352 
The Health Exhibition. 
r J une , 
to get over, or round, the sewage difficulty by carbonising 
excreta and refuse generally in a special furnace, and using 
the gaseous products to light the house. We fear such gas, 
whatever its “candle-power,” would be slightly mal-odorous, 
and should dread the occurrence of an escape. We scarcely 
see, however, how this device is to deal with urine, soap- 
suds, &c., which are generally more offensive and dangerous 
than the solid refuse of a household. 
The eleCtric light may safely claim a place in a Health 
Exhibition, since if adopted it will deliver us from the sul- 
phurous acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, carbon monoxide, &c., 
which coal-gas diffuses in our dwellings. 
Cooking-implements influence our health to no small de- 
gree. We were therefore pleased to see pans enamelled 
with a composition warranted free from lead or any other 
poisonous metal. In like manner pans lined with nickel and 
aluminium deserve commendation. But copper and brass 
pans, bare within, or lined with what is by courtesy called 
tin, but which is in deed and in truth an alloy of tin and 
lead, were still there, in full despite of modern medical and 
chemical science. We cannot here help recommending all 
whom it may concern when about to purchase any utensil 
lined with tin, to rub its inside with a bit of clean white 
paper : if the paper is at all blackened lead is present, and 
the best policy in that case is briefly conveyed by an em- 
phatic don't ! 
Furniture and appliances for the sick room are not wanting, 
and seem constructed on very satisfactory principles. Every- 
thing of wood is of a light colour, and is thickly coated with 
a varnish, so that there may be no possibility of the absorp- 
tion of anything of an offensive or infectious character, 
liquid or gaseous. We noticed in this department a small 
cupboard, beautifully lined with a white enamel. 
Stoves and ranges of the most varied character are to be 
seen, both for warming and for cooking. Many of the 
former, though tasteful and worthy of notice from an 
aesthetic point of view, have no perceptible sanitary bearing. 
One of the most pleasing in appearance is the “ Nautilus 
stove,” which is shown in several sizes. Whether it does 
not throw too much of the radiant heat upwards, instead of 
down upon the floor and the feet of the occupants, is per- 
haps doubtful. Some few of the cooking-ranges have the 
oven heated from below, on the sensible plan general in the 
north of England. Kitcheners manufactured south of the 
Trent generally have the cardinal faults of using a small 
bulk of fuel at a very high temperature. — which is neces- 
sarily wasteful, — and of applying the heat from above. 
