The New York herald., 1875-12-04


let tomorrow care OF itself Gold heating is
gold, and we must do the best for the present
time beng.
GENERAL ISDrPpKREScR
There rs no room 70 enlarge on the old theme Of WITH
ated air from cracks In or furnace the
nomca dampers and open doors In the stoves OF
private iie TO the horrible efuvia Of half ceansed
children packed IN the lily ventilated, furnace heated
school rooms or our public institutions. We, the peo-
pie, have so long looked upon them nseparable evils
that Gabries trumpet would not arouse us to active
opposition 10 them. But there is foul air which ls
strangely overlooked by hygienst and lawmaker-the
mal-alr from contagious diseases One OF these we
Danish 20 Blackwel's Island and with impotent at
tempt TO strange IN ITS BIRTH or rather before It's nccp
uon, by vaccination.
But smallpox, as il now exists, is far less fearful
scourge TO humanity, especially 10 children than diph
liberia and scarlet fever and against these attempt
prevention. Indeed quite to the contrary, ask
our dearest friends TO nhaie the poison by inviting
them to the funerals OF the dead with it, crowd
houses with men, women and children when every cor
Granny is reekng with the pestience we open
the coffin Of dead little darling and invite
friends TO draw TO it; carry the remains OF our
dead with the drest scouge that children have known
SINCE the days of the Pharaohs and King Herod-we
the seeds of disease into churches and crowd
II with people listen TO the oratory OF priests when
with every breath in that assemblage tho air becomes
more impure and moro imbued with the morbid exha-
ations OF the dead from the coffin before Parents
are there; mothers with children in arms, who hurry
almost alnting from the place when they accidentally
hear Of what complaint the child of her friend died
Should this not be stoppedS Should not every invi-
taton TO funeral service, every notice IN our news
papers inviting the community the funeral obsequies
also state the of death that all those who feared
il for themselves or children might stay awayS
fdisease is noticoably lurking in the walls of houses
where a solitary death has occurred II is much moro
markedly so in old houses whose history has many
sorrow and many tragedy Most markedly is tho
malgn influence OF malair seen in the wards of hos
pitfalls The great Hotel Deu OF Paris was compelled to
be closed while was student there account OF
the excessive mortality in its damp and often under
ground wards. In our own (now destroyed) Broadway
Hospital certain wards 1t was impossible to change.
They were washed and scrubbed, fumgated and
scraped and whitewashed; the windows left open
TO the sun and elements but all in vain Every patient
with ascalp wound developed erysipeas every ampu-
tated limb took on gangrone; every female confined
was seized with puerperal lever. The of the build
ing was practically given up for period before its dis
nantlement
Later still old Bellevue was found SO foul that
all puerpeal patients were dismissed from its confines
and sent 10 Blackwells Island and the latent
liant poison no one has seen il IS as subtle and as
omnprcsent harlequin in IA Christmas pantomime,
and after months OF cleansing, with the first OF
serious illness, il shows itself with the old cry Here
we are againlN
No one has seen il any than they have
the miasm Of our swamps, the typhus on the green,
embowered cottages Of the Connecticut the cholera in
river cellars II dedes winters ross, for it reap
pears in the same apartments with returning spring
and summer warmth
cLEASLIxEss is NEXT TO GoDLrSEss
We may never know how to eradicate malaria in our
fields our hospitals or our houses, but we do know
how TO prevent It, Absolute cleanliness is pre-
ventve How this is 10 be effected is Of second i'm
portancc
But we both know to prevent and how TO eradicate
the POISONOUS eluvia OF hospital wards, prison cells
and private chambers The soshing OF the floors with
soap suds abutions with the disnioctans of greedy
spectators with carbolic acid may and do often fail,
but the cleansing that comes in tho iegivng breath
OF Heaven in its purifying breezes in the revivifyng
them more surely then does the asdLSGn airs of long
used and shut up dormitories Did city people think
moro of this sunshine as an essential element OF
healthy life, instead Of whether II faded their curtains
and carpets the average life Of city residents would be
greatly heightened fhe ar which is sun dried Is
always healthy one, whether in the cold plains OF
Siberian or American DESERTS the burning sands of
Sahara II is the damp dark jungles and marshes,
and the undisturbed and unsunshined OF
hospital wards whore disease turks in secret
We take great precautions against fire. but next to
none against disease As example, the Fire Com
missoners required Of Barnum's Amphitheatre that
certain mineral paint should be put every exposed
piece Of woodwork in It's ouofsght beams and braces
and girders, and this was done, at cost Of 81 500
Suppose the Board of Health should require OF any
theatre any church that should make certain ues
ior ventilation, order change Of gas-expeng fur
naces for steam heating something akin, at cost
OF quarter OF this sum, what an outcry would be
madel
MEPHITc AIR FROM GAS BURNING
Many public places rely for their warmth entirely
upon the gas burnt in them for illumination. Mr.
