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Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882试读：
THE NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDING, BERLIN.
In the accompanying engravings are represented the two prize designs for the new Capitol or Parliament Building at Berlin, of which one is by Prof. Friedrich Thiersch, of Munich, and the other by Mr. Paul Wallot, of Frankfurt a. M., the portraits of which gentlemen are also shown. The jury has decided that Mr. Wallot's design shall be executed. The building is to be erected on the Pariser Platz, near the Brandenburger Thor, in Berlin. Mr. Wallot's design will have to be somewhat changed before it can be carried out, for he has arranged the main entrance in the side of the building, and that has not satisfied the jury, as they wish to have the entrance of the Capitol more imposing. The building is provided with four corner pavilions and with a large, highly ornamented, square dome, below which the Reichsrath Chamber, or Hall of Representatives, is located. However, the most important feature of the entire design is the ground plan, which is superior to all others entered for competition. Prof Thiersch's design also has four corner pavilions, with a large circular central dome and four smaller cupolas surrounding it. The front of the building is very imposing, and is highly ornamented with statuary. An emperor's crown surmounts the central dome.
THIERSCH'S DESIGN FOR THE NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDING. BERLIN
PROFESSOR FRIEDRICH THIERSCH.
MR. P. WALLOT'S DESIGN FOR THE NEW PARLIAMENT BUILDING, BERLIN
PAUL WALLOT.
THE BRITISH SANITARY CONGRESS.
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT GALTON.
The Congress of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain was opened in Newcastle on September 26. The inaugural public meeting was held in the Town Hall. Prof. De Chaumont presided, in the place of the ex-President, Lord Fortescue, and introduced Captain Galton, the new President.
The President commenced his inaugural address by thanking, in the name of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain, the Mayor and Corporation of Newcastle for the invitation to visit this important industrial metropolis of Northern England. The invitation, he said, was the more satisfactory because Newcastle was advancing in the van of sanitary improvement, and was thus proving the interest of this great city in a subject which was contributing largely to the moral and material progress of the nation. Of all the definite questions which were made the subject of the instruction by congresses at the present time, there was scarcely one which deserved a greater share of attention than that which called that congress together--namely, the subject of the public health.
Within the last half century the whole community had been gradually awakening to the importance of a knowledge of the laws of health, and the energies of some of the ablest intellects in the world had been employed in investigating the causes of disease, and in endeavoring to solve the problem of the prevention of disease. There was much that was still obscure in this very intricate problem, but the new light which was daily being thrown upon the causes of disease by the careful and exact researches of the chemist and physiologist was gradually tending to explain those causes and to raise the science of hygiene, or science of prevention of disease, out of the region of speculation, and enable it to take rank as one of the exact sciences. Long ago the careful observation of facts had shown that the preservation of health required certain conditions to be observed in and around dwellings, conditions which, when neglected, had led to the outbreaks of epidemic disease from the days of Moses to the present time. But while the results had been patent, it was only in recent years that a clew had been obtained to the occult conditions in air and water to enable their comparative healthful purity to be distinguished.
The researches of Pasteur in respect to the forms of disease in French vineyards opened a fruitful field of inquiry, and the theories of Dr. Bastian on spontaneous generation gave rise to the beautiful series of experiments by Tyndall on bacterian life. A large band of leading scientific men, both in this country and over the whole world, were devoting their energies to a knowledge of the recent theories on the propagation of disease by germs. In a lecture on fermentation, Tyndall remarked that the researches, by means of which science has recently elucidated the causes of fermentation, have raised the art of brewing from being an art founded on empirical observation--that is to say, on the observation of facts apart from the principles which explain them--into what may be termed an exact science.
In like manner, if recent theories on the propagation of disease by germs were proved to be correct, and if the laws which govern the propagation or destruction of those germs were known, the art of the physician would be similarly raised. Upon these questions leading scientific men all over the world were devoting their energies. Research had shown that putrefaction was only another form of organized life, and Tyndall had shown that in the moving particles of fine dust discovered by a ray of light in a dark room the germs of low forms of life, which would cause putrefaction, were ever present, and ready to spring into life when a favorable "nidus" for the development of the organism was provided.
Professor Lister had turned this knowledge to useful account in surgery in causing the air to be filtered by means of a carbolic spray during surgical operations, by which means germs or organisms in the air were prevented from reaching the wounds, and from developing organisms, the presence of which caused putrefaction or suppuration. This antiseptic treatment, which had arisen from the observation of germs in the air, had had a material influence on the art of surgery throughout the world.
The speaker then reviewed the declarations of physiologists regarding the theories that some diseases arise from minute organisms in the blood--Pasteur holding that the disease in silkworms was from this cause; Dr. Davaine, that splenic fever in cattle arose thus; Dr. Klein alleging that pig typhoid was due to an organism; Toussaint attributing fowl cholera to a similar cause; Professor Koch attributing tubercular disease to specific germs; Dr. Vandyke Carter contending that there was a connection between the presence of bacillus spirillum and relapsing fever; and Mr. Talamon claiming to have discovered that diphtheria was due to an organism by means of which the virus could be conveyed from human beings to animals, and vice versa.
