40. CHORLTON AND DUGDALE (Manchester) have a good exhibit of their spring mattresses, invalid couches and bed-rests. Our attention was drawn to a simple form of pillow divider for double beds, made, we believe, at the suggestion of Dr. Richardson.

40C. SLATER AND CO. (Oldham) show an ingenious draught and dust stopper for fitting to the bottom of doors. On the door being opened the stopper does not drag, but lifts itself at once. The same firm show a slow combustion stove, fed from the top, which is said to burn only

from 8 to 12 lbs. of coal in 24 hours.

47. T. E. RIGBY (Manchester) shows a stall full of goods made from a form of vulcanite, produced out of refuse cotton and glycerine. The material appears to us to be well fitted for tap washers, pneumatic tubes, chair seats, etc., and doubtless might be utilised in many ways not yet tried-surgical splints for instance.

49. J. L. HANCOCK (London, E.), known to visitors to exhibitions as the inventor of a handy bread-crumbling machine, sugar mill, butter purifier, and potato masher, shows a useful bread-making machine. The vessel holding the flour sits in a warm bath, aud when the flour is warmed through, German yeast is beaten up in a small separate apparatus (which may also serve as an egg whisk), and added. The little kneading required is done without the hands of the breadmaker touching the dough, and a fine light sponge is produced in a wonderfully short time. 68. L. BROOK (Lower Broughton), exhibits a neat little vent peg, with a central perforation closed by valve.

74. B. HARLOW (Macclesfield) is represented by a large exhibit. A domestic filter drew our attention, owing to its being cleansable—a somewhat rare advantage. The part containing the unfiltered water can be lifted out, and the whole of the filtering medium turned over or changed in a minute.

kind.

77. J. BEGG AND CO. (Bolton) have on view and taste a large assortment of effervescing drinks of a non-intoxicating 78A. JEWSBURY AND BROWN (Manchester) show treble aerated soda water, potash waters of various strengths, and samples of all the favourite British and foreign mineral waters. We especially noticed an aërated solution of quinine, delicately flavoured, and forming a very palatable glass of bitters.

97. H. CROSSE (Tower Hill, London) has a stand of his well-known lime-juice preparations. Some, sweetened and flavoured, make very pleasant beverages, others for shipping are of concentrated strength. All are good wholesome articles.

104. THE SANITARY APPLIANCE COMPANY (Salford) have sent some well-contrived cinder sifting ash closets, earth commodes, etc.

112. W. AND A. C. RUSSELL AND CO. (Pendleton) exhibit a large variety of Manchester-made castings. We noticed in particular some capital park-seats, with backs made really to rest the back, and foot-boards to fold up in the evening. The ordinary foot-rests of park seats are usually so saturated with dirt and wet as to be no use at all. 209. T. S. WATHEN (Birmingham) shows an ingenious flexible button, that can be put on instantly without sewing. We commend the invention to the attention of

bachelors and others.

218. T. WOLSTENCROFT (Manchester) shows, among other articles, Major Orrell's knapsack. It is without strap or buckles, and fits over the shoulder supported by a pair of steel springs. The weight is kept well in the right position, there is no undue pressure anywhere, and the sack can be taken off and resumed in a few seconds.

As washing and wringing machines come within the description of domestic and sanitary appliances, we must not forget to mention that these useful articles are well represented. We, however, saw nothing to beat the well-known machines of Messrs. BRADFORD AND CO. (Vowel machine, 40B), Messrs. THOMAS AND TAYLOR (170), and Messrs. WOOLFALL AND BRINDLE (170). All these have been in the market many years, and their merits are too well known to need any commendation.

CONFERENCE OF MUNICIPAL AND SANITARY ENGINEERS AT DARLINGTON. ON the 24th ult. the first Conference of the recently formed Northern District Branch of the Association of Municipal and Sanitary Engineers and Surveyors was held in the Council Chamber, Town Buildings, Darlington. Mr. A. W. Morant, Borough Engineer, Leeds, and President of the General Association, occupied the chair. Mr. P. W. Thompson, C.E., who has taken an active part in the formation of the Branch, was unanimously elected District Secretary. There was a good attendance of Delegates from the Northern Counties, and it was agreed that the boundaries of the District should not be fixed by any hard and fast line. Mr. Craggs, of Shildon, read an interesting paper on his 'Plan for the Disposal of Sewage', which is now being carried out by the After Shildon and East Thickley Local Board. some discussion the thanks of the meeting were accorded to Mr. Craggs for his paper. Mr. Geo. Bell, Surveyor to the Felling Local Board, submitted having experienced considerable difficulty in meeting a paper on Sanitary Appliances'. He said that, with a satisfactory method of disposing of the refuse of his district, he now adopted the self-acting watercloset and dry ash-pit combined, which had been designed and patented by Mr. A. M. Fowler, Borough Engineer, Newcastle-on-Tyne, which in every case had given great satisfaction. Mr. Hall, of South Shields, said he had adopted the same plan in his district, and he found it answered admirably. Mr. R. Sawser, of Manchester, deprecated, and Mr. Spencer, North Shields, defended, the tub system, and after further testimony of the efficacy of Mr. Fowler's plan had been given, a vote of thanks was cordially awarded to Mr. Bell for his paper.

