formed that his staff now recommend it to consumers. The Gas Light and Coke Company tested it under lengthened and severe trials, using two fires side by side, with and without the mantel, with most satisfactory results. And amongst other engineers well-known to us all, Mr. W. Hardie, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, after repeated trials, expressed his complete satisfaction, and desired the Incandescent Fire Mantel Company to publish, on the circulars for that district, the recommendation of his Company. I would much prefer, however, to spare you details of this nature, but having myself had a lengthened experience of gas management in London and the provinces-I fully appreciate the importance to the industry of the new system, if only the claims made on its behalf can be substantiated. That this is so the independent testimony referred to can leave no doubt; and this testimony is being supplemented almost every day. What will, however, interest you even more is the following. Owing to my connection with the Incandescent Fire Mantel Company I am able to say that the appliance is being received most enthusiastically by the general public in all parts of the country, and that its operation and utility are more thoroughly understood and appreciated than could have been expected for an appliance so new and original. As it becomes better known so the demand increases, and to such an extent as for the moment to seriously embarrass the management in the prompt execution or orders, as probably some gentlemen in this room are aware. The home demand for gasworks coke must, therefore, follow; and if gas engineers will make known to the consumers the unique advantages of the fuel, the new possibilities of using it without unpleasantness and difficulty, and the facilities they have for delivering it at a moderate cost at the consumer's own door, broken ready for use, I am convinced that those of the members who hitherto have had but a poor demand will very soon reap profitable fruits from their new enterprise, which will go a long way to recoup losses on the ever-dwindling values of the other residuals, more particularly sulphate of ammonia. From "American Gas Light Journal," Nov. 16, 1896.

FREE PUBLIC BATHS.

The public authorities of Brooklyn and several other cities of the State of New York have need to be again reminded of the mandatory act of the Legislature signed by Governor Morton, April 19, 1895, as follows:

SECTION 1. Chapter 473 of the laws of 1892, entitled, "An act to establish free public baths in cities, villages and towns," is hereby amended so as to read as follows:

"All cities of the first and second classes shall establish and maintain such number of free public baths as the local board of health may determine to be necessary. Each bath shall be kept open not less than fourteen hours for each day, and both hot and cold water shall be provided. The erection and maintenance of river or ocean baths shall not be deemed a compliance with the requirements of this section. Any city, village or town having less than 50,000 inhabitants may establish and maintain free public baths, and any city, village or town may loan its credit or may appropriate of its funds for the purpose of establishing such free public baths"

This act shall take effect immediately.

Yet New York and Buffalo are the only cities which have complied with this law, and these but very insufficiently. Surely there should be some way of compelling our city authorities to comply with the laws of the State; above all, with laws such as this one, so necessary to the comfort and health of a large proportion of the people.

The delinquency of American cities in this respect generally was admirably shown in an address on "Public Baths in Europe," before the Social Science section of the Twentieth Century Club, Boston, on the evening of April 7, by Dr. Edward M. Hartwell, who spent last summer investigating the public bathing establishments in the leading cities of Europe and Great Britain, gathering information to be embodied in an official governmental report.

His talk was rendered comprehensive and interesting in the highest possible degree by means of stereopticon views, embracing photographs of the exterior and interior of many baths, as well as architectural plans of many.

Dr. Hartwell showed that America is far behind several of the leading nations on the other side the ocean in the matter of public baths for purposes of cleanliness, as he did not include the ordinary floating bath houses for summer use in that category.

He stated that nearly fifty years ago public bathing establishments were advocated in Boston by prominent citizens, and committees were appointed in the interest of the scheme, although the moving spirits were so far ahead of their time that nothing came of the project.

He said that the taste for personal cleanliness is a modern one, and has come through the congestion of population in large cities, and purely on account of hygienic considerations. The lecturer showed that the baths of Germany are superior to any others in the world, the English, until recently, being indisposed to see the

possibilities of improving on some of their old-fashioned notions, or to benefit from the experiments on the Continent. Thus the English devote more space and more financial outlay to the swimming and the tub bath, while the Germans have carried the shower, or rain bath, to a high state of perfection.

The rain bath the speaker indorsed as the most desirable from the standpoints of cleanliness and economy, it being possible to afford accommodation for the largest number at the smallest outlay by this method. It is the rain bath which will be placed in Boston's first bath house on Dover street.

He asserted that the German bath houses, many of which are very fine architecturally, are on a paying basis, although the individual charge for a bath is only the equivalent of two and a half cents in American money. And, moreover, in those cities where baths for adults are most common, it is the custom to have rain baths in the school-houses for the pupils, and notwithstanding that the time for the baths is taken from regular school hours, it is found that nothing is lost in study, the refreshing and tonic effect of the baths compensating for the loss of time.

In more than forty cities on the Continent baths for the children are found in the school-houses, and in Germany it is the settled policy in regard to new school buildings.

