The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-09-14

cAlly charged with foul and exhausted
arr Thofe who hare read that delight
full book "a Summer In a Garden" Will
remember the amusing account which
the authoress gives Of the horror Of fresh
air which Is entertained by the German
peasantry, and the pathetic story Of the
little child which ON one pretext OF
another was kept indoors from Its birth
until, to the agony OF It's foolish mothsr,
10 began to pine away and took its first
outing to the ohurchyard. The poorer
Glasses In this country are not guilty OF
such extreme stupidity, and their chill
dren are ct least turned out into the
streets at an early age, though the motive
may not always be connected with n.y.
giene. Much remains. however,, 70 be
d ne not only In small houses but In
vuburban villas. In great mansions, aud
especially In churches, chapels and other
places or public resort. to ensure con-
slant supply of pure air. The ventiia-
tion Of churches Is not unfrequently left
TO ignorant persons whose ruling notion
Is a dread Of draughts. and whose aim
phere unchanged from one years end TO
the other. The practice of warming
places Of worship by lighting the gas is
not uncommon, its authors being pre-
sumably unaware that each Jet consumes
as much air as i've human beings. At
the bottom OF many of our silly usages
lies the fear of taking cold; but Is
draught really as dangerous as the popu-
lar fancy loves to picture Il? Sir William
Preece invites the medical faculty 70 In
vestigate the question, and to begin by
defining dreught. We all know that a
cool breeze is. pleasant and a cold vtrd
braoing; when and how does the danger
beeinf II the question could be answered
satisfactorily, freAh air would lose its ter
Iors.
The frequent references In Leviticus
to the purity of water show that Moses
had anticipated the fundamental ideas OF
modsrn teaching ON the subject. IL
would be well for this country IL many
OF Its small towns and villages had APP
preached the question In the intelligent
spirit of the ancient Hebrew. Only those
who have looked over the bulky Blue
books of the local government board can
have any conception of the bs.inacy
with which the local authorities In rural
towns, and occasionally In places which
make soyue pretensions to Enlightenment,
set at nought the warnings of their medi-
cal officer and of the board iteef against
the use Of a contaminated water supply.
The TRAGIC experiences of Maid stone
have not yet faded away from the public
memory, and there are other localities
which only escape the same doom by m
annual miracle The great cities have.
happily, learned wisdom, and the INA
chinery by which they have provided an
ample store Of water for the consumption
OF their Inhabitants will strike Maeau-
lays adventurous traveller with as much
awe and admiration as the remains of
Roman aud Venetian aqueducts excite In
our minds. Perhaps there has been too
much readiness Co pillags the pleasant
and well-watered vailsys Of Wales, and
Sir William Preees may be right when he
states that the Welsh people will res st
any further appropriation We can avail 3
the result with equanimity; the Vyrnwy
rssarovir has been built, and will suffice
for our need for SONS years to come. IL
Ia matter for regret that the Mosaic
s swage ssssem cannot he REGARDED as
practicable In thiokly populated ooun-
try where large towns abound. and it Is
somewhat singuiAr--upon this point Sir
William Preece was not sufficiently ex-
plicit--that It's application on an extern
sive scale has nut proved successful.
Though land treatment has been tried in
mnny forms, 1t has not been found to
answer all the requirements Of the prob
lem and the general experience may be
summed up in Sir Williams remark that
sewage farms do not pay. The burning
OF refuse, on the other hand, which was
prescribed by Moses, is icing extensiveiy
adopt ed by municipalities which pride
themselves upon Keeping ABREAST OF MOI
ern science with this addition, that in
many places the heat thus generated is
turned to some useful purpose, such as
the supply Of electric power. 1t may be
that this connection between electricity
aud sanitation Is destined to become still
closer. Sir William Preeoe suggests that
electric currents may be employed TO pur-
lily our clothes of the germs Of disease
which they are apt co harbour, and IL Is
CertRiu that when the usa 0f alagtTic light
has become more common than it is now,
and gas has ceased to be burned as an IL
luminant, marked Improvement may
be expected in the health Of the commu-
nifty. Not only will the air be more
pure, hut the dirt which gas Inevitably
causes and the injury which 1t intiiots on
pictures and books viii be done away
with. When all these reforms have been
accomplished the age of man, which, ao-
cording to Sir William Preece, was raised
by Moses to the limit OF 20 years, may
approach nearer to a century or even a
ConturV and n half