During the course of the day the company visited the Darlington Corporation Sewage Farm, under the guidance of Mr. T. Smith, the Borough Surveyor, who fully explained the engineering features of the scheme. At present the farm covers about 225 acres, but at the end of the year 90 additional acres will be joined to it. At the present time about 1,153,000 gallons of sewage are dealt with every twenty-four system adopted relieves the town of a great nuisance, hours. The farm just clears its expenses; whilst the which had previously involved the Corporation in Chancery proceedings. The party also visited the works of the Stockton and Middlesborough Water Company at Tees Grange, which is situate about two-and-a-half miles from Darlington, the works being about forty-seven miles equidistant from the source and mouth of the Tees. Mr. Simpson, Secretary of the Board, conducted the party over the works, which cover eighteen acres, the company also occupying the nine acres adjoining. About fifty millions of gallons per week are pumped from this source for both domestic and manufacturing purposes. It is expected that the next meeting of the Association will be held at Stockton-on-Tees.

UNITED KINGDOM COFFEE TAVERNS

COMPANY (LIMITED).

WE have more than once expressed our sense of the great usefulness of enterprises of this sort, and we see that the United Kingdom Coffee Taverns Company is just now active in opening new houses, and has this week, we are informed, signed agreements for taking premises for two more Taverns, one in the centre of Deptford, a most conspicuous house in the Broadway, surrounded by public houses, and a dense working

class population; the other premises are in High Street, Hounslow, and are also very suitable. Everything depends, for the success of such houses, upon the selection of thoroughly suitable sites, and upon careful and economical management. This Company appears to be giving great attention to the selection of sites in good thoroughfares and thickly-populated working-class neighbourhoods, and it is under such conditions that Coffee Taverns thrive. Many of these enterprises have been able to return good and even large dividends, from 71⁄2 up to 10 and 15 per cent., | to their shareholders, who are, of course, in the majority of cases, well content with a 5 per cent. dividend from enterprises which are in themselves so useful and philanthropic. The business management of the United Kingdom Coffee Taverns Company (Limited) appear to be fully alive to the importance of considering thoroughly business principles in the selection of sites and of management, and its observance of this mode of action gives the best hope of good financial returns on the funds invested. Of the usefulness of the enterprise there cannot be a second opinion, and we honestly wish to this Company, as to all the other Companies of like character, continued and sound success, and that they may find a large and active body of shareholders willing to supply the funds for, and take personal interest in, the business prosperity of the undertaking.

CORRESPONDENCE.

[All Communications must bear the signature of the writer, not necessarily for publication.]

'NATURE'S HYGIENE.'

After a careful perusal of the review of my new work which appeared in your September number, I feel bound to claim your indulgence for a little space, in which to offer a few observations upon some points referred to, and raised by the reviewer.

In the first place, I am charged with drawing no distinction between fungi and bacteria. This charge is scarcely warranted, since, in the words cited by the reviewer, I am only referring to a statement made by Dr. Drysdale upon the authority of Naegeli, and, indeed, this is expressly intimated in a foot-note on page 72 of my book. It will be seen that in a number of places (for instance on page 154) some distinctions between fungi and bacteria are intentionally remarked. Next, I am stated to have overlooked the experiments of Chauveau, Braidwood, and Vacher. This statement is also incorrect. On page 74 I give a reference to the 'Reports on the Life History of Contagion', and in several places I have laid stress upon the observations of Burdon-Sanderson and Panum in reference to the particulate nature of the contagia. Thus, I refer to Dr. Burdon-Sanderson's papers in various 'Reports of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council' (pp. 62 and 67) again and again, and one may fairly say that these papers are very largely taken up with the experiments of Chauveau.* Moreover, if these experiments prove anything, they prove the particulate nature of the contagia experimented with, and I apprehend that this result has taken its place among the facts accepted by all who take an interest in the subject. As to the germ theory of disease, I give all due weight to the work of Obermeier, Pollender, Cohn, Koch, Klein and others, and readily give in my adhesion to this theory so far as it is not a theory,

This is particularly the case with Dr. Burdon-Sanderson's paper, contributed to the Thirteenth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council'.

that is to say, so far as it rests upon experimental evidence; but further than this I cannot go, and do not intend to go, unless such other evidence of its truth may be forthcoming as is wanted, and admitted, too, to be wanted, even by those who have pledged their faith most strongly in this theory. I should be among the first to rejoice over the acquisition of any new knowledge of the causes and nature of communicable diseases; at the same time, I recognise to day certain very serious difficulties in the way of the germ theory, ‘as now generally accepted', and, so far as the use of facts and logic enable me to judge, I believe the doctrine of contagium virum is often wrongly applied. As to how we are to differentiate degraded forms of bioplasm, organised though they be, from disease-germs so-called, I would reply at first blush, by the fact that they are organised but not organisms. There can surely be no great difficulty in recognising, say, the fact that sepsin is not a disease germ or an organism. There is an enormous difficulty, however, in arriving at a satisfactory conclusion as to the nature, for instance, of the contagium of splenic fever. While the investigations of Pollender, Davaine, and Klebs point to the so-called bacillus anthracis as the true virus of this disease, the novel experiments of P. Bert (Compt. Rend. 84, 1877, 1,130) point to an entirely different conclusion, viz., that the bacterium in question has nothing essentially to do with splenic fever, and that the true course is to be found in a shapeless non-organised ferment or poison.

