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allows a room of about 8x10, with eight-foot ceiling. Such a room requires thorough and constant ventilation if occupied by only one person. Yet City Boards often accept much less than this and seek to make up for it by light and the constancy of ventilation.

In Boston, an examination of 910 houses showed 360 in an unsatisfactory condition, due allowance being made for much that is unavoidable in the occupancy of tenants of small incomes. The laws of Boston with reference to tenement and lodging-houses contain "certain important provisions regarding the construction, ventilation, lighting, drainage, cleanliness and overcrowding of houses." The recommendations contained in this report are applicable to all growing cities, and are as follows:

"Issuance, at the discretion of the Board of Health, of permits to owners or lessees of tenement and lodging-houses, limiting the number of occupants, as an assistance in checking overcrowding.

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Doing away to the fullest practicable extent with the employment of inner rooms, not communicating directly with the outer air, in existing tenement and lodging-houses, and the adoption of efficient measures to prevent their introduction into new construction. strictions for the future regarding the proportion of a lot to be covered by a tenement or lodging-house.

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"If cellars and basements are to be allowed to be occupied regularly as dwellings, then they should be required to be made watertight; but it is advised that the occupancy of cellars and basements for sleeping purposes should be prohibited.

"More rigorous enforcement of the law against uncleanliness. "Provision for the removal of privy-vaults from alleys and courts excepted in the present law on account of not having sewers.

"Sink waste-pipes to be required to be individually trapped.

"The establishing of such detailed regulations as may seem wise concerning house-drainage and plumbing fixtures, and the general supervision of, and discretionary action regarding the same, to be undertaken by the Board of Health.

"Inspecting force of the Board of Health to be increased for the purpose of semi-annual inspection of tenement and lodging-houses. "Widening of the scope of the tenement-house law, so as to embrace houses of a smaller number of families than is specified in the present law.

"Establishment of open squares in the midst of the tenementhouse districts.

"Widening of narrow streets where practicable.

"Such severity in the laws and their enforcement as shall tend to do away with some of the most objectionable houses now in use.

"Improvement of the sewerage in certain streets where it is now known to be bad."

Chicago has a comprehensive system of tenement-house and factory inspection. As to it Dr. De Wolf, the Commissioner of Health, says: "The character and importance of the work, as the basis for a sound and permanent sanitary advance, and its performance, imperfect as it is, has been largely instrumental in steadily decreasing our death-rate." Since this was written $100,000 has been appropriated for a thorough house-to-house inspection of the entire city. It is needless to multiply instances to show how our most rapidly-growing cities are realizing the necessity of regulating the construction and occupancy of dwellings. Until there are legal enactments which will secure this care over the construction and alteration of dwellings, and especially those offered for rental, all else of sanitary administration will be too much -only the cleansing of the outside, while within are the centers of contagion and disease. It will not do to delay, or to apply the law only to our larger cities. First of all, the right sanitary construction of new buildings must be secured. Some of the most flagrant violations of construction, as to pipes, and as to ventilation, occur in the hotels and boarding-houses of summer resorts, or in towns that have within a few years shown rapid growth. Where alterations are ordered, or are being made, these should have careful supervision. Such cities as Jersey City, Hoboken, Newark, Paterson, Camden and some smaller ones, should have a sanitary survey made which would describe the defects of each house, and then seek to remedy them with as much speed as possible. Laws on these subjects are duly enforced in New York and other cities, and their constitutionality and necessity have been alike demonstrated. This Board some time since had an examination made of some districts in Camden, which led to more active sanitary service in that city. Several years since the attention of Engineer Harrison was attracted to the amount of sickness on the hill near Jersey City. An examination of houses, and a record of cases, which he portrayed upon a map in our possession, well illustrated the connection between dwelling-houses and disease.