One bath house in Europe, which cost, including all the fixtures, $40,000, accommodates 500,000 bathers annually, who pay less than three cents each for their bath and yet support the establish

ment.

The speaker laid especial stress upon the greater profit and benefit of rain baths for cleanliness over the old-fashioned swimming baths. He urged that Americans should study the German systems, as they are the most highly developed types.

He quoted one ward in Boston, 89 per cent. of the people of which live in tenement houses, and 99 per cent. of those tenementhouse dwellers have no bathing facilitics. A bath house with adequate rain baths in that ward, he declared, would be of great benefit, not only to the ward, but to the whole city in an indirect way.

Dr. Hartwell described the wash houses, or laundries, run in connection with many English bath houses. There are set tubs, drying room and facilities for ironing, and women of limited means can do their washing there at the small cost of a penny an hour.

The English build good bath houses at an expenditure ranging from $40,000 to $200,000, and the lecturer commented on the fact that the land alone for Boston's new bath house cost $50,000.

SANITARIA FOR THE TREATMENT OF TUBERCU

LOSIS IN GERMANY AND SWITZERLAND.

Dr. Kaurin has published in the February number of "Lagwidenskaben," of Christiania, Norway, a very interesting report of his observations on the condition of tuberculosis and its treatment in sanitaria in Germany and Switzerland, from which the following extracts are taken:

The most celebrated establishment of this kind is at Falkenstein, in Nassau, of which Dr. Dettweiler is the director. It is situated 400 meters above the level of the sea, surrounded by extensive forests on the southern slope of Taunus Heights. Not far away is Ruppertshain, a sanitarium for a poorer class of people, costing from two and a half to five marks a day. The climate is dry and a little windy, with a good deal of rain in spring and fall; in the winter the thermometer falls below the freezing point, generally to 8o or 10° Celsius, and a little snow falls. The temperature changes slowly. The buildings are three stories, with corridors for patients on the front-open but protected with canvas against rain and direct sunshine. The regular treatment, lasting three months only, is based on the Bremer-Dettweiler method: The open-air treatment, the treatment in the corridors, and abundant nourishment, with regular exercise to strengthen the heart, and the disinfection of the sputa." Medicine is not much used, mostly to relieve symptoms. The result is very satisfactory, the percentage of cured being 24 (13 per cent. entirely cured and II per cent. able to resume work). Of 99 cured, 72 remained well from three to nine years after treatment, 15 had a relapse, and of those twelve were again cured after a renewal of treatment.

The little village, Falkenstein, close by, with 800 inhabitants, seems not to suffer from this so much dreaded neighborhood, inasmuch as the death-rate from tuberculosis here is less now than formerly.

In Switzerland the author first visited Heiligenschwendi, in the Canton of Bern, 1,100 meters above the level of the sea. It is also surrounded by forests and faces toward the south. The climate here is more severe; in winter the thermometer descends to 37°

Centigrade, and in June the maximum temperature is + 15o C. and minimum +7o C. The treatment employed was hygienic-dietetic, and was followed by good results.

In the Canton of Graubunden he visited Davos, an Alpine valley, situated 1,560 meters above the level of the sea. The two small villages there are now yearly visited by more than 13,000 people having tuberculosis. The mean temperature is + 2.6° Centigrade, and the mean barometrical measurement 631 millimeters. The snow covers the fields until May, and 20° to 30o C. is frequently recorded. From so severe a climate the patients return home much improved in health! In spite of the elevation, there seems not to be any disposition to haemoptysis; whereas it is contraindicated to send patients up there with developed anaemia, neurasthenia, heart or laryngeal affections.

Here in Davos there is a very peculiar institution, a school sanitarium for boys and girls sent by families disposed to tuberculosis, or with incipient phthisis. Boys and girls with poor health are sent up there also, and healthy children from the neighborhood frequent the same school.

From Switzerland the author visited some places farther north, in Sudeter Mountains, and praises Gorbersdorf, which is situated 560 meters above the level of the sea. Here, as in Davos, the patients with fever are kept out in the fresh air and with good effect. Here also, as in the other places, 24 per cent are cured.

In the suburbs of Berlin he visited the barracks of Doeckert, situated in a large pine grove and given up to the Red Cross Society, for the benefit of tuberculous people. The cost per day is three marks per capita. Here, as well as in Malchow and Blankenfeldt, are two hospitals for tuberculous patients from Berlin hospitals, and situated on the plains irrigated by the Berlin sewers. The result is very satisfactory. In Malchow and Blankenfeldt the cost per day is only two marks and the treatment does not last more than forty-four days. Even if not cured in this short time, the patients go back to their homes in the city improved in health and trained to a better mode of living.

Both in Germany and Switzerland he found all the people interested in the great war against tuberculosis.

Brooklyn, N. Y., April 10, 1897.

H. BRYN, M. D.