July 10, 1885.] 



SCIENCE 



37 



els of their kind. Tenement houses and 

 schools, as exhibited, present nothing of un- 

 usual interest. The first-named are distinctly 

 inferior to the better English models. 



This volume closes with a review by F. O. 

 Kuhn, architect, in Berlin, of structures ex- 

 hibited by plan, for the shelter of soldiers in 

 times of peace. The most conspicuous exam- 

 ple shown was the new caserne at Dresden, — 

 a complex of buildings, containing shelter for 

 seven thousand men. A characteristic feature 

 of this caserne is the complete separation of 

 the rooms for day use, sleeping, eating, wash- 

 ing, and working, — an arrangement from 

 which the Saxon authorities already claim a 

 marked improvement in the health of the 

 inmates. 



If Dr. Borner's second volume is as satis- 

 factorily edited as this has been, the work will 

 have a permanent place in the history of pre- 

 ventive medicine. 



COMFORT AND LONGEVITY. 



Josef Korosi is the director of the Bureau 

 of statistics in Budapest, and he has appar- 

 entl}' brought to his work a mind well adapted 

 to the difficult task of handling figures in bulk. 

 The essay which he presents to us under the 

 above title was read in September last, before 

 the Association of hj'giene in Berlin, and in it 

 he has confined himself to a few points onl3\ 

 He has endeavored to determine the influence 

 which the varying pecuniary conditions of life, 

 with their attendant privileges or privations, 

 have upon the longevit}^ of the people of his city. 

 For convenience he recognizes four classes, ac- 

 cording to their endowment in worldly goods ; 

 those who are very rich at one end of the 

 categor}^ and those who suffer from abject pov- 

 ert}^ at the other. Between these extremes lie 

 the great mass of the people, whom he divides 

 into the middle class and the ordinary poor. 



He does not claim that his figures possess an 

 absolute mathematical value, because he could 

 not determine the number of living individuals 

 in each categor}' ; but b}^ excluding children 

 under five years of age, and taking the average 

 age of those dying during a period of eight 

 vears, he found that 



The rich class averages . 

 The middle class averages 

 The poor class averages . 



52 years of life. 



46 years 1.1 months of life. 



41 years 7 months of life. 



From this it is obvious that the possession 

 of wealth, and the resultant exemption from 



Ueber den einfluss der wohlhabenheit und der wohnverhdlt- 

 ninne auf sterbl.ichkeit und todesurnachen. Von Josef Korosi. 

 Stuttgart, Enke, 1885. 8°. 



privation, lengthen the average life nearly ten 

 years. 



The second point which he studied was the 

 relation existing between epidemic infectious 

 diseases, and the pecuniary status of the dif- 

 ferent grades of the communit3\ Upon this 

 point he finds that poverty does not exercise a 

 uniform infiuence upon the occurrence of these 

 diseases : indeed, viewing them as a whole, the 

 well-endowed, excepting the very richest, are 

 more seriously afflicted than the poor. 



Viewing the infectious diseases separateh', he 

 finds that cholera, small-pox, measles, and t}'- 

 phus are more prevalent among the poor, while 

 diphtheria, croup, whooping-cough, and scarlet- 

 fever are more prevalent among the rich. Con- 

 sumption and pneumonia claim the poor, and 

 brain-troubles attack the rich. 



In view of legislative action regarding the 

 abodes of the poor, Korosi next studied the in- 

 fluence of basement tenements upon the occur- 

 rence of epidemics ; and he found, that, taking 

 the infectious diseases as a whole, they are 

 60% more frequent in the cellar than in the 

 elevated tenements. 



The cellar residence, however, does not favor 

 all diseases alike. Measles and whooping- 

 cough are very prevalent there, croup less so, 

 while diphtheria and scarlet-fever are 10% less 

 frequent among cellar inhabitants than among 

 those more loftily housed. This is in accord- 

 ance with statistics from other places, and 

 notably from Boston, where epidemics of diph- 

 theria have swept over the finest parts of the 

 city, and have left the low sections and cellar 

 regions almost exempt. 



Lastly, Korosi considers the infiuence of 

 crowding upon epidemics. To obtain a stand- 

 ard, he noted the number of rooms in each 

 house, and the number of people occupying 

 them. Combining these figures, he obtained 

 the average number of persons per room. A 

 possession of one or two persons to each room 

 was taken as normal, while three, four, and 

 five persons per room were considered over- 

 crowding. He found that the intensit}' of some 

 infectious diseases was notabty increased in the 

 crowded tenements. This increase amounted 

 to 364% for measles in houses inhabited by 

 more than five persons per room. AYhooping- 

 cough is likewise greatl}" intensified by crowd- 

 ing. On the other hand, it does not appear 

 that scarlet-fever and diphtheria are similarly 

 favored by the increased number of people in 

 the house. These are rather surprising con- 

 clusions, and ma}^ find their explanation when 

 we discover the manner in which these various 

 diseases are transmitted from person to person. 



