proportion with finely pulverized glass, which may be derived from the waste of glass works, old bottles, etc., forms a porous mass, which, by baking under a high temperature, may be hardened in any desired form. The inventor in this case hit upon the plan of molding this porous cement into hollow plates or plaques about 40 inches square and 8 inches thick, that is, with walls 3 inches in thickness and about 2 inches of hollow space at the center of the plaque.

In constructing the filtering plant, these plates are set upright in groups or batteries of any number, according to the desired size and capacity of the establishment, and are ranged along the lower portion of one or more tanks of hydraulic masonry, where they can be covered to a depth of 3 or 4 feet with the water to be filtered. The water is then forced by its own pressure through the porous walls of the plate into the interior hollow space, where it trickles down and is drawn off through pipes, laid at the bottom of the tank, to the reservoir which receives the filtered water. These discharge pipes are rigged with cocks so that each plate and group of plates may be isolated for cleaning or other purposes while the adjacent batteries are in operation. For greater economy of space and tubing, two tiers of plates are set, one above another, as shown in the accompanying drawing, which gives a front and edge view of two pairs of plates, set in the usual manner, whereby both tiers are served by one set of discharge pipes. The water, in passing through the 3-inch walls of vitrified sand, is filtered as perfectly as by traversing 3 feet of loose sand or gravel in the ordinary sand-filtering

process. The plates, being set upright and close to each other, increase from eight to ten fold the filtering surface that may be condensed within any given superficial area, thus securing an important economy of space within frost-proof constructions, and where, as is often the case, land is costly and difficult to obtain.

Nor is this the only, or even the principal, advantage of the new system. Every practical waterworks engineer knows the delays, labor, and expense

involved by turning sand filters out of circuit and cleansing them of the mud and detritus which collect so rapidly at the bottom of the tank. With the plaque filter, the cleansing operation is easily and quickly performed by simply reversing the current of water, that is, turning it backward through the discharge pipes into the hollow plates, whence it percolates outward through the porous walls into the tank, dislodging readily the dirt that has collected on the outer surface. This falls to the bottom of the tank in which the plates are submerged, and is drawn off in liquid form, assisted, when the accumulation is large, by means of a hoe or shovel, and followeri, when the tank has become emptied, by flushing with a jet of water from a hose, which cleans thoroughly the surface of the plates and washes out the bottom of the tank itself. The discharge cocks are then closed and reversed, water turned again into the tank, and the process of filtration resumed.

The depth or "head" of water necessary to make the filtration sufficiently rapid is from 3 to 4 feet, and the reverse head, for cleaning the plates by turning the water backward through the discharge pipes, should be about 6 feet to give sufficient pressure for the best results. Thus constructed, the filtering plant at Worms, which may be taken as the original type and model of the system, has been in constant operation during the past four years, without accident or appreciable deterioration. From all testimony that can be ɔbtained, the results at Worms, both as regards economy of construction and maintenance and speed and thoroughness of filtration effected, have been eminently satisfactory.

The tanks, as already indicated, are made of masonry laid in hydraulic cement, and if galvanized tubing is used, to obviate rusting, the life of such a plant may be indefinitely prolonged. The demonstrated success of the original filtering plant has led to the organized manufacture of the plates by the firm of Bittel & Co., who have large works at Worms-on-Rhine, and furnish not only the prepared materials, but estimates and plans for filtering outfits for municipalities and manufacturing establishments, such as breweries and chemical and other works in which a large supply of limpid water is an essential requisite. Smaller installations are also furnished to works in which river water or spring water, strongly charged with oxides of iron, is used for generating steam.

According to an official report by M. Janssen, of the University of Brussels, who made an exhaustive study of the whole subject at Worms, that city began in 1889 the filtration of Rhine water for

general purposes by the ordinary sand-filtering process, similar to that then used at Berlin. With a filtering surface of 1,300 square meters (approximately 13,000 square feet), 3,000 cubic meters (792,510 gallons) of water were filtered in twenty-four hours. This supply proved insufficient for the city, and it became necessary to construct and addition to the filtering plant, the cost of which, on the sand-filter plan, was estimated at $30,000. It was then that the Fischer system was given a practical trial.

