993SANITARY APPLIANCES.

single mother substance (Hammarsten) or dual mothersubstances (Schmidt) into fibrin. As the presumptive firsbcause of all coagulation in exbra-vascular plasma, fibrinferment was now subjected to a number of searching trialswith a view to eliciting its powers upon the intra-vascularplasma. The results of these experiments are well known.It was found that fibrin ferment did not cause any coagula-tion when it was injected into the vessels of the living body.What was held to be true in the case of the extra-vascularplasma therefore signally failed to establish itself as truewith regard to the intra-vascular blood of the living body.Investigation had up to this point been following up anauriferous lode. It apparently came to a fault here. Wefind, therefore, that research branched off at this point intotwo different directions. Green2 set himself to study whatwe may call the inorganic substratum of fibrin. He wasthe first who succeeded in clearly eliciting the importanceof calcium in connexion with coagulation. The study waspursued by Ringer and Sainsbury,3 and it culminated in thebrilliant discovery of Arthus and Pages4 of the possibility ofkeeping the blood liquid by decalcification. The practicalimportance of these discoveries in connexion with thesubject of transfusion and the arrest of haemorrhage hasbeen called attention to by Wright. At the same time thatthe importance of the calcium salts in coagulation wasreceiving the attention of investigators, Wooldridge in acharacteristically brilliant way opened up a new field ofresearch by his discovery of the effects of tissue fibrinogenon the blood. He found that the injection of this substanceled to the occurrence of immediate intra-vascular coagula-tion, and he ascertained that the injected substancecontributed a factor to the fibrin formed. Wooldridge alsoshowed that where an injection of tissue fibrinogen was notfollowed by intra-vascular coagulation the blood lost itspower of spontaneous coagulation. This loss of coagula-bility was described by Wooldridge as the " negative phase "of coagulability in contradistinction to the " positive phase

"

which was associated with increased coagulability andthrombosis.Wright, who took up the question after Wooldridge’s ’,

premature and lamented death, investigated the matterfurther. He showed that tissue fibrinogen was a nucleo-albumen,5 and that the positive phase with its associatedintra-vascular coagulation occurred only where the blood issuper venous. 6 He further showed that the injected nucleo-albumen became broken down in the blood into an albu-mose,7 and that the phenomena of the negative phase wereidentical with the phenomena observed after albumose(peptone) injections. We have, further, on this subject thejust-published researches of Pekelharing of Utrecht, whichbring confirmation and expansion of these facts.Pekelharing has discovered the presence of a nucleo-

albumen in the plasma.8 He surmises that it was origin-ally derived from the white corpuscles which have disin-tegrated in the blood, and he finds that it is identical withthe substance which Wooldridge obtained by cooling theplasma. He finds, further, that this nucleo-albumen, wheninjected into the blood, produces the same phenomena of apositive and a negative phase as those obtained after theinjection of Wooldridge’s tissue fibrinogen. He confirms 9

Wright as to the influence of a venous condition of theblood in favouring the intra-vascular coagulation, and quotesan experiment where he obtained, in lieu of coagulation,all the symptoms of peptone poisoning. This was in a dog,which was injected with tissue fibrinogen after thorougharterialisation of its blood by artificial respiration. Pekel-haring goes a step further than Wright here ; for, insteadof only surmising the setting free of albumose in the bloodfrom the symptoms, from the characters of the blood, andfrom its excretion in the urine, he obtains actual evidence(by Devoto’s method) of presence of albumose in the bloodof the negative phase after tissue-fibrinogen injections.

Lastly, Pekelharing takes essentially the same view asWright10 of the bearing of these matters on the theory ofblood coagulation. The nucleo-albumen, whether obtainedfrom the plasma by Pekelharing’s method, or directly fromthe leucocytes, as in the preparation of Wooldridge’s tissue

2 Journal of Physiology, vol. viii.3 Ibid., vol. xi. 4 Arch. de Physiologie, 1890, No. 4.

5 Brit. Med. Jour., Sept. 19th, 1891.6 Jour. of Phys., vol. xii., No. 2, 1891.

7 Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., Dec. 14th, 1891.8 Koninklijke Akad. van Wetenschap. te Amsterdam, Jan. 30th, 1892.

