Canada Medical Journal.

MONTREAL, JUNE, 1871.

THE HOWARD SYSTEM OF VENTILATION.

The subject of ventilation of public buildings has long engaged the attention of sanitarians; and of the various methods proposed, all present some objectionable point, so that perfection has not, so far, crowned the efforts of those who have devoted their energies in this direction.

Dr. Henry Howard of St. Johns, the worthy superintendent of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, of the Province of Quebec, has been forced to enter the lists in sheer self-defence. A more wretched building does not exist on this Continent, possessing the name of a lunatic asylum, than the institution over which he is forced to preside. The building was a few years ago used as a court-house, although we believe it was not originally built for that purpose. At the time of the Trent difficulty, when the Imperial Government in their wisdom sent an additional military force to this country, the old barrack at St. Johns, which had been selected by the Canadian Government as a temporary lunatic asylum, was re-occupied for military purposes by the Imperial authorities, Dr. Howard was forced to relinquish that site, and the present building which he occupies was temporarily given for his use, in lieu of the more extensive and commodious buildings known as the St. Johns barracks. We have repeatedly entered a strong protest against the present system, as more expensive than would be the erection of a new building; expensive in every respect, as it is utterly impossible to adapt such a building for the purposes of a lunatic asylum, besides which the constant outlay on an old building, the alterations necessary, the patching and repairing, in the long run costs more than a new establishment. But what should weigh more in the counsels of those whose business it is to provide such establishments is the fact that there is no chance of benefit being derived by the unfortunates confined there. As to the scientific treatment of the insane under such circumstances, it is out of the question. There is, therefore, every reason on the score of economy, if on no other grounds, for a change in the present system. The sooner the Government of Quebec adopt the idea `of

change in this respect, the better for the country at large, and the sooner will be removed the stigma of possessing a building in which afflicted human beings are housed which is hardly suitable for animals of the porcine species.

We say that Dr. Howard in sheer self-defence was forced to seek some efficient means of improving the air of his Asylum. From personal inspection we can bear testimony to the success of his efforts. When some five years since we visited his Asylum, we were simply horrified with the condition of things. Improvement certainly has followed on his exertions, and we have reason to know that these experiments have been attended with considerable outlay. We presume that the expense of these various trials or experiments have been borne by himself, as we all know that in Government enterprises great care is adopted to prevent unnecessary outlay, every farthing has to be satisfactorily accounted for, and the expenditure of large sums of money for mere experimental purposes would not be allowed. We visited the Asylum at St. Johns in April last, and rooms and dormitories which were in 1865 pestiferous, were in 1871 sweet and endurable. No more positive evidence, therefore, can be adduced of the success of Dr. Howard's method of ventilation than the results observed in his own Asylum.

Dr. Howard's system consists in the admission of fresh air at the upper part of a room; the air passes along the ceiling and falls as spray to the floor; in its transit it must to a certain extent mix with the foul air of the apartment, but only to a slight degree, while the latter being of higher temperature, is floated to the upper strata, and is carried off off by an upward shaft at the ceiling. This shaft is in connection with an air-tight receiver, having within it a fan of four blades; this is kept constantly revolving by means of a clock-work arrangement and weight; to the receiver is attached a discharge tube, which passes out out above the roof of the building. The revolution of the fan produces a vacuum, and must draw the air through the tube which opens at the ceiling of the apartment to be ventilated; this air is then forced through the discharge tube, and is rapidly diffused or carried off by the wind.

From experiments instituted by Dr. Howard, it would appear that the largest quantity of foul air in a room twenty feet high, when there is defective ventilation, is about two feet from the ceiling; a room of the same height yielded a large proportion of foul air ten feet from the floor, but there was almost perfect absence of impurities at the ceiling and at the floor. From these facts it would appear that a discharge tube would be more efficient if opened at two feet from the ceiling in

an apartment of twenty feet in height, and one foot in a room of ten feet altitude.

We need hardly allude to the urgency of ventilation. To secure a healthful condition of the body, constant change of the air of an apartment is an absolute necessity. The emanations from our bodies are such as to render any apartment in time highly poisonous, so much so, as to preclude the continuance of life. Decay is constantly going on in our bodies, and an arrest of these changes is inconsistent with the continuance of life. The problem consists in getting rid of these effete particles after they have been separated from the living mass. Hence the urgency of adopting some rational system of ventilation. More especially is this urgently necessary in public buildings, schools, gaols, lunatic asylums, churches, and other buildings where large numbers of persons are met together.

The Court. House of our City has been long known to be very deficient in ventilation. So much so that on more than one occasion the Judges on the Bench have been obliged to relinquish their official duties through indisposition. The Quebec Government have wisely determined to endeavour to improve the present state of that building, and we believe that Dr. Howard has in hand the contemplated improvement. If he succeeds as well as he has in the Lunatic Asylum at St. Johns, it will go far to secure the confidence of the public in his invention, and will, we trust, lead to the adoption by other ill-ventilated public buildings throughout the country of the Howard system of ventilation.

MEDICAL COMFORTS FOR THE MILITIA.