Instead of occupying new land and building additional constructions, one of the ten vaults containing the sand filters already in use was isolated, cleaned out, and the space filled with a battery of five hundred plates of the Fischer pattern. The whole cost of the change thus made was about $9,600, and the new filters, occupying one-ninth as much space as the sand filters, doubled the filtering capacity of the entire installation. In other words, five hundred Fischer plates, costing, set up and ready for operation, $9,600, and occupying only 130 square meters of space, filtered as much water as the sand filters which occupy 1,170 square meters of space and cost $30,000. To substitute the Fischer plates for sand throughout the entire establishment would be to increase the filtering surface from 1,300 to 10,000 square meters (approximately from 13,000 to 100,000 square feet) and multiply by ten the daily filtering capacity of the plant.

From a long series of analyses and careful observations made by the sanitary authorities at Worms, it appears that the efficiency of the two sysems of filtering, which are there worked side by side, are practically identical, so far as regards their effect upon the chemical purity of the water, but the percentage of bacteria left by the Fischer process is somewhat greater than is left by the sand filter when clean and in good working condition. This, however, is not considered a defect of practical importance. The water delivered by the new filters at Worms, as well as at the other places where they are in daily use, is certified by high and impartial authority to be thoroughly purified and fitted for drinking, as well as for culinary and manufacturing purposes.

FRANKFORT, December 9, 1896.

FRANK H. MASON,

Consul-General.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT OF THE GREATER NEW

YORK.

BY STEPHEN SMITH, M. D.

At a meeting of the section on public health of the New York Academy of Medicine February 7th, to discuss the Greater New York charter in its relation to the Board of Health, Dr. E. G. Janeway presided. Dr. Stephen Smith read the paper of the evening on "The Health Department of Greater New York," as follows:

There are three points of criticism, for the most part, that call for serious consideration. Two of these are general and one specific. The first is the anomaly presented in civil government by the creation of a department clothed with such arbitrary and unrestricted power as the Board of Health will be. As the matter stands at present, the head of that body is invested with judicial, legislative, and legal power, without a higher authority. Not only does he make the laws governing property, but even persons. He employs his own officers and combines within himself all the functions exercised by a full-fledged government.

Such a state of affairs should not be tolerated unless it is absolutely essential to the public welfare, and is defensible only if the actual work can be accomplished in no other way. No precautions are taken to guard against dishonest officials, and this is all the more to be condemned as no department furnishes such opportunities for corruption and bribery as the Health Department.

The second objection to be considered is the fact that no provision is made for the qualifications which the officers of the department should possess, and it is of vital importance that incompetency should be guarded against. If the board is composed according to the system provided for in the charter, it will be unfit to perform its duties. The very fact that two of its members are ex officio is an invitation for the introduction of partisan politics, an element that should have no place in a health department.

The third objection, while specific, is none the less grievous. It is especially provided that of the three Commissioners appointed two shall be physicians and one a layman, and that the layman shall be President of the board. Under no consideration can a physician hold that office. Thus a lawyer, grocer, cobbler, pedlar, or any

tramp, just so he has no medical knowledge, is declared qualified for the position, and the only disqualification is being a physician.

In defense of this the superannuated theory is set up that a physician has no executive or business ability; but experience has proved that this is a fallacy. The President of the National Board of Health was a physician, and the report submitted by him to Congress was declared a model of accuracy and conciseness.

As a remedy for these evils, Dr. Smith suggested that the charter be so amended as to provide for the representation of the three essential requisites, namely, medical science, sanitary engineering, and law, in the Health Department, and to that end he advocated the appointment of three physicians, one lawyer and one sanitary engineer, all of ripe experience and residents of the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens, as Commissioners, with the Health Officer of the Port and the President of the Police Department as ex-officio members of the board, so as to provide a restricting power. The President of the board to be elected by the Commissioners themselves.

With regard to Coroners, he said:

The antiquated method of verifying the causes of sudden death, determining the question of crime and detecting the criminal, is apparently to be perpetuated in the new municipality. Experience has shown that no scheme can well be devised which will so certainly fail of its object as the Coroner's system, from which this State has suffered since Colonial times. So far from determining the exact causes of death, the returns from the Coroner's Office are the most imperfect and unreliable of any that are made. The Coroner's Court has long been an object of ridicule and contempt, and instead of aiding in tracing crime to the criminal, has often been the medium by which both the crime and the criminal have escaped detection.

In many States and notably in Massachusetts this relic of ancient English jurisprudence has long been discarded, and modern scientific methods have been instituted. In this State no reform has been possible until now, owing to the Constitutional provision by which the Coroner was recognized as a public officer. The late Constitutional Convention, however, omitted any reference to the office, and thus the way is now open for the adoption of a reform

measure.

If we rightly consider the object to be accomplished it will not be found difficult to formulate a method of procedure which will