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year. This shows the generally unrecognised increase ofthe epidemic during the past year.The famine figures have again largely increased, especially

in the Bombay Presidency and in the Baroda State-the totalnumbers receiving relief being over 140,000.

In consequence of the unsatisfactory state of the RangoonGeneral Hospital it is to be taken over from the municipalityand placed under the control of the Government.The new Director-General of the Indian Medical Service is

Colonel B. Franklin, I.M.S., C.I.E. The appointment isone for three years, and the new director has somewhat overtwo years’ service before he attains the age of 60 years.Jan. llth.

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THE DESTRUCTOR NUISANCE ATTORQUAY.

(BY OUR SPECIAL SANITARY COMMISSIONER.)(Concluded from p. 336.)

ATTEMPTED IMPROVEMENTS. -FAILURE OF THE CREMATORSYSTEM.-INTRODUCTION OF BAFFLING WALLS.-THECHARACTER AND VALUE OF THE DUST PRO-DUCED.-THE ALTITUDE OF THE SURROUND-

ING HILLS.-A VALUABLE EXPERIMENT.IN response to the earlier complaints made against the

destructor, notably by the former Marychurch Urban DistrictCouncil, the Torquay Town Council constructed, as alreadystated, a Jones’s patent coke cremator. The destructor

consists of a square block of brickwork which is subdividedinto four cells or furnaces. Underneath there is a

passage which is large enough for a man to enter when

stooping and which serves as a flue to draw off the productsof combustion. This passage is prolonged outside and

beyond the cells for a distance of about 35 feet whenit reaches the base of the chimney. The part of the

passage nearest to the cells is wider and forms a smallchamber. It was in this chamber, close to, but outside, thedestructor, that the cremator was placed. It consisted of a

grid on which coke was burnt, and it was anticipated thatthe products of combustion when deflected on to the livecoke would be further consumed and thus rendered innocuous.At Ealing and elsewhere it had been found that the vapoursgiven off during the first stage of burning the refuse and theescape of fine dust caused a nuisance. When fresh refuse wasshovelled into the cells and for some time afterwards the tem-perature was so lowered that the combustion was not perfect.Therefore, and in view of meeting such defects, a cremator,consisting of a reverberatory arch with rings of fire-brick soplaced as to deflect the gases on to the top of a red-hotmass of fire, was invented and is generally placed outsidethe destructor. Dr. Stevenson Macadam, Ph.D., F. T. C., has,however, described these cremators as an admission of theinefficiency of the destructor proper and as a mere white-washing of an imperfect machine. Unfortunately, thecremator at Torquay did not fulfil even this function. The

complaints continued in spite of the cremator, and recentlythe town council sought the advice of an expert. Membersof the town council expressed to me their desire to carry outthe advice of competent experts, though they were notwilling to incur expense in order to apply suggestions madeby amateurs who had no technical knowledge of thequestion.The result of the expert advice recently obtained has been

the adoption of modifications which constitute a completerevolution of the system formerly applied. The temperatureof the products of combustion as they left the cells wasincreased by being deflected and thrown upon a red-hot cokefire. Further, the heat of this cremator fire acted as a

powerful attractive force, drawing the products of combustionmore rapidly out of the cells and, therefore, increasing thevelocity of the draught towards and up the chimney.Under these circumstances particles of grit which mightotherwise have dropped to the ground were hurled up thechimney and distributed by the wind over the surroundingcountry. The method now adopted is the exact reverse ojthis process. The cremator has been removed. There is nc

longer a fire outside the destructor to draw away mort

rapidly the products of combustion. On the contrary, E

chamber has been built containing several baffling walls,As the products of combustion leave the destructor the3

enter this chamber and strike against a wall which faces Ithem. They have to travel along this wall till they reach Iits furthest extremity and here is an opening whichenables them to go forward a distance of two or threefeet, when they are again obstructed by another wall.