Many of our readers are aware that the Government of Canada deemed it expedient to form camps in different parts of the Dominion, and a special sum was voted for militia purposes. We believe that as a rule the experiment has succeeded, and although it is hard to please everybody, yet the larger mass of the volunteers were satisfied, and convinced that everything was done to make them comfortable while under canvas. We speak from personal knowledge, as we ourselves were on duty at the camp at Laprairie. The object we have in writing is to call attention to the Medical Field Companion, or whatever it may be called, which was issued to each Regiment. In our opinion it contained all that is requisite for service of the kind undertaken by the volunteers.

We have heard of some grumbling, and one daily paper compared it to a spice box, and styled the gentleman who was entrusted with the

getting up of the box, the Old Woman of Montreal. This as a jeu d'esprit is all very well, but it only shows the utter ignorance of the writer.

According to the regulations issued by authority, every volunteer before going into the field should be subjected to medical inspection. The object of this being to reject all who are physically incapable of bearing the fatigue of a campaign, and who would be an encumbrance to an army on the march. Another requirement being to send into hospital all men who may be taken seriously ill, and who would be necessarily neglected if allowed to remain in camp.

With regard to the contents of the "Medical Spice Box," they consist of those articles which certainly have been in the Pharmacopoeia from time immemorial, but are all that are requisite for sudden attacks of illness. Furthermore, the Medical Spice Box is more complete than the "Medical Field Companion" used by the British army in the field, and we think that those members of the profession who are desirous of having modern inventions added, such as corn plasters, toilet powder, and such like articles, forget that they would encumber their baggage with useless material, and run the risk of becoming the laughing stock of many hardy old veterans who are to be found attached to all our volunteer battalions. We certainly think that the Old Woman of Montreal' deserves the thanks of the members of the medical staff of the militia, as perhaps it is not generally known that that gentleman was instructed to use great economy, and get up a cheap but useful box.

DEATHS OF PROFESSORS WAGNER AND NIEMEYER.

From the British Medical Journal we learn that among the victims whom the medical profession has furnished in connection with the recent Franco-German war, have been two men of more than common note,-Professor Albrecht Wagner of Königsberg, who died at Dole on February 15, and Professor Felix von Niemeyer of Tübingen, who has died lately at Nancy. The cause of death in both cases was typhoid fever, contracted in the discharge of their duty. Dr. Wagner was well and favourably known in Germany for his works on Resection and Regeneration of Bone (translated a few years ago by the New Sydenham Society), on Hydrophobia, Diabetes in connection with Carbuncle, Resection of Nerves, etc. The name of Felix von Niemeyer is well known among us through the translation of his excellent Text-Book of Prac tical Medicine, and his Lectures on Phthisis.

A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

Under this head the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal has the following excellent remarks:

ness.

"In our own practice we are constantly cognizant of cases of malpractice on the part of apothecaries who overstep the bounds of their legitimate busiThat a pharmacist occupies a corner store in a crowded locality, and enjoys a local repute as a Doctor,' is no reason that he should treat venereal diseases, surgical injuries, and supposed constipation, or prescribe for the chiel who is a little ailing,' but may be on the threshold of serious disease. It is true, the patient, who may have but little money in his pocket, gets his advice for the price of the medicine administered, but the remedy is often dearly paid for by aggravation of disease, when a moderate fee to our younger brethren would secure sound advice and a satisfactory cure.

"We cannot help calling the attention of our friends the apothecaries to a sign we have just seen conspicuously posted in the shop of one of their own number. It is not for our sakes alone, but for their own good, that we advise them also to set up as a public notice,- We are pharmacists, but not physicians; we dispense medicines, but do not prescribe for diseases;' and when they have done so, we trust they will keep to their own legitimate calling and allow physicians to treat diseases."

To the Editors of the Canada Medical Journal.

GENTLEMEN,-In the brief report contained in the May number of the Canada Medical Journal, of the few observations upon a case of pleurisy and miliary tubercte made by me at a late meeting of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, I am unintentionally represented as attributing Aiews to the late Professor Niemeyer which he would disclaim could he read the report, and as holding an opinion upon the great pathological question discussed that I did not advance. The tenor of my remarks was as follows: "The point of greatest interest to myself in this case is the combination of pleurisy with effusion and miliary tubercle of the lung and kidneys in an old man, and the relation of the lesions to each other. Niemeyer and his school would maintain that the pulmonary tubercle was secondary to and a consequence of the pleurisy; but I did not think that that doctrine had been proved as yet, and I was rather disposed to believe that the tubercle preceded the inflammation of the pleura, or at most that the constitutional deterioration and local disturbance of nutrition incident to the pleurisy had evoked a preexisting tendency to tuberculosis. It was a question of great scientific interest, which I was not prepared then to discuss, but which I submitted for the consideration of the Society." The patient took one of Addison's pills, not "two" twice a-day-and thirty-five or forty ounces of fluid, not "about five ounces," were removed from the right pleural cavity after death.

Your obedient servant,

R. P. HOWARD, M.D.

Beaver Hall Hill, 18th July, 1871.