May 4, 1872.] THE RRYTISR AfEDIC.4L _70URA7AL - 479 tenham sewage-farm, where it was said that the water of certain BRITISII MEDICAL wells ASSOCIATION: at a fromthe farm had been long distance rendered impure,whichwas SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR I872. found indeed to be the case, the reason that were to the being they close to Association for I872 became due a SUBSCRIPTIONS January ISt. ditch into which the soakage from a privy and the drains of two tiveMembers of Branches are requested to pay the same to their respec- houses Secretaries. to It isxvent.remarkable that all mention of MIembers Association not belonging Breton's near Branches are requested to forward their remittances to FRANCIS farm, Romford, of which Hope gave an interesting account at the FOWKE, General Secretary, Mr. Mr. last 37, Great Queen annual Street, London, WV.C. meeting of the British Medical Association, is carefully avoided by BRITISH those who oppose sewage-farms. It seems to be admitted that irriga. MEDICAL JOURNAL. tion there is not a nuisance; in other words, that the question is of good or bad management. one It has been abundantly proved that can be in SATURDAY, MAY sewage purified large 4TH, 1872. quantities by irrigation on land, so that the effluent water may be safely allowed to run into any stream; it is confidently asserted, on the other S EWV A G E - F A R M S. hand, that all the precipitation processes only partially purify the sewage. Dr. Letheby says that some method THE rightly, adopted separate sewage by importantdeeply the irrigation of farm-land are not yet suspended as sanitarythesuspenddumateialnascareaswossiblhfromitepsewaeset at rest. Enthusiastic faras poss from in a sewage-farmers and materbal tble the sewage inan their supporters maintain that sidiary and the sewage-farms have propositionwould be agreed by any produced no ill effects on the health of the board wishe d to people residing establish even upon them; near, wtho sewage-farm. certainlynot and, on the other hand, the proved to the promoters of the various offensiveness sewage-farms " generally, so-called precipitation processes" assert that sewage-farms are neces- as to their having any ill effect on the public health. sarily nuisances and injurious to health, and that the effluent water from them is not fit to be admitted into a stream. It is not at all doubtful that sewage-farms may be made H P I TA S U nuisances under wilful mis- Y. management; but no satisfactory evidence has yet been of O S L given HOSPITAL Sunday has now become an almost universal institution outbreaks of disease etiologically connected with the The degree sewage. throughout the country, and a brief note of its and extension water-meadows atAlilan were found by the Sewage Commissioners will be of interest. In England, it was first started in Birmingham in (I858) to produce marsh fever; but meadows similarly flooded with i859, for the purpose of relieving the General Hospital of that town plain water had the same effect. The meadows irrigated with diluted from debt, which had become so large as seriously to threaten the use- sewage caused no epidemics of cholera or typhoid fever; and during fuilness of the charity. The collection amounted to upwards of/5,ooo . epidemics of cholera in the city, no case occurred on the farms sup- Since that year, hospital Sunday has brought in an average sum of plied by the sewage. If sewage or water be largely poured on an un-, 4,000 per annum, the total amount collected for the thirteen years drained soil it makes a marsh, and we expect marsh-fever; but a being upwards of 652,o00, at an annual expense of little more than. marsh is the last thing which the farmer wishes to have, and we may /roo. The small percentage of expense is highly noteworthy. Marn- safely leave that matter in his hands. Cholera and typhoid fever are chester commenced about i870, the sum collected amounting to up- less likely to be spread by turning the sewage into a large area of farm- wards of /5,ooo. Liverpool came next, in 1871, with a collection of land, and causing it to pass through the soil before allowing the water about/,,ooo. Other towns followed; Newcastle with £2,000; WO1- contained in it to enter a stream, than by sending it directly into the verhiampton with £80 0; Worcester, Sheffield, Kidderminster, Dud- stream after separating the grosser suspended matters" by a precipita- ley, WValsaIl, and West Bromwich. Some of these latter towns have tion process". only their single hospital support;to while the larger towns have- It appears from recent reportsthhin daily papers, that Dr. Letheby twelve and even more medical charities to share in the distribution of gave evidence at an inquiry at Slough, that "his opinion of nearly all the profits. the sewage-farms in the country was, that they were offensive and