We ask that our City Boards of Health give to this subject the attention which so fundamental and essential a part of sanitary science demands. Every city should have its Building Inspector, and our excellent State law as to plumbing should be enforced both in old and new buildings. We ask that the Legislature provide laws and give

such authority to Health Boards as will enable them to enforce proper regulations. It is the cause of the laborer, of the wife and the children, of the citizen, of all the people.

Healthy homes are the great need of modern civilization, especially because of the massing of the people in cities. It is not only that we have such micro-photographs of actual conditions as the New York City Board have caused to be taken. A sadder photograph is furnished in experiences and results, which, if less harrowing to the eye, are more serious to the labor, health and morals of society. Let us see to it that sanitary laws are applied in the homes, the schoolhouses and the workshops of our land, and we will do more to give physical stamina to our people and to elevate the masses than can be done in any other way.

NEW JERSEY SANITARY ASSOCIATION.

REPORT, WITH OUTLINE OF PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS, SESSION OF

1890.

BY D. C. ENGLISH, M.D., SECRETARY.

The sixteenth annual meeting of the New Jersey Sanitary Association was held in the Assembly Chamber, at the State House, Trenton, commencing Friday afternoon, December 12th, at 2 o'clock. The President, George P. Olcott, C.E., of East Orange, in the chair. Dr. Cornelius Shepherd, of Trenton, chairman of the local committee, then addressed the Association in earnest words of welcome of its members, to the city of Trenton.

He referred to the sacrifices they made in coming together to discuss questions of sanitary science, which are of such great importance to the community-questions which demand much thought and profound research. The field is a large one, and, though in our day there are many workers therein, and very many important facts have been settled, and much reliable data accumulated, there are yet the richest mines to explore and the grandest truths to be discovered. After calling attention to some of the advances in science during the past few years, Dr. Shepherd closed by expressing the hope that the new discovery of Professor Koch might place the scourge of tuberculosis under the control of sanitation.

President Olcott made a brief response, thanking the committee for their warm words of welcome.

THE RELATION OF GROUND-WATER TO THE HEALTH OF

THE COMMUNITY.

Col. George E. Waring, C.E., of Newport, R. I., was introduced, and read a paper on "The Relation of Ground-Water to the Health of the Community." (See this report, page 123.)

Prof. P. T. Austen, Ph.D., of New Brunswick, was then introduced to open discussion on Colonel Waring's paper.

He agreed with Colonel Waring in the positions taken in the able paper presented, especially as to the mode of disposal of sewage underground. It was an old saying, and true among ordinary persons, that a thing "out of sight" is "out of mind," and this appears in full force in this matter. Many think, when they put a drain or anything not healthful under ground, that it is all right. The sanitarian knows that that is the time for him to begin work. We know that the products of life produce death unless properly disposed of. The most imminent danger which threatens anyone was from the products of his own life. This fact ought to be brought to the attention of the public, and emphasized in the most simple and impressive way. While we are considering microbes, we should also consider ptomaines, which have much to do with the causation of disease. We should not lose sight of the products of life in water. Impure water is like a powder magazine and the microbes like sparks; when they come together, the disturbance comes. Not only must the microbes be removed from the water, but these little, poisonous, effete products of the lower forms of life in water. The microbes are removable in various ways, but we know little about how to get rid of their products. Here is a great field for investigation. Professor Brigant and others have done much in their investigations to show the great power of these poisons, and doubtless in time we shall understand how to deal with these volatile bases.

He spoke of the prevalence in communities at times of diarrhoeal diseases, and questioned how far they are due to microbes and to their products. While recognizing how little we know on these points, we have seen how a small quantity of the ptomaines are capable of creating a great disturbance in the system.

Professor Austen then spoke of the objection so often raised against underground sewage disposal that it is so expensive. Such objections should not be considered. A community should be made to consider the question of responsibility and be compelled to dispose of the sewage in the manner least dangerous to health. Protection to the community should be the first requisite in establishing a sewerage system. In this civilized age the people should be made to realize that it is not enough to simply get it out of sight, but to dispose of all sewage so that it would neither injure themselves or anyone else. They have

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