Studdert — On Free and Albuminoid Ammonia. 



461 



My examination of these street waters found, as might be 

 expected, sulphuretted hydrogen, with other sulphides and very offen- 

 sive volatile substances. 



What the effect must be on the people's health who dwell in an 

 atmosphere contaminated by exhalations such as these, it is not for 

 me to determine ; this paper simply records the facts of the case, 

 leaving conclusions to those physicians who make such researches their 

 peculiar study. But without knowing the least of the little that is 

 known, even to the medical faculty, about either the chemical or the 

 germ-theory as to the propagation of disease, yet one of the unlearned, 

 like myself, having but ordinary sagacity, might correctly conclude 

 that the continued presence of so much dirt in the streets would go 

 far to account for the high death-rate (33 to the 1000, yearly) lately 

 recorded for Dublin ; a city whose situation, other things being equal, 

 might mark it out as one of the healthiest in the Empire. The 

 London "Times," last week, revievring " Ireland at the close of 1875," 

 laid this to our charge — that " dirt reigns, and slays its thousands in 

 Dublin and elsewhere." 



Whatever is to be done with our street sewage, whether it is still 

 to defile the natural purity of the river, or to be applied to improve 

 the land, or only to be thrown away, with great cost, into the sea ; 

 whatever be the destination of this noxious mass, whether it is to be 

 good, bad, or indifferent, it certainly appears, from the results now 

 laid before the Academy, that better scavenging and a level surface 

 for the streets is at once required. 



The Professor of Hygiene and Public Health in University 

 College, London (Dr. Corfield), in reference to this subject, in the 

 "Manual of Public Health," edited by Hart, states that :— " If the 

 streets, roads, and ways of a town or district are allowed to become 

 or to remain so out of repair as to become receptacles for filth, or to 

 afford, by their inequalities, depressions in which foul water accumu- 

 lates, it is in vain to look for beneficial results from other sanitary 

 measures." 



Table of Eesults. 



Date of collec- 

 tion of water. 



Place of collection of 

 water. 



Free Ammonia. 



Albuminoid Ammonia. 



Grains per 

 gallon. 



Milligram, 

 per litre. 



Grains per 

 gallon. 



Milligram, 

 per litre. 



1875. 

 November 11, 

 29, 

 December 15, 



17, 



LiFFEY StANDAED. 



Eden-quay, 

 Aston' s-quay, 

 Burgh-quay, 

 Sir J.Rogerson's-q. 



Total = 



Average = 



0-0840 

 0-0812 

 0-1750 

 0-0525 



1-20 

 1-16 

 2-50 

 0-75 



Total = 



Average = 



0-0980 

 0-0910 

 0-0875 

 0-0350 



1-40 

 1-30 

 1-25 

 0-50 



0-3927 



0-3115 



0-0982 



0-0779 



3 C 2 



\ 



