Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-04
The Health Onicer.s Report.

The Health Officers Report.
The annual report of the Health Officer,
which we print this morning, shows that
the health OF the city was unexception-
ably good last year. The death rate among
the negroes was large, but it is large in
every Southern city. There doesn't APP
pear to be any way to force them to take
better care of themselves. Their death
rate VIII decrease only as
their condition improves. The report
shows that the city was remarkably
free from smallpox during the past year.
This disease makes fearful havoc in
towns where there is a large negro popu-
lation. Everything possible is done to
get the negroes to submit to vaccination,
but the majority Of them either refuse
or neglect 10 adopt this means
of protection. The Health Officers
suggestions respecting drainage and
vaults ought to be acted on. Drainage is
defective in the city as we'll as in the
suburbs. In many of the streets there
are pools OF water for a good while after a
heavy rain. The streets ought TO be
graded, so that the water would run OFF
the city submitted to the evils which flow
from them long enough? They ought to
be closed up at once and connections
made with the sewers. Tainted
water and tainted air ought to
be sufficient to influence the City Council
to take a prompt and decided stand in
favor of reform in this matter. The re-
marks of the report on quarantine Will be
read with interest. OF course there are
kickers against a strict quarantine, and
there always VIII be, but the kickers as a
rule would be the first to get out of the
city if the fever should make its appear
ance. Above all things the city
wants its health preserved. An epidemic
Of yellow fever for three months
would set the city back half
n dozen years. Let the quarantine be
characterized it last year and the great
majority of the people will be satisfied.
1t is better to sacrifice a very small part
OF our commerce than to run the risk of
being cut off from the world, and of hav-
ing our entire commerce suspended for
|! three or four months.
1t seems that Mr.. Kelly has spent so
much time encouraging his stockholders
that another motor has been invented
which knocks his machine entirely out of
the ring. Mr.. W. 5. Caldwell, formerly
of Pittsburg, has discovered a new motive
power which is called the triple thermic
motor. The power is obtained from the
yapOr of bi-sulphide of carbon. 1t is gem
Grated in boiler peculiarly adapted to
the purpose. Only lis degrees F. are
necessary to convert the bi-sulphide Of
carbon into vapor, and its power is said
to far surpass that of steam. A sixty
horse power engine, using this ma
terial has been in use for
the past six months in an axe factory in
New York, it is said, the vaper being
generated with very little fuel in what
corresponds to a 15-hOrse power steam
boiler. The exhaust vaper is liquefied
and returned to the vapOrizer, so that the
expense for material is very small. 1t is
said that a syndicate with a capital Of
S25,0OO,00 IS being organized to control
the invention, and the inventor and share
holders already feel sure of enormous for
tunes. There have been so many
wonderful motive powers discovered of
late years which never came to anything
that people Will be somewhat slow to take
in all the stories that are being told about
this one. If, however, it should prove to
be anything like what it is represented to
be. it will revOlutiOnize the mechanical
and engineering world