Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-11-29
SANITARY MATTERS.
Dr.. Ta0s0ek's Report OF His Visit to
the Medical Meetings at Nashville.

| Health ASSOCIATION lately convened q
Nashville, whittier he and DR.. a. 3
Lenoir had been sent as delegates from
the Knox County Medical Society. Be.
low is given such part of his remarks
as seems to be of general interest:
The State Medical Society was
called to order by the President, DR.
E. M. Wight. The business of this
Society was of minor Importance,
mostly to welcome the American
Public Health Association to our
State, after which u few new members
were elected and the Society adjourn
ed to meet in Knoxville next April.
The American Public Health Assoc
citation was called TO order by Presi-
dent Cabbal, OF Virginia. A notable
feature of tine first days proceeding
WAS paper by Col. Geo. Il. Waring
on Drainage and Sewerage of Cities.
He advanced TWO ideas that
were new 10 those who have not
made specially of these mat
tiers, namely, that the neces-
slty OF having separate sewerage for
the removal OF storm water-that
being the most difficult to get rid of,
requiring much larger pipes 10 carry il
oil than that of ordinary sewers; and
d small amount of sewerage, when
carried through large pipes, does not
flush them. Ine next idea in this pa
per that attracted my attention was
that OF getting rid OF drainage water
in the cities lower than the place of
disposal, as in New Orleans, where the
city is below the bed of the river.
These two features OF the paper were
Interesting in their departure from our
usual thoughts. In the discussion of
this paper objection was made to the
authors making the utilization OF
sewerage a secondary matter, sew
eral cOntending that this was
matter Of primary import
lance. DR.. Bell, of New York,
editor of the S0nitari0,e, gave his ex-
perlence III the examination of bricks
and cement, as to their absorbing
properties, declaring that such drains
will absorb seven per cent. of the
sewerage water and Impart it to the
surrounding soil. To obviate this, the
speaker suggested that all sewers ought
to be made of glass. The paper adj
vOcated the idea of the early removal
of sewerage and garbage, aud that it
could be disposed of better by being
thrown into rivers than by feeding to
hOge.
President Wight, of the Board of
Health OF Milwaukee, said that he
had utilized garbage by having it fed
TO hogs, Whereupon it was found to
poison them, ana if it did not poison
them, left Them greater nuisance
than before.
Brewer, of Connecticut, said that
SUCH garbage had been found to kill
hogs, and stated that picked cucum-
bers in the garbage would kill the
hogs. / got in word at this point
in reference to the laws of the State
OF Tennessee, prohibiting the emptyr
ing of sewers into rivers, and that no
law Was more violated. Even at the
capitol of the State it was disregarded
every day.
The next paper was by E. G. Clark,
on the scavengering of the city of
Boston. He gave the workings of
that department., speaking OF the
sweeping of the streets, the keep
ing clear the straining arrangements
of the drains, etc. L was surprised
at his statement that their efforts had
proved vain in getting a company
TO utll re the garbage. They have
arrangements in Boston for trans
ferring the contents of privies to large
tanks or wagons by means of suction.
Tney can force this through pipes 125
feet, at the same time bringing it in
contact with the fumes OF burning
charcoal as q disinfectant. The cons
tents of the privies first have TO be
IiquIfied by forcing in water.
The next paper was by Dr.. Brewer,
in which he gave some interesting
figures to show the hygroscopic char.
acLer of different woods, chiefly those
of American growth. His expert
ments related 30 the amount of sOIu
ole matter in different woods aud the
effects Of such matter upon the water
of streams, ponds, etc. Also referred !
to the different conditions under which
wood decomp0sed the fastest.
An interesting paper was read by
DR.. Plunkett, of Nashville, on cotton
as fomlte, in which he reviewed the
question OF different materials being
purveyOrs of contagious matters, es-
peclally of yellow fever poison, and
cited Instances to show that cotton
would carry the gems of contagious
diseases.
The next paper was by Thornton,
President of the Board of Health OF
Memphis, and treated of The yellow
fever epidemic of 1873 8. La the paper
he condemns the former sanitary con
ditions Of the city in which he lives.
He thinks that the fever in Memphis
his year NUT have b3en from local
causes or the remains of the disease
laying over from last year. This pa
per ELECTED great deal of discussion,
as also the paper by Campbell, of Au-
gusta, Ga, on the Future Quaran-
tine, in which he took the
gcound that yellow fever was not
contagious, but it was infectious, and
that it was wrong and cruel to inf1ict
quarantine upon the person, but that
the clothing should be qusrantined
and nothing allowed to pass except
the person. As soon as yellow fever
attacks 8 person,it becomes changed or
destroyed, so as not to be transmissible.
Another paper, by Woodruff, q. s.
A, took the ground that the yellow
fever is an Indigenous disease, and as>
serted that it was so in Savannah
in 1875.
One of the best papers was that of
Gihon, of the U. s. N, upon the sub
ject of the protection of the innocent
and helpless members of the commu-
niiy from venereal diseases and their
1t elicitited very pro-
found attention and muchapplause,an and |
was the best paper / ever heard on the |
subject. He advocated the necessity |
of some quarantine against the spread |
of this disease.
Ho raFarrod tn the aCeten1a Of Gar |