Travelling down the whole length of this second wall

they are only able to progress a little further, when

they attain the nearer end, and here a second aperture letsthem through, to be, however, again checked by a thirdwall. It is only by travelling up and down several suchwalls that the products of combustion, after pursuing thiszigzag course, at last reach a straight flue which conductsthem to the bottom of the upright chimney shaft; therefore,the velocity of the draft, instead of being increased by theheat of the burning coke of a cremator, is checked by thisobstruction. The temperature of the products of combustion,instead of being augmented by a cremator fire, is lowered bythe baffling walls. There is, in any case, one advantagethat must accrue from this system-the amount of gritreaching the chimney will be considerably reduced. A largequantity of this grit will be collected between these bafflingwalls. But it will easily be understood that the adoption ofsuch contradictory methods must shake the confidence of thepublic in the ability of the town council to solve the difficultproblem at issue. First, the council denies that there is anuisance, then it admits its existence by constructing acremator which it declares will definitely remove all causeof complaints. The complaints, however, continue, and, asin the first instance, the council strives to prove that theyare unfounded, but nevertheless tacitly admits that theyare justified by attempting yet another alteration. Then, asa further contradiction, this alteration is precisely in thereverse sense to the one first attempted. Instead of, as atfirst, increasing the velocity and the temperature of the pro-ducts of combustion it lowers the temperature and decreasesthe velocity at which they travel from the destructor to thechimney. This lowering of the temperature of the productsof combustion after they have left the destructor will do noharm if that temperature is well maintained within thedestructor. The introduction of steam-jets may help to bringabout this desirable results. ,

When I was at Torquay these alterations were beingeffected. The chamber with the baffling walls was in courseof construction and, of course, the destructor was not in use.Consequently I was able to go inside and to visit the fiues.The total absence’of soot in the’flues showed that the combus-tion, if not perfect, was in any case far advanced. Therewas a great quantity of grit laying about that seemed like finesand. Indeed, it was mainly silicious in its nature, thoughiron and other minerals enter into its composition. Theresult is a dust like emery powder which is so hard that itscratches glass. Viewed under the microscope this grit has

j a terrifying aspect. Some of the particles have the shape ofTurkish scimitars. One of them had a bar at the broader, end forming the cross-guard of the sword pummel. Ifsuch a sharp and jagged particle entered the eye it would- produce extreme irritation and no amount of tears could

dissolve this hard silicious substance. How far the in-3 habitants of Torquay have suffered from this destructor

Idust I am unable to say. Only one case was mentioned tos me of a person who worked near the destructor and sufferedt acutely from inflammation of the eye which careful treat-t ment failed to cure. But the patient did recover when hee gave up his work and avoided the neighbourhood of thee destructor. This, however, may have been a coincidence,

and one such case is not sufficient evidence. It is, however, satisfactory to know that the amount of this dangerous duste thrown out from the destructor chimney will be considerablye reduced by the baffling walls. Even if the dust does no,s harm, its collection in the baffling chamber will do some:e good, for it can be sold for lls. a ton.a It would seem as if little or nothing more can be donen than what is now attempted to make the destructore work so perfectly that there shall be no nuisance. IfT. this fails, then apparently one of the three following pro-it posals must be adopted. The most radical would be toie remove the destructor altogether from its present site. Theg second solution would be to carry the flue up to the top of)f one of the surrounding hills and there rebuild the chimney.LO The third consists of simply increasing the height of there present chimney. The first course would involve an outlaya of from E5000 to E7000 ; but the existing buildings woulds. not be altogether lost, as they might be utilised for a much-)y needed new electric-light generating station. For the

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second proposal there are many examples at Newcastle and Bother manufacturing towns. There are instances where theflues from manufactories are half a mile in length. Thedifficulty in the present case is that the neighbouring hillsare of solid rock. But it would not be necessary to tunnelthis rock. The flue could be built on the surface, whichwould only need levelling here and there. In regard to thethird solution of the difficulty the following extract from theTorquay Direetomy and South Devon Journal of Nov. 6th,1901, is very much to the point :-There is undoubtedly considerable force in the argument that the

chimney shaft might advantageously be higher. In order to carry thetop well above the surrounding hills the borough surveyor (Mr. H. A.Garrett) originally proposed that the chimney should be 240 feet high.The then Destructor Committee decided, wholly contrary to Mr.Garrett’s desire and recommendation, to save .8500 by reducing theheight of the shaft to 150 feet.

This petty economy has proved disastrous to the town ofTorquay and will end in costing much more than the

generously saved us all this trouble. The investigator neednot imperil his limbs in a captive balloon. There is no needto requisition the services of M. Santos Dumont. Torquay hasbuilt its destructor at the bottom of a valley and carefullycalculated the height of the chimney, so that its topshould be on a level with the houses on the surround-ing hills. The investigator can sit in a drawing-room,throw open the windows, and luxuriate while he teststhe effects of the destructor fumes blown upon him in astraight line from the top of the chimney. But it does notsuffice for one or two persons, whatever their technical com-petence, just to sniff the atmosphere and to capture and toanalyse chemically the fumes. This might be done any-where with the aid of a balloon, but it would be impossibleto persuade an entire population of all ages and conditionsto live in captive balloons, so as to see if they would beaffected by the fumes of a destructor. In Torquay, how-ever, we have these conditions, for it is not one house but