9 Ibid., April 2nd, 1892.10 THE LANCET, Feb. 27th and March 5th, 1892.

fibrinogen, constitutes in the view of these observers thefibrino-plastic element which Schmidt asserted to be derivedfrom the white corpuscles and erroneously assumed to beidentical with paraglobulin. This nucleo-albumen, whetherprepared from the plasma or leucocytes, has, from Pekel--haring’s account, solubisities which to some extent resemblethose of paraglobulin. It is, for instance, entirely precipitatedbv MgSO4, but only partially by saturation with NaCl.Probably it is identical with the substances originallfdescribed by Halliburton as cell globulins. We thus see-that Pekelharing’s researches appear to go some waytowards reconciling certain of the diverging and apparentlycontradictory views which have been held on the subjectof blood coagulation.

SANITARY APPLIANCES.

REPORT OF INTERNATIONAL JURY OF 1889.French Drain Pipes.—Practical Experiments by the Jury

of the Universal Exhibition held at Paris.

BY special favour we have been able to study the proofsheets of the report drawn up by the jury of Class 64 atthe Universal Exhibition of 1889. This report was pre-pared a long time ago, and in some respects it is out of date,nevertheless it is not yet published. It is a Government,

report, and, like many other official documents, is hamperedby so much red-tapeism that its publication has been delayedbeyond all reason. Still, it is a very important report.Class 64 was devoted to hygiene, to public assistance orpoor relief, and to mineral waters. This is the first time’in France that a special class has been devoted to hygiene.It was formerly combined with and subordinated to medicineand public assistance. The progress of hygiene on the Con-tinent has been, however, so great that it was convertedinto a class of its own situated close to Civil Engineering ;,and under the wing of Hygiene was placed Public Assist-ance, as if to show that the relief of the poor was a measureof public health. As mineral waters are an importantand useful resource which nature offers for the preventionand treatment of disease, they were also put in tha samecategory. The jury consisted of Drs. Brouardel, Proust,A. J. Martin, Th. Roussel, Napias, Le Mardeley, andNetter, all eminent French medical men. Then there were-M. Bechman, chief engineer for the sanitary services ofParis ; M. Henri Monod, chief to the Hygiene Departmentof the Ministry of the Interior ; M. Nicholas, Councillor ofState; M. Dislère, councillor and ex-director of the ColonialDepartment; M. Chérot, civil engineer and expert ; M.Hudels, expert and demonstrator of physics at the CentralSchool of Arts and Manufactures ; M. Albert Levy, chief ofthe Chemical Service at the Observatory of Montsouris; M..Louis Masson, expert and Chief Sanitary Inspector ofParis; and M. Mesureur, expert and President of theSyndical Chamber of Master Plumbers. There were

but few foreign representatives on the jury. Stillwe note the names of Seiior Palacios, Consul-Generalof Costa Rica, who was vice-president of the jury.Dr. Brouardel, dean of the Paris Faculty, was president, Dr. Proust, general inspector of the sanitaryservices of France, was the reporter of the jury, and Dr.A. J. Martin, secretary. Dr. Trinidad Pardos de Taverarepresented Spain; Mr. Geo. F. Waring, jun., civil en-gineer, the United States; Dr. Faure Miller. Great Britain;:and Dr. Reverdin, Belgium. Though the foreign elementon this jury is undoubtedly weak, still it is impossible notto respect the verdict rendered by so highly distinguishedand honourable a body of men. As we described at thetime, the most elaborate and impartial experiments weremade, and subsequently it was known which of the ex-hibitors had won medals. But what is more important,.and what as yet has not been made public, are the exactnature and results of these experiments. In Englandespecially is this knowledge needed, and it is regrettablethat it has been withheld for so long. The fact is that;.England, first in the field and the leader in matters of

practical hygiene, is now rapidly losing ground, and foreignmanufacturers are beginning to make better drain pipes,better closets, better flushing apparatus, and better disin-fecting stoves than those we place on the market. We take

994 SANITARY APPLIANCES.

it that the sooner this fact) is known and understood the’better.

