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alleys, small streets, etc., so as to lay the dust and in part remove
it into the sewers; the previous wetting of roads and streets
before the brooms are applied thereto; the need for wet dusting
(i.e., dusting with a damp cloth) in private houses, public institutions,
etc. Collected dust should be burnt.
The importance of the Smoke Problem and its Prevention c.ame
up on many occasions before the Congress. This was only
natural, as Manchester is a great offender, and sufferer, in connection
with smoke, which is dust from the burning of coal.
The difficulties surrounding the question-were mentioned, and
the part played by the domestic chimney, as opposed to the factory
chimney emphasised. A somewhat theoretical suggestion
was seriously put forward by Dr. W. H. Shaw to the effect that
smoke should be treated as sewage of the air. Municipal chimneys
should be erected (into which the flues of several neighbouring
houses could be taken), and the smoke collected and treated
electrically or otherwise, so as to cause the soot to deposit, and be
finally delivered in a purified state into the outside air. Dr. Shaw
being Clerk of the Weather, stated that in this way black fogs
would be done away with, but not white ones—fogs being due
to the condensation of watery vapour round particles of dust
(not necessarily smoke). Mr. Peter Spence, of Manchester, made
a somewhat similar suggestion of Municipal chimneys many years
ago, but nothing was done in the matter at that time, and it will
be interesting to see if anything will be done in these days of
progress and advancement.
(b). Tuberculosis and Consumption.
As a pioneer town in connection with the prevention of Consumption,
your delegates expected to hear something new at Manchester,
but in this were disappointed. The impracticable compulsory
notification of tuberculosis was suggested by several, but
the general feeling of the Congress was that the time was not yet
ripe for such a measure, and that a voluntary system (such as
Lambeth possesses) was all that was as present required, and
might be expected to produce great good. Manchester's methods
of dealing with consumption by voluntary notification, bacteriological
examinations, disinfection, education by the distribution
of pamphlets, general improvement of the dwellings of the poor,
etc., are the methods at present in use in Lambeth Borough.
The Anti-Spitting Crusade is making some (but not much) progress,
though the need for such a crusade is shewn by the fact
that men suffer from tuberculosis more than women, due to the
spitting habit in workrooms, bars of public-houses, smoking carriages,
etc. Tuberculosis is undoubtedly a curable disease, and
t