View looking northwards across the Upton Valley, showing the position of the Torquay destructor chimney.

small sum saved. But it has provided a most valuableobject-lesson. Had it been done on purpose the town ofTorquay might have been crowned with the aureola of

martyrdom and canonised as a saint in the annals of sanita-tion. All large towns are more or less perplexed by thedifficulty of getting rid of their domestic, garden, and otherrefuse. Of late years the impression has taken root that thesafest method is to burn it all. But what is the result ofsuch crematory processes ’? Care is taken to build suchtall chimneys that really we cannot tell. To investigatethe matter thoroughly it would be necessary to equip one ormore captive balloons and let them ascend to the level ofthe top of the chimney. The town of Torquay has

many houses that are situated on a level with the top of thechimney. It may, however, be argued that it is only becausethey are in a line with the top of the chimney that theysuffer. But this still leaves us to infer that the fumes of adestructor are not innocuous and that a nuisance can onlybe avoided when the fumes are far above the heads of thesurrounding population. This is a fact worth knowing, andit could only be demonstrated by an experiment conductedon a large scale. Thus the town of Torquay has unwittinglyrendered a great service to the cause of sanitation.

The accompanying illustration, which is reproduced froma photograph, shows how the hills to the north of thedestructor dominate its chimney. The hills on the south

406

side, where the photograph was taken, are covered with ihouses. The six-inch ordnance map does not give thelevel of the precise spot where the destructor has beenbuilt, but close to it there is a level of 123 and another of146 feet above the sea. Probably the destructor itself stands on ground about 135 feet above the sea level. Slightly to lthe north-east and not quite half a mile away there is a levelon Windmill Hill put down at 300 feet, and somewhat nearer,but a little to the east, there is Daison Hill, which is also 300feet high. Adding 150 feet for the height of the chimney to othe level on which the destructor is built, the discharge ofthe fumes probably takes place at an altitude of 285feet-that is, some 10 or 15 feet below the level of thehill plateaux behind, but to this the height of the trees maybe added. To the north-west of the destructor the housesand villas near St. Mary’s Church and the Roman Catholicchurch and convent are on altitudes set down in the ordnance

map at 305 feet, 309 feet, and 300 feet above the sea level,and therefore they are all above the top of the destructorchimney. The villa districts to the south and south-west ofthe destructor, Shirburn-road, Thurlow-road, &c., are 200feet above the sea level. To reach this district the windmust come over the hills shown in the illustration, by whichit is deflected downwards, bringing the fumes straight uponthe houses that are a little below the top of the chimney.The distance from the summit of the northerly to the

southerly hills is considerably less than a mile and thedestructor is built in the hollow about half way between thetwo ranges. It would be impossible to find a better site, ifthe object were to test the Effects of destructor fumes whenthrown direct upon inhabited dwellings. These fumes,I am informed, contain effluvia due to the presenceof oils belonging to the paraffin group. These are

probably produced by the breaking-up of animal and

vegetable matter in the complicated series of action andreaction going on in the furnace. Impure paraffins werefound in the flue of the destructor, and if imperfectly burntthey would occasion the smell described as that of a tallowcandle. A dirty paraffin lamp burning oil of a very inferiorquality would, technically speaking, have been a more correctdescription. The presence of carbonaceous matter in thedust would be due to the imperfect combustion of the oil.One analysis of the dust collected in the flue sets down thepercentage of carbon at 12-80. The large quantities ofsilica, lime, iron, potash, &c., contained in this dust or gritwould account for the irritation of the throat which has beenthe subject of so many complaints. It is to be hoped thatthe action of the baffling walls will reduce the prevalenceof these symptoms. The placing of a destructor at thebottom of a basin, with houses built on the greater portionof the rim that surrounds the basin and the chimney barelyreaching to the height of this rim, provides an excellentopportunity of testing whether the combustion is perfect andthe fumes innocuous. So far it is safe to infer that thisdesirable result has not been attained. As yet it is too soonto say whether the alterations recently made will prove thatthe destructor can be rendered absolutely perfect. In any caseit is a risky experiment, but as it has been undertaken it isfor those interested in the problem at issue not to miss suchan unparalleled opportunity of studying under the mostpropitious circumstances this very important problem. Thetown of Torquay will have rendered great service in helpingto decide the question, and those who have suffered duringthe course of these experiments will have at least the con-solation of having contributed to solve a scientific problemin which all towns and large communities are deeplyinterested.