There is, we think, no reason to be ashamed of such result. On the contrary, to English sanitary reformers an(to the manufacturers who have sought to apply in practiclthe principles these reformers taught, appertains the hononiof having first solved the problems at issue. Th<English were the first to show how a closeb should blbuilt so that it might be absolutely inoffensive and self.cleansing. They also showed, notablv during the HeaIttExhibition held in 1884 at South Kensington, how th(merits of a closet could be tested by a jury. Now thf’French have at last realised the necessity of practicaldomestic hygiene, and they have quickly profited by theforty or fifty years’ experience acquired in England. They’have imitated nearly all our English models. In somecases the imitations are inferior to the original ; but, inother instances, there are distinct improvements, parbi-cularly where nature, aiding, provides better clays than we.have in England. Thus but a few years ago it wasimpossible to buy from a French manufacturer thewherewithal to construct a proper sanitary closet. Eng-lish inhabitants and hotel-keepers catering for Englishpatronage had to import from England the needfulapparatus. Messrs. Doulton and Co., George Jennings, andothers did a considerable business in France in the sale ofcloset pans, flush tanks, drain pipe 3, &c. French sanitaryreformers readily recognise the debt of gratitude they owemore especially to Messrs. Doulton and Co., who havelavished large sums of money in making known throughoutthe French trade what constitutes a proper sanitaryapparatus. Ib was the competition of these English manu-facturers as much as the teachings of the professors ofhygiene that finally induced the French manufacturers tomend their ways and adopt the new doctrines. Now thelesson has been so well conveyed, so thoroughly taught, thatthe pupils have in several instances outstripped theirteachers. Not only is it easy to purchase in France fromFrench manufacturers all the necessary sanitary apparatus,but in some respects these objects will be found superior towhat can be obtained in England. Indeed, we have come tothis, that unless English manufacturers bestir them-selves we shall soon be importing drain pipes and othersimilar objects from France into England. Already thirty-three of our finest English mail steamers have a French dis-infectant stove on board, as this apparatus is apparentlysuperior to any of the kind offered for sale in England. Theinvestigations of the jury demonstrate that, on the whole,better hardware drain pipes are made in France than inEngland. By experimental demonstration it was shownthat some of the closet pans, the syphon traps, and thewater waste preventing flush tanks, manufactured in France,are, to say the least of it, quite as good as those producedby the beat English firms. Thus, in a very few years, wehave not only been overtaken, but actually outstripped in therace for sanitary excellence.On the other hand, this fact is so far of theoretical rather

than of practical importance. The number of dwellings inFrance where these apparatus are in use is very limited. Weknow, for instance, that though in Paris there are more than’90,000 houses, barely 6000 out of this number can be con-sidered as satisfactorily drained. Even in these cases shoddywares have been introduced to a very large extent. It is anestablished fact in the tradethatplumberscan purchasewhole-sale a waste preventer flush tank, a closet pan, and syphontrap, all complete, for the sum of 16s. Though at firstclosets thus cheaply bought seem to work well, they very soon get out of order, and thus wear very badly. This,

Ihowever, is distinctly to the advantage of the plumber, wholooks forward to being called in at an early date to effectthe necessary repairs. This grievance is so widespread thatthe sanitary authorities are now promoting a Bill in Parlia-ment by which it shall be illegal to employ sanitary apparatusin the constmction of dwellings which bave not beenpreviously tested and approved by the municipal authoritiesof Paris. M. Louis Masson, the chief sanitary inspector ofParis, is now constructing a laboratory in which the testexperiments will be made. But unfortunately a year atleast, and perhaps two yearr3, will elapse before the Billbecomes law and these experiments are rendered obligatory.In the meanwhile, a very large quantity of inferior wareswill be manufactured and sold to the jerry builders of theFrench capital. We need hardly remark that similardefective closets are largely used in England, where a law

e on the same lines as that now submitted to the FrenchLegislature would prove a great benefit in ensuring the

a satisfactory condition of our domestic drainage.d The experiments made by the International Jury are alle the more valuable as the medals won by the exhibitors arer no criterion whatsoever as to the merits of any one particulare apparatus. The exhibitors were awarded medals for theiro exhibits as a whole, and the same exhibitor frequently- displayed a very inferior apparatus by the side of another ofi exceptional excellence.e M. L1uis Masson, chief sanitary inspector of Paris,* M Cherot, sanitary engineer, and M. Mesureur, deputy forI Paris and president of the Syndical Chamber of Master3 Plumbers, were entrusted with the long and difficult experi-7ments made to test the value of the closets exhibited. The: first step taken was to measure and record the details of each pan. The distance from the rim of the pan to the. level of the water within the pan was first noted. Then the

