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products of the sick room, and these contents are burnt. The
method adopted here is to remove the pails to the sewage
works, where their contents are mixed in a special receptacle
with small cinders and ashes, and burnt in one of the boiler
furnaces. It is not a finished method, compared with the
special destructors used in some towns, but it answers well in
a District such as this, where, fortunately, it is unusual to
have many cases at a time.
The total destruction of typhoid dejecta is very important,
and has been carried out by this Council for some years now.
The most common alternative plan is to use the public sewer
by means of the domestic slop-sink or closet, but, as ordinarily
carried out, this cannot be regarded as free from danger.
Another common method is that of burial, generally in the
back garden ; but this also would appear to be not altogether
safe, in view of the recent investigations (of great importance
in other directions as well) of Dr. Martin and others, which
show that the typhoid bacillus can exist for long periods and
even multiply in soil contaminated with organic matter, such
as is usual, more or less, in the neighbourhood of dwellings.
The importance of these bacteriological investigations,
both generally, and especially in relation to matters connected
with hygiene and public health, is growing daily. It is easy
to foresee that any future increase of knowledge respecting the
causation and prevention of disease, the natural destiny, so
to speak, of filth, and the extent and limits of its power for
evil, will be very largely derived from bacteriology, and
that upon its teachings, after full confirmation, will
depend more and more the daily practice and administrative
action of those engaged in public health work. The necessary
facilities for carrying out bacteriological work is, in many
places, an integral part now of the sanitary organisation, and
this Council are providing such means for this district in the
hospital now in course of erection.