LIVERPOOL.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

The Royal Infirmary.. Annual Meeting.AT the recent annual meeting of the friends of the

Liverpool Royal Infirmary Sir William Banks announcedthat an important addition was in course of being madeto the hospital. The new Royal Infirmary had now

been in use for 11 years or more, and so soundly had itbeen constructed that it had not been found necessary to

replace a brick or a beam. The committee at the time of

building had been reproached with extravagance regardingthe expensive manner in which the walls, floors, and ceilingsof the wards had been constructed, inasmuch as they were

impervious to all septic influences and beautiful to the eye.But in the end the policy of " thorough

" had been justified.Nothing could exceed the healthiness of the building,while its cheerful interior made it a genuine pleasureto work in it. In one point only had it fallen be.hind. The whole structure and apparatus of surgicaloperating theatres had altered since the infirmary was built,and new apparatus for sterilising dressings and fluids hadbeen introduced. The large theatre had been constructed onthe best model of the day, some 11 years ago, but it hadnow become old-fashioned, even in that short space of time.A generous friend of the institution was now building, in

place of that theatre, two new ones which would be equippedwith the most recent improvements. These two theatres,with a small one now in use, would allow each surgeon atheatre for his own use-an advantage not possessed bymany hospitals. The treasurer reported that the expenditurefor the year was nearly .615,000, whilst the income was under£12,OOO. The hospital debt stood at 3612, or780 more thanin the previous year, and it would have been considerablylarger but for the ex-lord mayor’s century fund contribution.353 more patients had received treatment than in 1900. Onebed had been endowed in memory of the late Mr. JamesHarrison (a former member of the committee) by his family.There were now nine endowed beds in the hospital. Mr,Arthur Earle, the retiring president, announced his donationof 200 guineas to the charity. Two changes had taken placeon the medical staff. Dr. T. R. Bradshaw had succeededDr. T. R. Glynn as honorary physician and Dr. R. J. M.Buchanan had become honorary assistant physician in Dr.Bradshaw’s place.

Unsatisfactory Sanitary Condition of the Infirmary forChildren.

The fiftieth annual report of the committee of theLiverpool Infirmary for Children deals with the unsatis-

factory sanitary condition of the building. In spiteof the care exercised by the medical staff and the promptremoval of any infectious case upon discovery, togetherwith the temporary closing of some of the wards, still thehospital has not been free from outbreaks of scarlet fever anddiphtheria during the year 1901. The general health of thestaff also has been unsatisfactory. There has been muchsickness among the nurses and serious cases of illness haveoccurred among the resident medical staff. The conclusionsdrawn from these regrettable occurrences by the committeeand the medical staff were that nothing short of a new

separate out-patient building and the entire rebuildingof the infirmary itself would enable them to carry on thework of the charity. They roughly estimated the cost ofrebuilding at 50.000, and issued an appeal to the citizensfor funds towards that object. The treasurer reports that18,700 have already been promised in response to the

appeal, which has enabled them to proceed with the erectionof the new out-patient building opposite the infirmary in

Mulberry-street. It is the unanimous opinion of all interestedthat the present site is the best possible for the erectionof a new hospital, being very central and abutting upon alarge public recreation ground belonging to the corporation

. which can never be built upon, while in front there is a large: open space. The site is high, with a good fall for drains,

whilst the foundations are of sandstone. During the yearthere were 913 in-patients and 13,572 out-patients, involving

’

53,611 attendances.

Small-pox in Liverpool.’

At the meeting of the Health Committee held on Jan. 23rdDr. E. W. Hope, the medical officer of health, reported thatthere were 18 patients suffering from small-pox under treat-ment in the city hospitals. Most of them were cattlemenwho had arrived from the United States. but they alsoincluded one person from London and another who hadcrossed Europe and had developed the disease after arrivalin Liverpool. At the meeting of the Health Committee heldon Jan’. 30th Dr. Hope reported that eight cases had

ebeen notified during the week ending Jan. 25th, as

1 against three cases in the previous week, and that 17patients were under treatment in the city hospitals. Nodeaths had occurred. Three fresh cases were reported ont Feb. 4th. The patients in these cases had been in contact) with the batch of cattle-men who brought the disease intof Liverpool a fortnight ago. As the new cases are traced tothe original source the slight increase is not so alarming as

a fresh source of contamination had been discovered.—A discussion took place at the last meeting of the Health