SCABLET FEVER AND SEWER GAS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2649, 3 October 1882, Page 3

SCABLET FEVER AND SEWER GAS.

Ac a combined meeting of the members of the North-western and Yorkshire Associations of Me: iced Officers of Health, held at Doncaster on 30th June last. Mr J. M. Fox, Medionl Officer o! Health for Mid-Cheshire, read an able paper on soarlet fever in connection with defective relations between the dwelling and the gewer. He stated that, guided by the germ theory of disease, we were constantly remindad that it was with the condifc-'ons or! lifo itself, end not mere chemical rescttou*, that our ccnitary investigations w:»'3 ormcerned, find that the greatest safety against aymotic impact consisted in the removal of thoee conditions of putrefaction amid whioh thcoa forms o£ lifo flourish. Thoro bad r?c--ntly been c tcndi*ccy to divorce Bos.vls.tino, ea f*r as eanitary regulations were concerned, f?cm some other kinds of zymotic diseases 5 also 100 much attention was given to sho infection lyiug in the particles shod fi'om the skin, or upon the exudations from the i ibroat. Mr Fcx considered this concentration of energy ues wrong, for two reasonu —First, ha ciufiidered a fortnight, after the cessation of tho fever tho epithelium then Ehed after the dicinfoction of the ekin wrs harmless; s.nd, Bocondly, that it wss a mis.tate to lock to this as tho only source, or even the principal one, which oould be tho most cciiyc means of communieatii-g the disc-?-3a. Ea had arrived at the conclusion that ths germs of scarlet fever in vsrioua excretions and in the washings of infected bedding and clofbing might cbt:-.in. direct eccM3 to the air, to the powers, or to drains or ash pin;, wherave-;; their domestic drains or crraugam?nts for disposing 0? house refuse usi'e not under efficienc sanitary control, and to these might be traced outbreaks c£ scarlet ferer. He would, thsi'etcve, consider that tufficisnt attention xrza t,iveu to isolation, and tho thorough di;i?ifection of till secretions, before thoy wera consigned to the Ejhpit or the sewer, both during the foyer and fcr & fortnight afterwards. Ko qlbo believed thut the withdrawal of sewer &ir from houses and the removal of filth before any rei.-oocdent ohanges took plsca hadssdi.eit ar.d iiaportant a bearing upon liability to outbreak? of scarlet fever as to thos<! oJ olhor dheasos. more exclusively identified with poisonous changes in excrets. Dr. J. M. \v ilsoDj medical officer of health for DonoP-cteFj also read a paper on tho ventilation of hcnio drome. Ee affirmed thai ouaes ought to bo mora effeolually cut ofi from waves o£ sewer air passing along the house drains than any water trs>p cc-.alo possibly do. After explainia,-? thu daftC'i usually founa in the connections of hoj;:drains, ar-d thoir influence in causing catbreaks of diaoaeo, the model by-la re s oi th& Looal Government Board relating to the ventilation oi houte were cisousied. A hearty approval wan given to the suggestions, whereby at least two opoaings are required at the opposite extremities of all bouse drains, thereby assuring not ordy ar; outlet tor foul air, but also a constant current of fresh air through the drains. A very interesting discussion took plaoa on tho read ing of the papers.