Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-10
SANITATION In THE CITIES.
IMPORTANT PAPERS READ AT THE PHILA-
DELPHIA CONVENTION

Best Method Of Purifying Drinking Water
Need of state Legislation on meal
Preservation - PhiIndeIphia's Sewage
system Sharply Crittcised-Befects ol
Rural Homes.
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATcHi
NoRRIsTowN, May 9.-The fourth State
Sanitary Convention of Pennsylvania
opened a two days session at the Court
House to-day. State Treasurer Henry K.
Boyer was to have presided, but owing to the
illness of his father he telegraphed he would
not be present. Secretary of Internal Affairs
Thomas J. Stewart raped the convention to
order and gracefully presided over
the interesting deliberations. The ad-
dress of welcome was delivered
by Lawyer Isaac Chism, a member
of the town Council, and was responded to
BY Hon. Samuel f. Davies, member of the
State Board of Health of Pennsylvania, of
Lancaster.
The first paper read was by DR.. G. W.
Chancellor, Secretary of the State Board of
Health of Maryland. on ''the purlfcation of
drinking water" Filtration by sand he
maintained was Of very little use, by spongy
iron not very successful, by sponge platinum
most reliable, but too costly; bv electrolysis
the best. DIR. McClelland advocated filtra-
ton for large cities by means of iron, as
used at Antwerp. DR.. Lee confirmed the
statements in DR.. Chancellor's paper and
moved vote of thanks to the Maryland
doctor.
DIR. joseph Edwards, of Philadelphia,
maintained, in paper on christian Sani-
tatIon," that electrolysis was The best means
of purifying water. Judge Henry K.
Weand pointed out the way and the neces-
sity for sanitary organization OF the State
under legislative enactment, and valuable
suggestions were thrown out in the discus
sion of the paper BY President Judge Aaron
S. Swartz, LAWYER George W. Rogers and
Others Prof Henry Lehman, of Philadel-
phia, food analysis. of the State Board of
Agriculture, discussed the abuse OF salicylic
acid as a food preservative. He advocated
Legislative provision that food preserved by
that means should be labeled, giving the
amount of acid used.
General D. H. Hastings was expected to
read a paper entitled SANITARY Lessons of
the Johnstown Flood" but for some unex-
plained reason the Gubernatorial candidate
was not present. Dr. Lee received a tele-
gram this evening, however, from General
Hastings, stating that he would be present
tomorrow. In discussing paper on sew
age, Charles Heber Clarke, of Consho-
hocken, said that it was a disgrace to civili-
zation that Philadelphia was compelled to
resort for its drinking water to a stream
made common sewer by the cities and
towns of the Scuylkill valley.
DR.. Samuel Wolf, of Skippack, lecturer
on physiology at the Medico Chirurgical
College of Philadelphia, enlarged on the
sanitation of rural homes, and DR.. H A.
Arnold, of Ardmore, ex-President of the
Montgomery Medical Society, closed the
afternoon session by reading paper on
sanitary defects in manufacturing establish
ments. This evening A. Arnold Clark,
lecturer on hygiene, Lansing, Mich, de-
livered the annual address before the State
Board of Health, and Rev. Thomas r.
Beeber, pastor of the First Presbyterian
Church, Norristown, read a paper on the
relation of the church to sanitation, which
was discussed by Revs. Isaac Gibson and
j. B. Henry. The session will be concluded
at the State Hospital for the Insane to-
afternoon.