The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-01-30

they must keep their hands off the
schools. The spirit of the time is
strongly and steadily against any interfer-
ence with them-against any proposition
calculated to impair in the least degree their
usefulness and efficiency. In the work OF
retrenchment let them begin with them
selves, and abolish the scores and hundreds
of useless positions under the government
which were created solely to reward politi-
cal services and draw money from the
treasury There is whole legion of Office
holders drawing enormous salaries, for
almost no work at all, from the city. In
stead Of sweeping away institutions like
the New York College and putting the
teachers on almost starvation wages let
those fat sinecurists be driven out and sent
to earn an honest livelihood
Poisonous Gases I'm Sleeping Apart
ments.
4. During our waking hours when exposed
sations disagreeable or distressing that in
dictate the nature of their causes and sug-
gest means of counteracting the latter. But
when sleeping the most insidiously danger
Gus poisons are inhaled with injected air,
and the effect is often to lull the victim to
deeper sleep. Hence there is no escape
from this invisible danger and no means Of
avoiding it except careful ventilation, and,
above all things, attention to the pipes lead
ing sewage from the dwelling and the fues
that carry off the gases arising from stoves.
Unless there is free circulation and an
adequate supply Of pure air in bedroom
occupied by one or more persons the 2pl-
ume of air enclosed becomes very rapidly
exhausted of its life preserving properties
and proportionately charged with gases of
an opposite character. The mere breathing
of the air takes from it the oxygen and re-
turns volume of carbonic acid gas, which
speedily assumes an undue proportion to
the former and renders the atmosphere alb
solutely dangerous to life. But there are
other sources of danger that too frequently
fail to be recognized, even by generally
careful householders. These are the pipes
leading from water closets, sinks and fixed
wash hand basins to the house drain, and
which often serve as the inlets by which
that most deadly of poisons, sewer gas,
enters dwellings.
1t is popular error that the "pipe trap, F"
if in good order and filled with water, keeps
out this gas. Frequently and under many
conditions the gas is forced by't pressure
of expansion, and in low-lying districts by
tidal pressure in the sewer, through this
Io~ nd ha had hn
water closet or the kitchen without the least
diminution of its. poisonous properties. In
the house it accumulates rapidly and en-
genders typhus fever. diphtheria and other
forms of disease that are classed among the
most fatal known to medical science. I'm
less the house drain is itself ventilated by
an outlet shaft leading directly upward
through the wall to the roof there is no
safety in the plumbers precautions
against the entrance Of sewer gas. 1t does
not matter very much whether the poison
enters the hallway from water closet,
the kitchen from sink, or the bedroom from
fixed wash hand basin, it will attack the
sleeper in his bedroom. Thousands of fatal
cases of disease that are believed to be the
result of contagion are really due to sewer gas
poison brought directly into bedrooms by
the ways we have suggested. Another dan
gerous gas that must be guarded against in
bedrooms is that emanating from stoves.
During cold weather these stoves are much
used as heaters in sleeping apartments, and
through ignorance of the principles OF COM
bustion and ventilation the carbonic acid
gas given off fills the air with its poison.
| It is a hundred times safer to sleep in cold
| bedroom than in one heated by badly
regulated stove. Open fireplaces obviate all
danger and serve as the best means of ven
] tilntion.