amount of water retained in the syphon was ascertained andthe depth of the dip forming the syphon carefully measured.! These details having been obtained, each pan was sub-mibted to a flush from identically the same flashing tank.l Tbese tanks gave a uniform discharge of ten litres, or a little more than two gallons of water at each flush. TheIpan was painted round with lamp-black, and careful notewas taken as to how far the lamp-black was removed by theflash. The pan was now again painted a second time withI the black, and small pieces of paper, uniform in number and

in size, stuck upon the lamp-black. A second flush wasgiven. Finally pieces of paper were floated in the trap,together with a certain number of potatoes measuringthree centimetres in diameter, or wooden balls of the samesize. A note was then taken as to the manner in whichthese various objects were cleared out of the syphonby the flusb. The jury also examined how the panand syphon were manufactured; whether the form wassymmetrical, the materials good, the enamel sound, and,above all, whether at the joints between the pan and thesyphon there was any roughness or risk of leakage. Ibwas considered indispensable that the pan and the syphonshould be of identically the same materials, and a porcelainor hardware pan affixed to an iron syphon would have beencondemned. After completing these experiments, the juryreports : "Sanitary pans are now manufactured in Francewith as much success as in England. The French hard.ware and porcelain are as good, the shape of the pan is oftenbetter. The French potters have in a few years createdmanufactories of sanitary apparatus, and it is in parb totheir efforts that we owe the results which the jury hasbeen happy to record. The pottery works of Ramber-villiers, which were the first to make pans with syphons,and the pottery works of Pouilly-sur-Sa6ae, whose exhibitswere placed in an elegant pavilion, should be more par-ticularly mentioned for their very excellent hardware,some of which was highly decorated, and looks almost as ifit were porcelain. The society formed by the firm of Pilli-vuyt and the principal manufacturers of Paris exhibitobjects that are excellent both in quality and in workman-ShIP, The hardware of Mehun might be mistaken forporcelain. "The jury very energetically denounces the form of the

seat of most closets manufactured in France; and we

might add that this criticism applies equally well to themajority of English closets. The pan is generally placedwithin a sort of box, which reaches from wall to wall of thecloset. In this obscure corner the workmen building thehouse throw any rubbish they are desirous of hiding. Thebox-like seat covers all this over. When the house isinhabited the rubbish under the closet seat gets wetwhenever water is spilt or splashed, and thus, precisely atthe spot where we need the most air, the most light, thegreatest cleanliness, we have, in the dark and unventilateirecesses that surround the pan of the closet, moist dirt andcorruptible matter. The jury therefore strongly recommendthe newer closets, where the pan is not covered over, andwhere the seat consists of a small piece of wood some fourinches broad, that lifts up and down, to cover the rim ofthe pan.In respect to the flush tanks, the jury did full justice

to the first initiator and inventor of this style ofapparatus. Mr. Rogers Field. They also congratulate thefirm of Messrs. Doulton and Co. for being the first tointroduce into France flush tanks of this description. They,however, now claim that the flush tanks manufactured by

995SANITARY APPLIANCES.

Messrs. Geneste and Herscher possess all the practicalqualities desired. These are, we need scarcely remark,simplicity in make and durability.

It is not necessary to follow the jury in their dissertationson the best methods of making syphon traps, on the dangersof syphonage, on the necessity of ventilating all pipes so asto prevent suction, on the need of openings into the syphonso as to clear away any obstruction that may occur. Theseare all questions with which plumbers who have beenproperly trained in sanitary plumbing are familiar. Thepoint that is of interest is the fif,,t that the doctrines so longpreached by sanitary reformers in England formed the basisof the principles which the jury applied in testing themerits of the exhibits, and they found that several Frenchmanufacturers had attained this high standard of excellence.