Thomas G. Hodgkins, late Of tins city invented
method OF burning gas within confined glass globe
with the result that the entire products of combustion
were, by means OF tubes connected herewith, carried
OIL leaving the air OF the room uncon amnated, and in
summer unheatcd by the burnng-a design since re
invented or stolen and used TO some extent in
England. Its urged upon former owner
OF Irving Hall, which is markedly unventilated and
the objections made to it's use were TO this e1cct:-
would be with considerable these
new fixtures could be added, and would require
siderable cost to through the building the
sary outlet pipes When IL urged that perhaps the
change might be effected with no cost to him. in order
TO make the experiment IN public way and thus TO in
troduce Il to the world, the answer was, secondly Iii
the heat thus carried of IL would be necessary TO
provide means and fuel for heating, which would be
costly. Now, there s no Gre made except In extraor
dinarily cold weather In summer the hall is but sell
dom used
In private houses, especially in sleeping apartments
such a method Of lighting cannot but be Of use
The present
METHOD BUILDING HOUSES
almost alright, with double doors and india rubber
appliances TO the cracks in the windows is probably
saving Of fuel bat manifestly detrimental to health
and the weenng with which every breath Of
fresh air is excluded, the anxiety of everybody
against the influences Of a slight draught OF air
may, perhaps prevent few individual cases
Of cold and rheumatism, but the result cannot but be
prejudical to the common veal What can be worse
than the air OF shut up Third avenue car crowded
with all sorts of people. in all degrees Of cleanliness
cold day when the moist emanatons frost the
window panesS The horrors Of sleeping
utterable These 'modern improvements" bring hu-
mnnity 70 the level OF the Esquimaux, whose resi-
dences are in caverns dug ten 10 twenty feet under
ground entered through the top by means OF ladders
with other entrance or exit for air smoke
teria OF any description Their sole reliance for light
and heat Is the dame of rude wick burning
sci of oil the sole ventilation ia the occasional open
ing Of the trapdoor above Is II strange then that
cording TO the professional statements OF DR. HAYES
the distinguished Arctic traveller, their deaths-gen-
orally at an early Oge-are ascrbable 10 diseases
directly resulting from imperfect aerations
The deleterfous character OF the air In cars not
LETT TO be imagined, and, as evidence the careful
analysts Of the afr Of the ordinary passenger trains
leaving Boston, made by Professor William K Nicholx
Of the Massachusetts, Institute Of Technology may be
ced and the here gwen taken simply for short
and condensation fro very many similar ones -
The air IN the smoking car OF tho Stoningto1 steam
boat train the Boston and Providence Railroad
examined at intervals during the journey from Boston
to Providence December Ii, 1874 The train left Bos-
ton at $50 p. NJ, reaching Providence at o5 P. NJ
The capacity OF the about $50 cubic feet
The number OF passengers was thirty-seven OF whom
ntrh HE tha
during the trip.
lN..l.