Welsh Gazette and West Wales Advertiser

SANITATION FOR THE PEOPLE. [BY DR. WALKER.] III.—OBJECT (Continued.) IN my last article I endeavoured to sketch nature's mode of action in preventing dis- ease, and pointed out that all sanitary method is based consciously or unconsciously upon it. The agencies on which nature depends are practically three, light, air, and water— the others being distinctly subsidiary, and depending upon them for their existence and energy. The Sun, as the source of heat and light, is in a sense the sole agent, for air and water de- pend for their existence and energy on that luminary. Still without air and water the Sun's rays would be as useless as they are now on the surface of the Moon, and they must therefore be reckoned as indispensable allies. I propose to devote this article to a brief consideration of the cognate subjects of lighting, ventilation, aud heating, from a sanitary point of view, and as a practical application of nature's method. 1. Lighting may be either natural or artificial. Sunlight is nature's own illuminant, and any other light, except perhaps electricity, is not mothered by her, and is more or less wanting in her favour and approval. Very likely we were expected to keep better hours, and not turn night into day. We do not sufficiently appreciate the blessings of the light. Improvement is taking place. We are making larger windows and wider doors, and throwing them open oftener. Architects have worked out the amount of light to be provided, and the angle at which it should find its way so as to lighten every part of the room. But much remains to be done. We have no reason to think that the climate was more severe in these Islands at the time of the Romans, and yet our fore- fathers wore scanty clothing, lived in the open air, had no artificial light, and if numbers t'yved anything, were in robust health. But what about the carpets and curtains ? Let them go use colours to stand the Sun, and pull up the blinds and let the King of light come in. Con- sumption would quickly abate if we only used the sunlight enough, for light kills the germs of that dread disease. The aspect of our houses should be more thought of, and streets, terraces, &c., laid out with the view of getting sunshine. Trees and high ground, which keep off the sunlight should be avoided, and as many windows as possible have a south or partly south exposure. Balconies should be more popular, and people spend more time at work, meals, or amusement in the open air. Sheltered seats in parks and gardens, and the seaside should be provided at public expense for invalids and others. The products of combustion, in producing artificial light, foul the air and consume oxygen. Candles and oil produce carbonic acid gas. Coal gas if impure produces other poisonous gases as well. We used to be content with little light, and put it out early. Now we want daylight brilliance, and deny ourselves sleep. Is it any wonder that health is deteriorating, especially in our cities. Much may be done to diminish the danger by improved burners, such as the incandescent, or by special means of carry- ing off the foul air, as in the Wenham." Each gas burner pollutes the air as much as five persons, and consumes as much oxygen. Electricity as a lighting agent is the best, and, when the expense is reduced, will become the light of the future. 2. Ventilation. Fresh air is as necessary for health as food, and yet how few think about it ? If a beam of sunlight falls through a dark room, its path may be seen clearly by the illumina- tion of the dust in the atmosphere. It is merely the coarser particles we see. There are besides countless myriads of atoms quite invisible. Were we to see them we would not care to breathe at all. From the lungs and skin, quantities of organic matter are being given off, and in breathing carbonic-acid-gas is produced. As a con- sequence the air of our rooms is often very poisonous. If -6 (six-tenths) of a part of rfcid-carbonic-gas in 1,000 cubic feet of air is precent the air is impure 15 parts per 1,000 produces headaches and sickness 25 parts will extinguish the light of a candle; 50 parts will kill any animal. An adult produces -6 per 1,000 in an hour, and there is always '4 per 1,000 already present in air' He requires, therefore, 3,000 cubic feet of air per hour for health. A room of 10 ft. by 15 and 10 ft. high holds about 1,500 cubic feet of air. It would require to be changed twice an hour to supply this amount. From these figures it may be seen how far our homes are from per- fection. Rooms should be larger and loftier than they usually are. It is not uncommon to have three or four persons spending hours in a room of small size with one or more gas burners, and the door and window carefully closed. What is the remedy? An open fire is a great help. There may be ventilators in the chimney breast, wall, cornice, door or Tobin's tubes may be used. A ventilated grate such as Galton's is an excellent means of admitting fresh and yet warm air, or an air stove like George's Calorigen. The window and door should be opposite each other to secure perflation or through ventilation. The next best is when the door and window are at right angles. Draughts are unpleasant, but they are better than bad air, and show the need of ventilation. The doors and windows should be opened as often as possible, and left open when the weather is fine. Bedrooms (for night is the time of greatest danger) should be venti- lated by part of the lower sash being open, with a broad bead at the bottom so as to have a space between the sashes, or by letting the upper sash down from the top, and putting a piece of perforated zinc over the opening. The Legislature has insisted upon public in- stitutions being ventilated. Common lodg- ing houses must have 240 cubic feet of air for each. adult, workhouses 300, barracks 400, police 450, prisons 500 to 800, and hospitals 1;200. Even the first named has better air than many a respectable artizan provides for his family I Churches, Chapels and Halls are often the worst offenders, and have a horrible atmosphere, which is rendered worse by using the gas light as a means of heating. 3. Heating of course is necessary in this climate, but need not be a means of injury to health, rather the re- verse. The law of nature, which causes cold air to fall and warm air to rise, must be borne in mind. The heat should be admitted as near the floor level as possible, and means of escape of the heated air provided near the ceil- ing. The openfireasa means of warming is ex- travagant, as most of the heat is lost. The slow combustion stove and the ventilated grate, or George's stove already mentioned, are better. Gas is better than coal, when used in the fireplace, if the chimney draws well; but it is a foolish thing to use it other wise for heating purposes. In public build- ings hot fresh air (not burnt) let in at the ground level is the best means of warming, and should be admitted at several places and not in one. The lighting should be by roof lights with ventilating shafts or by electrioity.