There is one feature in these foreign closets which should becarefully considered by those who in England build housesdestined to be inhabited by a large number of poor peoplewith dirty habits, and who use the closets in common. In,that case it becomes a moot question as to whether it is,wisa to persist in providing seats for such closets. If thepopulation of such dwellings is English, perhaps it wouldbe better to persist in the English custom and trust to theinfluence of sanitary inspectors and others to bring about,the required cleanliness. But where, as with the foreignJews in Whibechapel or in the houses of Saffron-hill, in-habited exclusively by Italian organ-grinders and pesrtyice men, we have to deal with a foreign population,we must remember that the foreigner considers thatthe sitting down on a closet is at once a dangerous

TABLE I.--RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS BY INTERNATIONAL JURY ON CLOSET PANS AND SYPHONS.

TABLE II.--EXPERIMENTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL JURY ON THE ABSORPTION OF MOISTURE BY DRAIN PIPES.

996 THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE RED CROSS.

and a dirty custom. There are also men of sciencewho argue that the sitting posture is not in keepingwith the anatomy of the human form. A number ofFrench manufacturers exhibit closets the floor of whichconsists of fluted or seriated plate glass, the moisturerunning in the indentures of the glass; the feet have dry- surfaces to tread upon. From the floor a small openingconveys by gravitation into the pan above the trap allliquids. The surroundings of the pan are of cement or’hardware, the walls of enamelled tiles, and the window ofthick glass with conical perforations. Thus every part ofthe closet is watertight and can be sluiced with buckets ofwater, while fresh air enters day and night through the per-forated window panes. This form of closet is the bestsuited for people who do not take sufficient care in respectto cleanliness. The jury publish tables giving the resultsof all the experiments made. These are too numerous andtoo lengthy for us to reproduce, but we append someof the figures and facts relating to some of the bestand some of the worst closets exhibited. These will serveas a specimen of the work accomplished by the jury. Withqual care the jury tested the quality of the various drain-pipes exhibited. Those made of iron or of cement have’been in use for many years in France; but Messrs. Doultonand Co. were the first to introduce hardware drain-pipes inFrance.From Belgium and from Germany a smaller quantity of

such pipes were also imported into France. But soon theFrench manufacturers began to organise for the productionof goods of this description, and many specimens of this,new French industry were sent to the Exhibition. Eachpipe was submitted by the jury to four different test ex-periments. First, it was placed under a lever. A weightattached to this lever was pushed gradually towards the’end of the lever, thus increasing the pressure on the pipe at- each forward movement. The lever was practically a scale,and it was thus easy to ascertain how many pounds pressurewas required to break the pipe. The second experimenthad for purpose the testing of the force required to burstthe pipe by inside pressure. The pipe was placed verticallyon a table, the two extremities hermetically closed by heavy’metallic planks with indiarubber flange. Each metalcovering had a hole in the centre. From the hole on the Itop water was poured in till the pipe was filled. The holewas then closed with a screw nut. From the hole below apipe communicated with a hydraulic press, by means ofwhich internal pressure was gradually produced till thepipe burst. A manometer fixed on a branch tube re-

corded the amount of pressure brought to bear. The thirdexperiment consisted of testing how far the pipes couldresist the shock of a blow. For this purpose a metallicsphere weighing nine kilogrammes was allowed to fall fromvarious measured heights on to the centre and upper portionof the pipe. The pipe was laid on a wooden groove, so con-trived as to disengage the socket of the pipe, so that itsprotuberance should not effect the fragility of the pipe.The fourth experiment was conceived with the view of

ascertaining how far the drain-pipes absorb the water’which passes through them. Each pipe was placed in theportable stove supplied for baking the bread of the Frencharmy. The pipes remained for twelve hours in this stove,.and might therefore be considered as perfectly dry. Theywere then immersed for twenty-four hours in water. Eachpipe was carefully weighed before and after this immersion,and the increase in weight after the operation showed towhat extent water had been absorbed.The result of all these experiments was, it musb at once

be confessed, not satisfactory so far as the Eoglish ex-hibitors were concerned. It was in respect to the perviousnature of the hardware that the English goods were mostat fault. The jury made a calculation so as to ascertainthe coefficient of each exhibitor. The maximum numberof marks attainable was 1300. The Mousen Pottery Worksobtained 970 as their co-efficient, the Rambervilliers 960,the Pouilly-sur-Sa6ae 920, Messrs. Doulton 860, and theMuller Potteries 830. It was in respect to the porous cha-racter of the materials employed that the last two failedto come up to the mark. Thus we find that they obtainedno marks whatsoever in respect to permeability, whereasthe firms of Mousen and Rambervilliers obtained each300 marks, and Pouilly 260. On the other hand, whentested for their power of resisting shocks or blows, thedrain-pipes of the Mousen potteries received no marks atall, and the Rambervilliers and the Pouilly potteries ob-

