 most dangerous of all arguments — the argument from experience 

 — among the ignorant, while it is condemned by every careful ob- 

 servation of the lower orders of animal life, and by every physio- 

 logical principle bearing upon infancy." 



Dr. G. C. Ashmun said that no class of the community needed 

 instruction more in regard to this matter than the medical profes- 

 sion. While so much misinformation upon the subject existed, 

 physicians needed carefully to consider the subject. Dr. Hibbard 

 suggested that in the first twenty-four hours of the life of a child a 

 foundation was laid for a life of health or disease. Health Officer 

 Smith recommended more care in preparing death statistics, and 

 that certificates setting forth debilit)', marasmus, or heart-failure as 

 the causes of death be returned for correction. Dr. George H. 

 Rohe suggested that all infants' food should be sterilized by boiling 

 for ten or fifteen minutes. He wanted a fuller study of the causes 

 of cholera-infantum. The outcome was the adoption of a motion 

 by Dr. J. H. Raymond for a committee of five to consider the 

 whole subject of mortality among infants, and to report at some 

 future meeting. 



Two papers by Edgar Richards, microscopist of the United 

 States "Treasury Department, — upon " American Methods of 

 Manufacturing Oleomargarine '' and " The Oleomargarine Law of 

 the United States," — were read by title. Charleston wao selected 

 as the place for the next meeting, and the date of meeting will be 

 not earlier than Nov. I, 1890. The following officers were elected : 

 president. Dr. H. B. Baker of Lansing, Mich. ; first vice-president. 

 Dr. Frederic Montizambert of Quebec ; second vice-president, Dr. 

 Joseph H. Raymond of Brooklyn ; secretary, Dr. Irving N. Watson 

 of Concord, N.H. ; treasurer, Dr. J. Berrian Lindsley of Nashville, 

 Tenn. ; executive committee, Drs. L. F. Solomon of Louisiana, 

 William Bailey of Kentucky, H. B. Horlbeck of South Carolina, 

 Walter Wyman of Washington, D.C., J. F. Kennedy of Iowa, Peter 

 H. Bryce of Toronto, and the twelve ex-presidents of the associa- 

 tion. 



The total number of members who have attended the convention 

 is 144. Resolutions of thanks were adopted for the hospitality of 

 Brooklyn, with special thanks to Ex-Health Commissioner Ray- 

 mond for his work in caring for the association. 



ELECTRICAL NEWS. 

 A New Ammeter. 

 Professor H. J. Ryan of Cornell has invented an ammeter 

 which The CraJik states to be remarkable for its simplicity and ac- 

 curacy, and describes as follows. It works on the same principle 