FREE SPEECH. IN the House of Commons last week the question of free speech was taken up seriously by the Liberal party, and it was high time, after the scandalous scenes which took place under mob law in Scarborough, where, to borrow the words of the Rev. HUGH PRICE HUGHES, those degraded savages went and destroyed the property of a family that was held in universal honour by all who knew any member of it—the Rowntree family; and even threatened physical violence." Mr. HUGHES added that we must have freedom of thought, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech—and a man who had such a bad opinion of his own opinions that he was unwilling even to hear the other side would ultimately induce the majority to go on the other side-and the death-knell of England would be rung when honest and patriotic citizens were attacked for their opinions by violent mobs. The Government have found that the Liberals, however divided on the war, are at least united in defence of free speech. Commenting on the recent outbreaks, the Speaker says, freedom at home is under sentence of death from the same violence which proscribes the independence of the Republics; and there does not seem to survive enough of the old manliness of the English character to crush in an over- mastering indignation this intolerant and intolerable spirit. If these riots are not ephemeral manifestations of an ephemeral mood they must be symptoms of a degradation of character which will make many English- men hang their heads." We are further told that these outbreaks are the inevitable psychological results of the teaching of the last few years. The nation has been taught, says that journal, that an Englishman is a law to himself. It is a lesson which is soon picked up. We have been taught that nationality has no rights, and that magna- nimity is cowardice. The nation has assimilated its diet with startling rapidity, and the result is seen in the boisterous Imperialism which runs riot in our midst, and sets at naught law, order, manners, and fair play. It has been pointed out that impunity is infection and that one meeting broken up with impunity means that no meeting is safe. There is a. danger of allowing terrorism to creep into politics, and unless the tide of intolerance, which is now running so high and strong, is stemmed by Liberal resistance, it will soon sweep away other safeguards of liberty than the right of public meeting. Free speech has been a kind of safety valve in our country, and we have escaped the anarchy and revolutions which have been produced in many of the continental countries by a policy of repres- sion and terrorism. Mr. BALFOUR pro- pounded a new doctriuce in the House of Commons last week-a. doctr ine which may have fatal results for the nation; and it was pertinently pointed out that the doctrine of the limit of human endurance might be applied to other things, to strikes, for instance, as well as to Jingo crowds.

NOTES AND COMMENTS. The price of coal in the Forest of Dean has been reduced by two shillings a ton. This week we-print in full a valuable and Ii interesting paper on Five Years of Inter- mediate Education by ir. H. H. Meyler, M.A., headmaster of the Machynlleth County School. The Indian Viceroy's telegram states that both in extent and severity the distress caused by the famine continues to increase. There are over 4,800,000 persons in receipt of relief. At a meeting of the Carnarvonshire County Council last week it was announced that goldfinches would in future be protected all the year round in Carnarvonshire, under the Wild Birds Protection Act. This was in response to the Council's petition, to the efleet that this valuable and interesting bird is rapidly being exterminated. Amid manifold and, just now, exceptional engagements the Queen has found time to write a letter of condolence to Mrs. Creelock, sister of Mr. Vaughan Davies, M.P., who had four sons at the front in South Africa. One was killed and three seriously wounded. Her Majesty has asked for a photograph of the dead soldier. At a. meeting of the Ladies' Committee for promoting the Welsh Military Hospital for South Africa, held at the house of Mr. Brynmor Jones, M.P., Viscountess Parker announced that the Queen has contributed ■ £ 100 to endow two beds, and the Prince of Wales X50 to endow a bed to be called the Albert Edward bed. She said she had collected in the week X306 11s. 6d. Mr. W. T. Jones, of Melbourne, had given X100. A Royal Commission is to be appointed to inquire into the fishery industries of England, Scotland, and Wales, and the names of the Commissioners will shortly be published in the London Gazette." The Earl of Elgin has consented to act as chairman of the Commissioners, which will consist of nine or ten members, including, it is believed, Mr. W. E. Archer, Chief Inspector of Fisheries, the Duke of Bedford, and a representative of the Fishmongers' Company. It is expected that the offices of the Commission will be fixed in London, although from the nature and extent of the terms of reference local inquiries will require to be held. At the annual dinner of the Manchester Brewers' Central Association, held last week, the Chairman, Mr. W. T. Rothwell, urged that it was the duty of members of the trade to resist any legislation proposed upon the lines of Lord Peel's minority report. The trade, he said, was called upon to bear more than its equitable share of the increased taxation rendered necessary by the