6o Sanitary Science in the United States : [January, 
of their patronage did these places tardily move in the 
matter of adequate sanitation ; and now the universal intro- 
duction of cemented cisterns, and the diurnal removal of 
garbage under the stringent regulations of local Boards of 
Health, attest the purpose of the great sea-side Sanitarium 
to retain its highly profitable reputation. 
VII. Sanitary Advantages of doing away with Illuminating 
Gas as a means of Illumination . 
Any process of illumination which returns to the confined 
atmosphere we breathe the products of combustion is theo- 
retically open to objection. All methods of illumination up 
to the present time have depended on some process of rapid 
combustion, oxygen being withdrawn from the air, an equal 
bulk of carbonic acid returned to it, and oftentimes a large 
amount of heat as compared with the amount of light libe- 
rated in the process. If, now, we can illuminate without 
the subtraction of vital and the addition of mephitic air, 
and if we can produce an intense light without a corre- 
sponding heating of the surrounding atmosphere, we have 
made two steps of great hygienic value so far as the illu- 
mination and ventilation of rooms is concerned. 
There is much reason for supposing that this will be soon 
accomplished in the wholesale introduction of the eleCtric 
light. By very many roads a crowd of inventors is pushing 
forward to this end. The rapid destruction of the terminals, 
with the corresponding need of frequent adjustment, is being 
obviated by a variety of devices. In some the length of the 
carbons is made invariable, by a supply of carbon as soon 
as it wastes away, through deposition of carbon from a 
hydrocarbon atmosphere in which the eleCtric arc is taken. 
In another, wasting is prevented by an entire exclusion of 
oxygen, and the terminals are surrounded by an atmosphere 
of pure nitrogen. Another experimenter separates his car- 
bons by an intervening material over which the arc is 
formed, and all parts of this eleCtric candle are burnt away 
at the same rate. In one of these ways, or in some other, 
the problem of lighting by electricity more perfectly and as 
cheaply as by illuminating gas will be solved and we shall 
have the attendant train of hygienic benefits. In the matter 
of street illumination the contamination of the atmosphere 
by gaseous products of combustion is, of course, not a 
matter of great moment, but in the illumination of those 
places of public assembly, the church, the theatre, the 
leCture-room, the improvement will be of much importance. 