inju- The manner in which the movement was started in Birmingham, the rious to the public health". But, on the other hand, evidence of a principles ofwlhich are adopted by all the other towns, was as follows. positive character has been given that no injury to health has ever been After a series of elaborate articles upon the subject in the A!idlanct traced even to mismanaged sewage-farms. Dr. Christison states, C'ount/iesIlenaldl-with which paper, to its honour be it said, the idea with regard to the Craigintinny meadows, where certainly too large an originated-a letter appeared in one of the local papers, signed by amount of sewage is turned on to the land, that he is "satisfied that twenty-three of the leading clergy of the town and influential noncon- neithertyphusnor enteric fever, nor dysenterynor cholera, is to be encoun- formist ministers, inviting a public meeting of the clergy and ministers tered in or around them, whether in epidemic or non-epidemic seasons, of all denominations and lay friends, to confer upon the practicability more than in any other agricultural district of the neighbourhood", of setting apart one Sunday for simultaneous collections. High and Dr. Alfred Carpenter points out that, in the registration sub-district in Low Church, Roman Catholics, Independents, Presbyterians, Baptists, which the Beddington farm is situated, while the births for the year Unitarians, Jews, almost every religion and creed were represented, and ending April ist, 1872, were at the rate Of 33 per i,ooo, the death-rate the meeting was unanimously in favour of the object proposed. A Coi- was only 9 per 1,000, and that the deaths "do not include a single mittee was appointed, consisting of clerical and lay members, to carry case of fever". Dr. Gooch of Eton says : As medical officer of the ott the plans, together with a chairman, treasurer, and secretary. Eton Union, and attending almost every family in the neighbourhood The Committee met about a month or more before the Sunday fixed for of the farm, I can confidently assert that not one single case of illness the collections, and drew up a circular-letter addressed to the clergy and has occurred from the effects of the sewage"; and Mr. Palmer of Rugby ministers of all denominations in the town and neighbourhood, asking tells how children who " looked pale and delicate" have become healthy them to join in the movement. Forms were drawn out and placed in and strong, and have had no illness whatever, "after living three years the pews, inviting donations ; and even those who were either unable surrounded by sewage-irrigation", and this on a farm held up as a pat- or unaccustomed to attend a place of worship, were not left alone. A tern of bad management. circular-letter marked private, and signed by the minister in whose dis- It is alleged, too, that wells are poisoned by sewage-irrigation. A trict the absentee resided, or at whose place of worship the family specific allegation of this kind was recently made in the case of the Chel- attended, was addressed to each, and forms for donation or subscrip- THE BRITISH MEDICAL 480 480 THE BRiTISH MEDICAL _70URNAL.7OURNAL. [MaY[May 4,1872.4, 1872.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ tion were enclosed; large cards were also hung in all the banks and the cesophagus, and distending the stomach with water, all quickened at the offices of the various local newspapers. the pulse. When a solution of salt or sugar was used instead of water, The movement was universal; and the determination to carry it out the quickening lasted longer, because the fluid was more slowly ab- to its utmost was so great, that in one church, where the amount had sorbed and the distension less quickly removed. Extract of meat, de- not quite reached £400, the plate was sent round a second time, and prived of five-sixths of its potash-salts by means of tartaric acid, caused the fact that the desired sum had been collected was announced from death-not like the potash-salts by paralysing the heart, but probably the pulpit. The sermons on these occasions are generally evidently by desiccating the tissues. Sodium-phosphate has a similar action. This most carefully prepared, each minister trying to outvie the others in is diminished by injecting water subcutaneously after the sodium-phos- eloquence upon that always eloquent subject "charity." There is very phate has been introduced into the stomach. great anxiety to see the list of the collections on the following day, when Potash-salts injected subcutaneously into rabbits quicken the pulse they are published in the local papers, and to know how high each by causing pain, but they do not alter either the number or force of the place of worship stands in the list, and how much the total collec- heart-beats in dogs or cats, either when given subcutaneously, by the tion is.