war, and they should protest against these continual impositions. While they were as loyal and patriotic as any other section of the com- munity, the Government were running great risk of alienating some of their supporters by a too free use of the taxation whip. A good many stories are current with regard to Mr. Rhodes's experiences in Kimberley during the siege. They all point to the conclusion that his relations with the military, if not with the civil authorities, were at times somewhat strained. It is said that he was rather unduly anxious for the relief of the town as early as November, and was inclined to vent his disappointment at the delay in language which did not by any means commend itself to the men on whose shoulders fell the burden of the defence. The story that Lord Kitchener heliographed to Colonel Kekewich-when the latter complained that Rhodes was giving trouble- You had better put him in chains!" is probably not so very far astray. A British officer, writing in the -'North American Review makes a positive statement that it was owing to Mr. Rhodes's urgent appeals for relief nearly four months ago that Sir Redvers Buller's plan of campaign was diverted. The annual return of the Education Department of School Boards and School Attendance Committees, on Jan. 1, 1900, has just been presented to Parliament. In England there are 2,184 school boards, and in Wales 343; and the population of these districts, according to the census of 1891, was 20,067,477. The balance of the popula- tion, viz., 8,935,048, remained outside school board jurisdiction, all these districts maintaining by voluntary effort the public school accommodation required by the Education Acts. During 1899 twenty new boards were formed in England and two in Wales. Very little of the population in the Principality is outside school board jurisctrcuon. The use of boric acid and other chemicals by butter merchants as preservatives has I. lately been the subject of much controversy. Some authorities contend that they are unnecessary and no better than common salt; others that they are dangerous to health, and that their use should be prohibited by law. The Departmental Committee on Food Preservatives has still to pronounce its verdict. Sir Horatio Lloyd at the Rhyl County Court on Friday held that the use of boric acid constitutes an act of adulteration. Judge Lloyd was asked to decide whether butter containing ten grains of boric acid to the pound was pure butter," and he declared that in a legal sense it was not, for if ten grains of a foreign substance might be added without impairing the purity of the butter, why not fifty or a hundred? The Judge decided that butter containing boric acid could not be described as pure" and he explained that the question of the acid being injurious to health was not involved in his judgment in any way. — At an adjourned annual licensing meeting of the Highgate Division, London, great interest was caused by notices of opposition having been given by the licensed victuallers of the neighbourhood to the renewal of a number of grocers' licenses. The first existing license on the list to meet with opposition was one for beer, wine, and spirits, standing in the name of Mrs. E. B. Barber' of 64, Archway-road, Highgate, it being alleged that the licensee had altered the character of the business for which the license was granted. Mr. John Glover. chairman of the Bench, said that a gradual process of evolution had been going on here. Once the place was a grocer's shop only then a grocer's license was obtained after- wards the premises passed into the hands of brewers a beer engine and all the parapher- nalia of a beer-house was set up; there was only enough grocery in the place to swear by, and the place to all intents and purposes J had become an off-licensed beer-house. The I renewal of the license was i-efused.-In another case, that of Henry Chiswell, the! holder of a grocer's license at 140, Myddleton-1 road, it was stated that the licensee had j erected a beer engine for the supply of beer in jugs, erected a store house for his beer, and during the last year increased the sale of the beer from 1 f barrels to 15 barrels per week. The renewal was refused. Air- John Evans, solicitor, Aberystwyth,, has been appointed under-sheriff for the, county of Cardigan. iD Deep and widespread sympathy is felt for Alderman Peter Jones in the terrible bereavement which has befallen him by the sudden death of his wife, which took place quite unexpectedly on Monday morning. The Government are proposing to reform the youthful offender by the old-fashioned remedy of whipping, and a Bill for that purpose passed the Committee of the House of Lords last week. It was announced at nine o'clock on Tues- day night that Principal Edwards, of Bala, was gradually getting weaker, and that the medical attendantsJiad given up all hopes of recovery. J The sanitary condition of certain portions j of Borth came under consideration again at I the last meeting of the Aberystwyth Rural District Council. The inhabitants of that place should carefully read what was said of the condition of the village at last Monday's meeting. Temperance Reform gained a notable victory last week by the success of Mr. Spicer's Sunday Closing Bill for Monmouth- shire. Several Conservative members sup- ported the Bill on the ground that the -Licensing Commission had recommended it. The second reading was carried by a majority of 64 in spite of the opposition of the Home Secretary. At the annual meeting of the Cardigan County Council on Thursday Mr. Vaughan Davies, M.P., was elected chairman in succession to the Rev. T. Mason Jones, The annual meeting of the Merioneth County Council was held the same day, when Mr. Haydn Jones, Towyn, was elected chairman in succession to Mr. E. P. Jones Festiniog. Mr. Humphreys-Owen, M.P.