December 14,]872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
477 
ville received: the Geographical Society, as we have 
said, awarded her its medal; the Royal Astronomical 
-Society elected her, in 1834, one of its honorary Fellows, 
the same honour being at the same time bestowed upon 
Miss Caroline Herschel—the only two ladies on whom 
such a distinction was ever conferred. The Fellows of 
the Royal Society' also signified their appreciation of her 
works and their personal regard for their author by sub¬ 
scribing for a bust of Mrs. Somerville, which Chantrey 
executed, and which the Duke of Sussex publicly pre¬ 
sented to the Society in 1842, in his own name and in that 
of the subscribers. This monument adorns the Library 
of the Royal Society. 
H Mrs. Somerville was twice married. Early in life she 
became the wife of Mr. Samuel Greig, who is described 
in ‘ Burke’s Peerage ’ as “a Captain and Commissioner in 
the Russian Navy.” Her union with him became the 
means of developing her latent scientific powers, as he 
took great pleasure in mathematical inquiry, and care¬ 
fully initiated her in both the theory of mathematics 
-and their practical application. Her second husband 
was Dr. William Somerville, a member of a good old 
family of Scottish extraction. 
Notice has been received of the death of the follow¬ 
ing:— 
On the 23rd of November, Mr. John Whitfield, phar¬ 
maceutical chemist, of the firm of Whitfield and Son, 
Worcester, aged 45. Deceased was one of the earliest 
‘examined members of the Pharmaceutical Society, which 
he entered in 1847. 
On the 14th of September, at Perth, West Australia, 
of consumption, Mr. John Thomas Glass, late of Chel¬ 
tenham and Bournemouth. 
On the 22nd of November, Mr. Richard Constantine 
Hay, chemist and druggist, of Bond Street, Leeds, aged 
79. 
getofos. 
•Sanitaky Science : as Applied to the Healthy Con¬ 
struction of Houses in Town and Country. By R. 
Scott Buhn. Glasgow, etc : Collins, Sons and Co. 
This is a work which can be read with considerable 
interest; but the interest will centre in the value of the 
subject rather than in the literary performance. It 
would hardly be possible for an author to write a trea¬ 
tise on sanitary matters which should be altogether free 
from quotations, because the subject is of the widest; 
but to borrow too largely of the Egyptians, even if one 
acknowledges the loan, is doubtful wisdom, in more 
senses than one. No person in our day can arrogate to 
himself even a simple branch of one single science; but 
he can add to the cairn some stone which he has himself 
dug up and polished, and he only. We are far from 
saying that Mr. Burn has not heretofore contributed 
some heavy pebbles to our sanitary landmarks; but we say 
that he has not done himself justice on the present occa¬ 
sion. A book such as this, moreover, should have given 
the quoted matter in smaller type than the original mat¬ 
ter. This is a healthy rule, and one Dr. Corfield, for ex¬ 
ample, followed out with great advantage to his readers 
in his ‘ Digest of Facts Relating to Sewage.’ To bestow 
upon a work like that before us a title such as ‘ Sanitary 
Science,’ is surely also a little indiscreet. 1 Sanitary 
Jottings Concerning House Construction ’ would have 
been more appropriate to its bulk and general treat¬ 
ment. Perhaps the fault lies with the publishers, who 
may have urged Mr. Burn to write the work with some¬ 
what of haste. Our author is universally known as a 
gentleman of good professional practice and extensive 
research, and we trust that he will bo spared to polar¬ 
ize more of his own experiences for us in a future 
volume. 
Mr. Burn has described and illustrated a very useful 
method of preventing the accumulation of dust in rooms, 
a matter almost altogether ignored in the construction 
of houses in the metropolis. This “ dust draught ” is of 
the simplest make, and would be a great saving of time 
to the housemaid, and a great source of benefit to the 
family if its use were universal. And yet it is nothing- 
more than a tube which leads from the back-hearth into 
the chimney-flue some distance above the register of the 
grate. Dampness as a very prevalent source of evil finds 
also a proper recognition, and several cures for it are 
mentioned which experience has confirmed as being valu¬ 
able. The chapter upon cottage accommodation will be 
especially welcome to the sanitary student, for it is a 
subject too often neglected by our domestic architectural 
writers. For the most part these treat of mansions and 
villas only, and leave the cottage carefully out in the 
cold. Even when some agricultural society or some 
philanthropic individual offers a prize for an essay upon 
the best form of labourers’ dwellings, the chief points 
attended to by the competitors are less those of health 
and comfort than of cheapness and neatness of elevation. 
Mr. Burn considers that a floor superficies of 144 feet is 
the minimum which should be allowed for a living room, 
and a 100 feet for a bed-chamber, no room being less than 
nine feet from floor to ceiling, and attics to be earnestly 
eschewed. We agree with him in each particular. 
We confess our disappointment at the curt manner in 
which the smoke nuisance is treated, for this is the most 
crying evil of the day. The eye is weary of pictures 
of earth-closets and patent filters, and would twinkle 
with joy at any feasible device for ridding itself of 
the pungent smoke. That this pest is extinguishable is 
not to be doubted ; but it does not seem to be a branch 
of Hygiene which “ pays,” and therefore it has few pro¬ 
fessors. This is a sober statement—smoke prevention 
as a business is unremunerative, hence we sit in “ smuts ” 
and perambulate in flakes of “blacks.” Just notice 
what follows when the fiat has gone forth that such and 
such a contrivance is absolutely necessary. Burglary, 
for instance, is on the increase, and straightway the 
papers herald in a host of patent sash-fasteners, and the 
chief of the police placards the metropolis with his idea of 
the ne plus ultra. We have a better example occurring 
before our eyes at the present moment. The “ constant 
water supply” is imminent with us, and already the 
lists of “water waste preventers” seeking recognition 
at the hands of the water companies, are mounting into 
a score. Let some one devise a means of ensuring a pro¬ 
per combustion which shall benefit the units who prac¬ 
tise it, and a combined action in the same direction will 
soon be made imperative upon us. Our present schemes 
for the reduction of smoke are too tentative in character, 
and, in point of invention, too poverty-stricken. It is 
nigh twenty years since Mr. Sjiencer Wells pointed out 
the evils resulting from a constant grimy atmosphere, 
and cast the foreshadow of a cure. How can we be so 
dilatory in what concerns our longevity so nearly F And 
yet after all, it is not long since we separated our post¬ 
age stamps with a pair of scissors. 
We consider Mr. Burn’s dissertation upon ventilation 
to be the most useful part of his book ; and in the three¬ 
score pages which he has dedicated to this subject he 
gives the most ample informatiou as to what is usually 
done in this matter, and why it is done. The chapter on 
water is practicable, and may be termed an epitome of all 
that is needed to be remembered by any one outside of 
the medical profession. We have only one fault to find 
here, and it is embodied in this sentence—“ No overflow 
pipe should be connected with the drains if it can be 
at all avoided.” Now it always can be avoided, and al¬ 
ways should be avoided, for the disease germs often 
make a highway of such a pipe to reach the cistern, with 
results such as we all know. The book concludes with 