tained but 100 marks each, while the Muller potteriesobtained 300 marks, and the Doulton potteries were at thehead of the list with 320. The fact of the case seems to bethat the clays found in France are better suited for themanufacture of pipes of an impervious nature.We cannot reproduce in detail all these experiments, but

give some specimens. With regard to the closets, we re-produce from the report of the jury the best and the worstspecimen exhibited by six of the best makers. The otherexhibits fell below the mark of what is here recorded. (SeeTable I.).With respect to the drain pipes, it would take too much

space to give the measurements of each pipe tested and theresults acquired, but here, for instance, are a few figurestaken from the extremes of good and bad. The pipes of theRambervillier’s potteries were crushed by weights amount-ing for the best specimens to 2500 kilogrammes and 2200kilogrammes, for the worst bo 1100 and 1200 kilogrammes.For the Muller potteries the extremes were 1850 kilo-grammes the best; 1000 the worst. For Pouilly-sur-Sa&ocirc;ne,1350 kilogrammes, the best ; 800 kilogrammes the worst.For the Valabiegue works, 1800 kilogrammes the best;600 kilogrammes the worst. For the Haine St. Pierre worksin Belgium, 2450 kilogrammes the best; 900 kilogrammesthe worst. For the Boussieux works in Belgium, 2050 kilo.grammes the best ; 800 kilogrammes the worst. The othertrials show an almost equal difference of merit, but it is thecoefficients rather than actual results that are instructive,and these we have already given. With the hydraulic pressthe rupture from internal pressure, varies for the Pouilly-sur-Saoae pipes, from 4 kilogrammes to 11 kilogrammes.For the Rambervilliers pipes, from 1’5 kilogramme to 10’5kilogrammes. For the Doulton pipes, from 4 kilogrammesto 10 kilogrammes. For the Haine St Pierre Belgian pipes,from 6 kilogrammes to 18 kilogrammes, and from the Vala-bregue, from 3’5 kilogrammes to 4 kilogrammes. Then inconclusion we have the results of the experiments made totest the absorption of moisture by hardware drain pipesgiven by the jury. (See Table Is).

THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF THERED CROSS.

AN Italian correspondent writes: - The historic Sala

degli Orazi e Curiazi (Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii) inthe Palazzo dei Conservatori, in the Capitol, was on

Thursday, the 21st inst., the scene of a brilliant assembly-that of the Fifth International Congress of the Red Cross.Of the 172 delegates, Italian and foreign, invited to takepart in the proceedings, all but a very few were in attend-ance. The majority wore on their breasts the insignia ofthe knightly orders to which they belong, and the foreigndelegates were grouped according to their respectivenationalities, each group being indicated by a reduced copyof its national flag. At the dais, on which the President(the Senator della Somaglia) was seated, there figuredamong the artistic decorations a large red cross bearing therubric "Gmevra, 22 Agosto, 1864" (Geneva, 22nd August,1864)-the date of the foundation of the InternationalSociety. Supported by General Cosenz, by the distinguishedstatesmen, Signors Pelloux (War Minister) and d’Arco,representing the Government, and by the Prefect andSyndic of Rome, Count della Somaglia opened the Congressin French, summarising the history of the philanthropicmovement, its steady development, and the benefits it hadalready conferred on humanity. Having touched on theprogramme of this, the fifbh, Congress, he read a communi-cation from the Secretary-General of the Ministry of theRoyal Household. The following are its terms :-

" Their Majesties the King and Queen of Italy, desirousof attesting their high appreciation and approval of theFifth International Congress of the Association of the RedCross, which takes place in Rome, have resolved to open acompetition resulting in prizes for the best contributions tothe cause which the philanthropic institution has at heart.The august sovereigns, convinced that promptitude inaiding the wounded is the most effective factor in thehappy issue of their tendance, have determined that thesubjecb of the present congress shall be exclusively theperfecting of the means for the immediate clearance-