"Another difficulty in the contemplation of the several designs inspected, prior to the construction of the new plant, was the light weight of the iron or steel used in the manufacture of the chambers. The architect taking into consideration these and other important items suggested by me, drew the plans and started the work of a new disinfecting plant on Hoffman Island in June, 1893, and, at this writing (March 20, 1896), the plant is complete. Adopting his description, I will say that there are three chambers constructed of five-sixteenths-inch steel. Each chamber is four feet wide, five feet high, inside measurement, and sixteen feet long, with a full-sized heavy cast-iron ribbed door at each end securely hung on heavy cast-iron hinges. The extreme weight of these doors requires them to be partially carried by rollers moving on a quadrant or flat iron track. Each door is provided with twentyone one and one-eighth-inch diameter eye bolts with levers and nuts for fastening and securing the doors while a pressure is on the chambers. The frame on the chambers is fitted with a gasket of lead for the purpose of making a complete tight joint between the chambers and the doors. Each chamber is constructed on the jacketed principle, thus utilizing the jacketed space for what is known as dry heat disinfection. This jacket will sustain a pressure of from one to sixty pounds of steam to the square inch. The steam piping has been constructed in such a manner that the pressure may be reduced or increased as desired, both on the inside of the chamber proper and the jacket space. The steam supply to each chest is controlled by these valves only, thus avoiding complications. The inner portions are provided with perforated spray pipes for the purpose of heating with moist steam. In the construction of these chambers the intention was to obtain a tempera-ture in them of from 212 to 220 degrees Fahrenheit; but the actual test proves, that, in from thirty to forty minutes after the time the doors are closed, a temperature of 240 degrees Fahrenheit can easily be obtained. This temperature was raised without the use of the vacuum pumps. If so desired the vacuum pump can be brought into operation and a vacuum of from ten to fifteen inches can be raised in the chambers.

"A galvanized corrugated iron partition separates the infected from the disinfected portions of the building. The intake doors of the chamber are located on the infected side of the partition, and the outtake doors of the chamber are located on the disinfected side of the partition. This partition is made as nearly airtight as

possible, and a proper method of communication has been provided for the attendants by means of speaking tubes, and those engaged on the disinfected side are, by these means, perfectly isolated from those employed among the infected baggage of the passengers.

The vacuum pump and all the fixtures that are required to operate the three chambers, are located on the infected side of the partition, which divides the building and prevents personal contact between the infected and disinfected portions of the plant. Each chest is provided with a high temperature thermometer with a metal bulb and protecting collar extending through the door of the chamber. The combined apparatus is considered to be capable of disinfecting the baggage and clothing of 2,500 or 3,000 immigrants in less than twenty-four hours.

"Upon this island, Hoffman, the facilities for bathing are such that each person who is sent to this plant for observation, because of his exposure to contagious or infectious disease on shipboard, shall receive a thorough cleansing and have his clothing sterilized before entering upon the period of detention.

"The bath facilities here referred to are located in a building on the north pier of Hoffman Island."

For the illustrations, the writer is under obligations to Dr. A. H. Doty, the present Health Officer, under whose auspices a floating disinfecting plant has been devised, eminently suited to some conditions facilitating the least possible delay of persons and things that have been exposed to infection.

Moreover, to Dr. Doty belongs the credit of having secured the needful appropriation for doing away with the old wooden shanty-like hospital, and the erection of a new fire-proof structure instead-now nearing completion.

Approximating, if indeed not quite equal to the steam-disinfection plant of the New York Quarantine, the U. S. Marine Hospital Service, under the direction of Surgeon-General Walter Wyman, has constructed several plants. The most recent, and one of the most complete, being at Essington, on the Delaware, below Philadelphia.

The plant on the St. Lawrence, below Quebec, constructed under the direction of Dr. F. Montizambert, General Superintendent of Quarantines, is an admirably devised plant, barring the need of division partition, separating the employes and material handledthose handling infected material on one side from those receiving the disinfected on the other.

Bassin Canal basin.

Désinfection des eaux vannes-Sterilising apparatus for effluent water. Depôt de charbon-Coal store. Cheminee-Smoke-stack. Laboratoire-Laboratory. Chambre de Service et Réfectoire = Refectory. Deshabillage= Undressing-room. Rhabillage Dressing-room. Bains Baths. Chambre des chandières Boiler house. Bassins d'eau chaude et froide Tanks of hot and cold water. Sechoir Drying-room. Magasin depôt d'habits-Store-room for clothing. Partie impure Disinfecting-room, "unclean" side. Partie pure Disinfecting-room, "clean" side. Appareils de désinfection Schimmel Schimmel's disinfectors. Officier d'Administration Managing official's room. Bureau de l'Employe Clerk's office. Ascenseur Lift. Antichambre Antechamber. Cour du quartier impur Courtyard, "unclean" side. Cour du quartier pur Courtyard, "clean" side. Hangar Shed. Remise des Appareils Désinfection à domicile Store for house-disinfecting apparatus. Remise des voitures-Coach-house. Remise des chariots Van shed. Fourrage = Forage store. Ecurie pour 10 chevaux 10-stall stable. Logement des employés Attendants' Apartments. Ch. Room. Cuisine Kitchen. Jardin Garden.

Cabinet de toilette

Dressing-room.

Fig. IV. PLAN OF BASEMENT. Hommes de garde Attendants'-room. Magasins Store. Atelier de reparations= Repairing shop. Bains (hommes, dames) Baths (males, females). Deshabillage (hommes, dames) Undressing-rooms(males, females). Rhabillage (hommes, dames) - Dressing-rooms (males, females). Entrée (dames)

Entrance for females.

Caves-Cellars.

N.B.-All dimensions are given in metric scale.

Of foreign plants, that of Hamburg, is the most complete of any of which we have a published description. As described by a recent number of Le Genie Civil: It occupies a rectangular area 88 by 56 metres, and is situated in the southeastern quarter of the town, in the neighborhood of the chief centre of epidemic diseases. Being built on the banks of a canal basin, water communication is available, and a crane is provided for unloading the articles to be disinfected, which when purified can be reshipped from a separate wharf.

It being considered that disinfection, to be of any value, must be performed thoroughly, which cannot be the case if the same vehicles and attendants are used for collecting and delivering the goods unless they too undergo a process of disinfection, the establishment is divided into two entirely separate and distinct portions, and it is impossible for attendants to get from the "unclean" to the "clean" side without passing through a disinfecting chamber, where they must undress, wash, take a bath and put on special or disinfected clothes.

The apparatus (Schimmel's disinfectors), consisting of five ovens, is fixed in the longitudinal wall separating the disinfecting house into the two divisions specified.

Beyond this section is a portion set apart for the attendants engaged in the "unclean" division of the premises. Here there are a refectory, an undressing-room, bath-room and dressing-room where the attendants put on their special dress. On finishing their labors they pass through these rooms again, but in reverse order.

In the "clean" section the attendants, having only to deal with purified articles, are not subjected to the same restrictions.

The basement contains two distinct sets of baths, with separate entrances and exits, respectively for male and female attendants, or sufferers from infectious disease, or officials who have been engaged in house disinfection. Meanwhile their clothes are being disinfected in a special oven.

The building is constructed of brick, and surmounted by a flat roof covered with wood cement. All the floors are cemented except those of the dining-rooms, and the walls of the principal rooms, bath-rooms, dressing-rooms, etc., are constantly covered with a coating of linseed oil. The walls of the disinfecting house are lined with glazed tiles, the others being merely cemented.