The Practical Value of Sanitation. In the course of his introductory to the tenth biennial report of the Maryland State Board of Health, the secretary, Dr. James A. Stewart, says, "The world over, wherever sanitary laws have been enforced, the death-rate has steadily diminished, whilst the effective force of an increased producing power has been correspondingly increased. The loss in earning capacity in all classes of workers is in exact proportion to the amount of sickness which has prevailed during a given period of time. No better example can be cited than in the improved productive power of the people of the eastern shore of Maryland, through the improvement in the general health of that section of our State. Only a few years ago the value of land in that section was at the lowest ebb, owing to a general reputation for unhealthfulness, whilst at this time farm lands have doubled and in some places quadrupled in value. A Unique Sanitary Building. In Yokohama a unique building has recently been constructed by Dr. W. Van der Heyden. The walls are of boxes of glass arranged in brick fashion and filled with a solution of alum, which allows light to pass but intercepts certain heat rays. These boxes, which have now resisted during one year and a half the influence of cold and heat, shocks and earthquakes, are resting on cast-iron supports. The necessary gaps between two rows are filled with felt and then covered with boards. A series of the boxes above each other and next to one another, with as little space between as possible, and this space filled with felt, form the outside walls of the house; the roof, which is flat and is supported by the castiron pillars which carry the boxes, can be made in exactly the same mould. In the house, glass panes pressed against each other, but with strips of rubber between them, form the horizontal ceiling; above this a thick layer of ashes rests, whereupon is a light frame-work of wood covered over with cement. This, of course, makes the roof not translucent, but it defends the roof well against radiant heat, and being made of bad conducting material, the heat of the interior is not lost; the four walls being totally translucent, there is more light than in any other description of dwelling. Special arrangements provide for ventilation and drainage. The Concomitants of Cremation. It will be, doubtless, interesting to our readers to peruse this following brief description of a cremation which the Rev. Dr. Beecher witnessed at Lancaster, Pa., and described in the Elmira Advertiser: "A summer morning, early; a short ride past ancient cemeteries; a grass-grown carriage-way between rows of corn, cool with dew; a modest brick house, that might be mistaken for a mission chapel, with its steep roof and lancet-topped windows; broad two-leaved front door; marble tablet above it inscribed in bold old English text: "Crematorium." Four friends, an undertaker, and our dead. We enter. "A cool room,-almost cold; a smooth, brown-stone floor; walls grained oak; six windows, all open, on three sides of the high, church-like room. The fourth wall, opposite the door, broken by two flat-arched iron doors,-black. Revealed rafters and roof of iron, high up. Sunbeams slanting low through the two east windows; a bier framed honestly and hip-high, on wooden casters; a latticed cradle of iron, with low sides and coffin-shaped, resting on the rollers of the bier; a form head to foot in moistened white lying on the cradle and wholly visible, until a fringed pall of decent black is reverently adjusted, draping the bier to the floor. A few minutes of silence and waiting. "One of the two windows at the level of the cradle is opened in the otherwise cold, blank, oaken wall; the bier is rolled up to its sill; a moment's delay; by unseen influence the cradle slides slowly forward through the-door, the pall retreating at the sill; the white form emerges gradually from its concealment, enters, and for three seconds or less may be seen lying motionless on and in a silent sunset glow. The heavy door swings shut, and is set. home tightly to its seat. Nothing more. "All that belongs to the earth of him we loved we gather in their whiteness and have given to the earth. All that belonged to the air we set free to fly away on invisible wings in the sunshine. We have heard the Master say, 'Loose him and let him go' -and we have obeyed." A case which was recently tried in Toronto involved the contagiousness of consumption. The court held that consumption is contagious. The Influence of Alcohol on Human Life. The British Medical Association, wishing an exact statement of the influence of alcohol over the duration of life, charged a commission with the inquiry in three classes of subjects: (1) Total abstainers. (3) Excessive drinkers. Observations included 4234 cases of death in five categories of individuals, and below is the average attained by each class : (1) Abstainers-Fifty-one years and one month. (2) Moderate drinkers-Sixty-three years and one-half month. (3) Occasional drinkers-Fifty-nine years and two months. (4) Habitual drinkers-Fifty-seven years and two months. (5) Drunkards-Fifty-three years and one-half month. The most advanced age is attained by moderate drinkers and the minimum by abstainers.-The Railway Surgeon. An International Movement in Athletics. The most remarkable outcome of all this revived interest in athleticism and sports is the re-establishment of the Olympian games after a lapse of some 2000 years. The centre of the movement for a great quadrennial meeting of amateur champions from all nations is in Paris; and the leader in the movement is an accomplished young Frenchman, known to many Americans, -Baron Pierre de Coubertin. M. de Coubertin, who is now in his thirtysecond year, is a member of many learned societies in France, is a prominent writer for the principal reviews and journals of Paris, and is already eminent as a leading authority on university life and work. Thus he has published several volumes upon university education in England and in the United States, and in 1889 bore an official commission from the French Minister of Public Instruction to investigate various matters pertaining to the higher education in the United States. Through his interest in the organization of university instruction, M. de Coubertin has taken the leading place in France in the promotion of physical culture in connection with the schools of every grade, and has for some time served as the general secretary of the French Union of Athletic Clubs. This union federalizes the gymnastic, boating, cycling, and various other amateur athletic societies of the country. His visit at Princeton was gracefully signalized by the founding of a prize for the best speech by a member of the senior class on some topic of contemporary French politics. The prize takes the form each year of a medal, designed by an eminent French sculptor, and engraved and struck in Paris. It is stated, by the way, in a Parisian newspaper which has come to our notice, that M. de Coubertin has now decided to found two other American university prizes. One of these is destined for the University of Louisiana, at New Orleans, and the other is to be contested for in San Francisco each year by a debater from the Leland Stanford, Jr., University, and one from the State University of California. The prizes are to be medals in memory of the lamented President Carnot. Students may well covet the honor of winning one of these Coubertin prizes.—Albert Shaw, in the December Review of Reviews. Love and Laughter. Laugh, and the world laughs with you; This grand old earth must borrow its mirth. Sing, and the hills will answer; Sigh, it is lost on the air; The echoes bound to a joyful sound, Be glad, and your friends are many; There are none to decline your nectared wine, There's room in the halls of pleasure Feast, and your halls are crowded; Rejoice, and men will seek you; Grieve, and they turn and go; They want full measure of all your pleasure, But they do not want your woe.-John A. Joyce. |