* has been re-elected chairman of the Mont- gomery County Council. ^sociation of Assistant Masters of' Welsh County Schools have adopted a series of resolutions in which they declare that. the present system of remuneration of assistants is unsatifactory, that an effort should be made to establish a fixed scale of increment of salary in intermediate schools, and that it is not desirable in the best interests of. education in Wales and Monmouthshire that.' engagements of assistant masters should terminate with a change of headmaster. Mr. C. M. Williams is victorious all along the line on the lease question at Aberystwyth.. A colleague of his was heard to remark the other day that C.M." was as successful as I General" Bobs" in his long and arduous campaign on this thorny question. It might have been fittingly added that Mr. Williams' present success, like that of Lord Roberts, I is due to the mastery of detail and devotion j in the past to the higher duties of his office, j Thorough knowledge and wide experience' j are as essential to the successful marshalling of figures and facts in municipar battles as they are to .the successful marshalling of forces in the battles of the Empire. At a. meeting of the Town Council on Tuesday it was agreed to renew Mr. Morton s lease in Terrace-road on the rateable value scale, and not on the site scale. All who have the, welfare of the town at heart, and are anxious. to promote its highest interests should not allow this matter to go by unheeded. At a meeting of the Cardigan County j Council last week, Dr Lloyd, Adpar, spoke strongly in favour of a proposal to unite the counties of Cardigan, Carmarthen, and J Pembroke for the purpose of appointing a joint medical officer of health. The proposal was favourably considered, and it is to be hoped that it will be carried out at no distant date. A joint counties medical officer of health would not be expected to j devote his time to the details of sanitary work in the various districts. That would be an impossible task, and it would defeat the object of his office, which should be not to give each district in turn the whole of his time and energy, but to give all the full benefit of a wide comparative knowledge, and of a high standard of sanitation. He would be expected to "coach" backward districts, and to work them up to an average standard--and that standard would have to be progressive. The return issued last week by the Education Department in reference to school boards and school attendance com- mittees shows that in Wales there are now 343 school boards to a population of 1,512,3,97. Glamorganshire is at the head of the list with 61 school boards to a population of 687,218. Carmarthen comes next with 38 boards and a population of 130,566, and Cardigan has the same number of boards, though its population is less than half that of Carmarthenshire, viz.: 63,467. Merioneth- shire has 21 boards and a population of 49,212; Montgomeryshire, 17 boards and a. population of 58,003. Cardiganshire, in proportion to its population, has the largest number of school boards. Flintshire, where there are 67 Church ef England and eight Roman Catholic schools to ten Board schools, has decidedly the smallest. It is noteworthy that while in England the Voluntary schools outnumber the Board in the proportion of 12,298 to 3,925, in Wales the Board schools outnumber the Voluntary in the proportion of 716 to 704. Already the Board-school system in Wales has secured a strong position, and the fact that the returns for the past year show an increase in the number of school boards from 337 to 343 seems to give a promise of still further growth. Mr. Hugh Price Hughes is becoming his 9 better self once more. In his address on Sunday afternoon Mr. Hughes said there were many signs, that the Government might at any moment be called on to lay down conditions of peace for South Africa. The passions of men had, for some reason which he could not quite understand, been aroused to an unprecedented degree by questions connected with the war. There- fore he would gladly have avoided the subject had his duty permitted him to do so. With all his heart he condemned the attacks on those who took the side of the Boers (hear, hear), but, at the same time, he urged the people who held the anti-English view hn 1..1 1 oiiuuxu lioc oe provocative rn their language, should remember that liberty must not degenerate into licence (hear, hear). On what points could they find a common basis of peace? He believed most people were agreed that in our treatment of the Boers there should be no vindictiveness (hear, hear). We must put an end to slavery in every shape, whether carried on by Boer or capitalist (cheers). And we must abolish race ascendency. Boer must not lord it over Briton (cheers), nor Briton over Boer (hear, hear). He (Mr. Hughes) hoped we should be able within a definite period to grant self-government to the Transvaal and to the Free State. But both must come under the British flag, which alone made peace, justice, freedom, and equality possible in South Africa (cheers).