444 



SCIEN'CE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 222: 



HEALTH MATTERS. • 



Sanitary science in New Jersey. 



The tenth annual report of the state board of 

 health in New Jersey, just issued, is fully up to 

 the standard of excellence which that board has 

 for a number of years maintained in its reports. 

 For a considerable period sanitarians were accus- 

 tomed to regard the annual report of the Massa- 

 chusetts board of health as the model for health 

 reports ; but, when this board was merged into 

 that of charities and lunacy, this distinguishing 

 characteristic was lost, and to the reports of New 

 Jersey and Michigan the meed of honor was 

 awarded which was formerly awarded to those of 

 Massachusetts. 



In the beginning of this report, which is made 

 to the governor of the state. Dr. Hunt, the able 

 secretary of the board, pays a deserved tribute to 

 sanitary science, and to the progress which it 

 has made not only as a science, but as an art, 

 during the past decade. He regards this progress 

 as one of the most important and notable achieve- 

 ments of the age, and directs attention to the fact 

 that practitioners of the healing art have not only 

 recognized it as essential to their calling, but have 

 interwoven many of its principles not less with 

 the treatment of disease than with its prevention. 

 Dr. Hunt refers to the great improvements which 

 have been made in the sewerage of the cities and 

 towns of the state, notably Atlantic City, Orange, 

 Long Branch, and Newark. Several subjects of 

 importance are discussed by the secretary in this 

 portion of the report, among them being the ac- 

 tion of water upon lead pipes, the filtration of 

 water, bathing accidents, the regulation of ceme- 

 teries, hydrophobia, small-pox and vaccination, 

 summer resorts, contagious diseases, sanitary 

 oversight of schools, the history of the cases of 

 sickness from ice-cream and milk, diseases of ani- 

 mals as related to human health, and the sanitary 

 education of health inspectors. In writing on this 

 latter subject. Dr. Hunt says that sanitary fitness 

 for advice or administration requires special train- 

 ing and the acquirement of knowledge from vari- 

 ous departments. It is not until one comes to 

 recognize it as demanding special study and prac- 

 tice that either it or the individual find their proper 

 place. In eleven of the leading colleges of Great 

 Britain, including the universities of Oxford, ^ 

 Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dubhn, 

 special diplomas or degrees are given for public- 

 health qualifications. In Great Britain and its 

 provinces there are now about two hundred and 

 fifty of these authorized practitioners. In addi- 

 tion to this, the Sanitary institute gives certificates 

 to those who successfully pass the examination. 



It has been the practice of the New Jersey 

 board, in its annual reports, to publish special pa- 

 pers on various subjects connected with sanitary 

 administration, and in this report the same plan 

 has been followed. The disposal of house-sewage 

 in districts not provided with sewers is treated by 

 C. P. Bassett, C.E.E.M., of Newark, in one of 

 these papers. He condemns privy- vaults and 

 cesspools, and praises the pail system, which has 

 reached such perfection in Rochdale and Bir- 

 mingham. In the latter city this method has; 

 reached enormous proportions ; more than 40,000i 

 pails, representing 250,000 people, being collected 

 weekly, and carried in specially constructed wag- 

 ons to the dumping-station. At this station the 

 contents are placed in a tank, treated with sul- 

 phuric acid to fix the ammonia, dried, and bagged 

 for sale. At Rochdale, a city of 70,000 people, the 

 pail system costs annually less than ten cents a 

 head. J. J. Powers, sanitary plumber of Brook- 

 lyn, contributes a paper on the work of the 

 plumber and the disposal of sewage. This was 

 read at the meeting of the New Jersey sanitary 

 association, and has ' already been referred to in 

 Science. Professor Brackett of Princeton has pre- 

 pared a paper on the physical laws of pipes and 

 fixtures, and their contents. Illuminating-gas, its 

 history and its dangers, is discussed by J. H. Ray- 

 mond, M.D., of Brooklyn. In it a concise de- 

 scription is given of the various methods of gas- 

 manufacture and the fixtures in ordinary use in 

 gas-lighting. This paper is illustrated with twenty- 

 seven illustrations. The paper on drinking-water 

 and typhoid-fever, by D. Benjamin, M.D., has 

 already been mentioned in Science. C. Phillips 

 Bassett, C.E.E.M., contributes a paper on roads 

 and streets as sanitary measures, and how to con- 

 struct them, in which he discusses the advantages 

 and disadvantages of the different materials used 

 in road-making, their cost, methods of prepara- 

 tion, and use. 



One of the most interesting subjects discussed 

 in this report is the hygiene of occupations. In 

 the general introduction, written by Dr. Hunt, the 

 diseases which affect workers in iron and glass 

 are described, and suggestions are given for the 

 remedying of the evils which surround this class 

 of artisans. Among the workers in iron, the 

 ' boilers ' and their ' helpers,' stripped to the waist, 

 are exposed to the intense heat of the puddling- 

 furnaces, and, while perspiring from every pore, 

 gulp down large draughts of ice-water, or stand in 

 the open air or in a stiff river-breeze. Such sud- 

 den coolings are liable to cause congestions, which 

 may be followed by some of their manifold con- 

 sequences. The nailers suffer from ' nailer's con- 

 sumption,' due to the inhalation of minute parti- 



