, 1877-12-02

to their theory, ought to be the most honest
place in the world.
A NEW TRIUMPH FOR SCIENCE.
Probably no single experience IN this plous
City of Chicago has been productive OF SO
much profanity as tho Bridgeport odor. 1t
is mcphitic device that battles all descr1p-
ton, penetrates all crevices, defes the cold
of winter and revels in the heat of the dog
days, fastens itself on tho nerves Of the pro-
boscis to leave IN impression that can never
bo forgotten, drives children from play, turns
people over in their beds, and SO far has
scoffed at science. 1t has boen the constant
and hideous foe of Chicago existence, rep
rosentine the concentrated filth Of 3,058, 444
hogs, 5000 cattle, and 168,170 sheep an
nua1ly, aud injecting every nook and corner
Of otherwise happy households with
total of 77,277,o7o pounds of do
composed animal matter, not including the
blood, bones, and scraps, all of which is gen.
Grated and poured out by 237 tanks that
work night and day, Sundays and all, with
untiring activity. These nre the statistics of
tho well-known Chicago stink as furnished
by Health Commissioner DEWoLF and, if
anybody has heretofore bean surprised that
Chicago occasionally smells bad, we presume
that individual will no longer find it aston
ishing
Chicago has been deceived a good many
years into the belief that everything possible
was being done to counteract this demon OF
bad odor. Chicago taxpayers have certainly
paid ont considerable sums Of money to that
end. Even natural laws have been over
come, and tho river made to run
up hill in the fond hope that the
offensive matter might thus be car
ried of. bitches and sloughs have been
filed in, canals constructed, chimneys built
that soar to the sky, ordinances framed With
out number, Health Departments created
and sustained at public expense; but still the
flood of stink flows on forever. Various
patent appliances have been invented for the
work of deodorizing the noxous gases; some
of them applied the water-cure, others the
movement~cure, others the ordeal BY fire;
some persons favored washing the smell,
others burning it as gas, but neither water
nor fire could purify it entirely. None of
the remedies have been more than partially
successful, and even these the owners of the
rendering establishments have eyaded as
| much as possible.
At last Health Commissioner DEWoLF
comes to the front and cries - Eureka!' We
sincerely hope SO. He says that he has dis
covered IN agency that can graphic with
~. hat
| lae has tried it on q small scale and on large
scale, and that it has proved practicable,
effective, aud inexpensive. His invention
| is, technically speaking an application OF
per-nitrate of iron, but it would be as wei
come by any other name. DR.. DEWoIr
! says it is only necessary to construct huge
| box, about the sizo of horse-car, divide it
into partitions, fill these partitions with scraps
of sleet-iron, which everybody is glad to get
| rid of, burn birthstone in an adjoining fur
mace, supply it with the necessary oxygen
! to convert it into sulphuric acid as it passes
into the box, and then fire the bad
! smelling gases into this combination,
whence they emanate as pure as
| the blooming rose or the beautiful
snow, and leave no smell behind them.
The entire apparatus is said to cost only
9150, and it can be replenished three times
| a wear at cost of about $50. Commissioner
DEWo1F says that establishments running
118 tanks have already adopted this system,
| and that ho will proceed, if necessary, to
compel the others to do likewise. If he has
not deceived himself in the e1uberance
Of an inventor, Chicago may look forward to
| an odorless spring and summer.
The people of Chicago will rise up and
| bless Commissioner DEWo1r if the result shall
prove his discovery to be all that he claims
| for it. He should have life-tenure on the
| Office of Hea!th-C Commissioner, and be voted
| a pension after voluntary retirement, II he
can dowhnt he promises Amonumentsh6uld
| be reared in some central spot where future
| generations eau stop to do honor to his
memory, for he will have conferred upon
| Chicago boon greater than the combined
! donations Of all tho rich men who have
died and who are to die: leaving their wealth
to be employed for the public good. It may
| be the per-nitrate of iron which is to decom-
| pose, demora]ize, and disperso the sulphu-
| rotcd hydrogen, the phosphureted hydro
gen, the ammoniacal md other high-sonnd-
ing and bad-smeling ga6es, but it will be to
DR.. DEWo1r that this chemical agent must
be credited, and to him will belong the hon
| or Of cnancipating Chicago from its greatest
foe. We hope never to be compelled to re-
cant the eulogy.
| FNGIAND ann THE WAR
What pnrt England will play with reference
to the war, if it continues long enough to
| transfer operations to Roumolia, or with ref