Further on in the review there is a remark which makes it appear that I claim all the virtues of the eucalyptus for peroxide of hydrogen (and, it should be added, the other chemical compounds which are associated with it). Not at all. On page 127 of my work, I admit the value of 'the drainage power of the trees', but it is only the chemical work, that I have instituted and carried on, which explains the peculiar effects of the eucalyptus tree under given circumstances. The drainage power is not sufficient explanation, for if it were, then the eucalyptus tree would not exhibit any positive influence on the health of a neighbourhood, and moreover, in such case, it could be replaced by other trees.

Leaving Dr. Day of Geelong to defend the position he has assumed, I pass on to the concluding paragraph of the review. I protest very strongly against the use of the expression meagre' in relation to the experiments I have conducted with Sanitas. For more than six years, I have been almost continuously engaged in the study of the antiseptic and (from my point of view) disinfecting characters of this product and its various constitutents; and while I grow more convinced that my earliest statements were quite correct, experience at large has happily proved the same thing and justified my claim. To ascertain the effects of circumstances upon bacteria and other ferments I have not used the microscope, because I am not skilled in its use; also because some of those who are most skilled in its use have been fearfully misled by microscopic appearances, and especially in connection with the germ theory of disease; and, lastly, I have not used the microscope because, while distinctly admitting the aid it lends to research, my own special science affords me better and more exact methods. Given a knowledge of the habits and modes of decomposition excited by bacteria in various media, I am content to ascertain the extent to which those habits and modes of decomposition are interfered with by 'Sanitas'. If the habits be no longer exhibited, or if the decompositions be arrested, I infer that the ferments or microphytes have been

insist upon this as imperative, all I aim at is to accomplish this in the least dangerous and offensive way. I consider the whole system a great error. WM. BENNETT.

A DICTIONARY OF SANITARY APPLIANCES.

BY W. EASSIE, C. E.

(Continued from p. 91.)

AIR.-XXXV.

Disinfection by hot air.-It is now customary in all properly equipped hospitals to subject clothing, bedding, mattresses, and other articles to the action of heated air, in order to destroy any germs of disease which may lurk there, and the practice is also carried out in many of our larger schools, and even private residences. The articles are mostly disinfected in close chambers, in which heated air is made to pass, and in the majority of cases until a temperature, ranging between 250° to 300° Fahrenheit, has searched every portion of the fabrics which have been placed there.

The Fraser disinfecting chamber apparatus, which I will first describe, is generally built of brick and the chamber arched over, apertures being left here and there for the passage of impure and noxious vapours to be led into flues, and from thence into the fire to be totally consumed. It can be erected in any convenient part of the basement, and can be got in working order almost immediately after the fire has been lighted. The clothes or bedding are brought direct to the chamber and subjected to the necessary heat, the intensity of which is shown by a pyrometer, and if it be wished, the air may be impregnated with sulphur, by burning that substance on the small grating allotted for the purpose. The air after passing through the clothes is led, as was mentioned, through a fire before being led to the chimney-shaft, and therefore all vapours given off are thoroughly destroyed by that element. After remaining for an hour or two the clothes may be removed, and will be found free from power to infect.

In the ordinary arrangement the articles requiring disinfection are placed upon trays or racks in order to separate one layer from another, and the heated air which passes over the hot plate enters through

ture.

In some cases the doors of the chamber can be opened for the admission of a truck containing the clothes to be disinfected, and this is a great consideration, as the articles can be purified without the slightest danger to health. The infected articles in large districts and parishes can thus be collected in an iron carriage, taken to the chamber, which would be erected on some convenient central site, disinfected by the sulphur-charged hot air, and returned to their owners without having been handled or removed from the truck. Some dozen or so of the above kind of apparatus are in use in London alone, and from the peculiar construction of the chamber they can be erected in the most densely crowded neighbourhood without danger.

I have erected one for use in a London hospital, tested it repeatedly, and found it easy of manage ment, and the cost of working very inconsiderable. There are different opinions as to the degrees of heat required to destroy malignant germs, but the experience of Messrs. Fraser, of London, the engineers and manufacturers of this system, is that infection has never been known to follow anything which has been properly and thoroughly subjected to a heat of 212° or a little over. Some, however, prefer a much higher degree of heat, and hence the apparatus is made capable of accommodating a temperature as high as 300°.

This method of disinfection has been so much approved, that during the last year or two it has been arranged in a portable fashion suitable for country places or for use in camps. The apparatus, complete, and ready for use, can thus be drawn to the infected district, and the clothing or bedding dis infected upon the spot. The van is simply brought to a standstill at the door of the house, the fire in the small furnace underneath lighted, and the tem