Taking another branch of the same subject, the causes of zymotic diseases being traced to controllable sources, he said: Drs. Klebs and Crudelli allege that malarial fever arises from germs present in the soil and which float over the air of marshes; and that by treating with water the soil of a fever-haunted marsh of the Campagna the germs of this organism could be washed out; and that the water containing the organisms thus obtained, introduced into the circulation of a dog, produced ague more or less rapidly, and more or less violent, according to the numbers in which the organisms were present in the water.
This theory, no doubt, agrees with certain well-known facts. In a tropical climate, if soil which has been long undisturbed, or the soil of marshy ground, be turned up, intermittent fever is almost certain to ensue. In illustration of this, I recollect that at Hong Kong the troops were unhealthy, and a beautiful position on a peninsula exposed to the most favorable sea-breezes was selected for a new encampment. The troops were encamped upon this spot for some time to test its healthiness, which was found to be all that could be desired. It was then resolved to build barracks. As soon as the foundations were dug, fever broke out.
As an instance of this nearer home, I may mention that last winter at Cannes, in the south of France, some extensive works adjacent to the town were begun which required a large quantity of earth to be moved. The weather was exceptionally warm; an outbreak of fever occurred among the workmen, of whom fifteen died. This fever was attributed to the turning up of the soil.
If a strong solution of quinine be let fall in the water containing these organisms they at once die; the efficacy of quinine as a preventive of this form of fever would therefore not be inconsistent with this theory. Upon this subject the President called attention to the view of Sir Joseph Fayrer, who acknowledged the importance of the discovery if it should be confirmed, but considered that there was a possibility that the results attributed to these influences might, to some extent, be due to disturbance of the system in a body predisposed to be deranged by peculiarity of constitution, climatic or other influence of the nature of which we are ignorant, though it is conceivable by analogy.
The marvelous facility of reproduction of various germs, as shown by Pasteur in the case of chicken cholera, was dwelt upon; and the President said that it would be a wonder how any higher form of life could exist subject to the possibility of invasion by such countless hosts of occult enemies were it not seen that the science of the prevention of disease advanced quite as rapidly as our knowledge of the causes. Holding that the attitude of the sanitarian, in regard to the germ theory of diseases, as applied to all diseases of the zymotic class, must be one of reserve, yet, he said, even if the views of those who are prepared to accept the germ theory of disease to its fullest extent were shown to be true, it seems to be certain that if the invasion of these occult enemies present in the air is undertaken in insufficient force, or upon an animal in sufficiently robust health, they are refused a foothold and expelled; or, if they have secured a lodgment in the tissues, they, so to speak, may be laid hold of, and absorbed or digested by them.
In corroboration of this view, Professor Koch and others state that the minor organisms of tubercular disease do not occur in the tissues of healthy bodies, and that when introduced into the living body their propagation and increase is greatly favored by a low state of the general health. The President held that for the present sanitary procedure was independent of these theories on the germ origin in particular of zymotic disease; but gave the facts as worthy of consideration, as indicating points for the direction of those who aimed at preventing disease.
The President dealt with the important subject of isolation in the cases of contagious zymotic diseases, and then, proceeding to discuss the subject of epidemic diseases, said: Notwithstanding the numerous experiments and the great efforts which have been made in recent times to endeavor to trace out the origin of disease, the sanitarian has not yet been able to lift up the veil which conceals the causes connected with the occurrence of epidemic diseases. These diseases come in recurring periods, sometimes at longer, sometimes at shorter intervals. Animals, as well as the human race, are similarly affected by these diseases of periodical recurrence; but why they prevail more in one year than in another we are entirely ignorant. They appear to be subject to certain aerial or climatic conditions.
Cholera affords an illustration of this. There is a part of India, low-lying, water-logged, near the mouth of the Ganges, where cholera may be said to be endemic. In certain years, but why we know not, it spreads out of this district, and moves westward over the country; the people are sedentary, and seldom leave home, but the cholera travels on. At last it arrives on the borders of the desert, where there are no people, and no intercourse, no alvine secretions, and no sewers, yet the statistician sitting in Calcutta can tell almost the day on which the epidemic influence will have crossed the desert. But it exercises discrimination in its attacks, It will visit one town or village and leave many others in the vicinity untouched. Similarly it will attack one house and leave another. But it has been generally found that the attacked house or village held out special invitation from its insanitary condition. The same houses or the same localities will be revisited in recurring epidemics, because the conditions remain the same; remove those conditions, and at the next recurrence the locality will escape. At Malta it was found that the same localities and houses which yielded the majority of plague deaths there in 1813 yielded the majority of the deaths in the cholera epidemics of 1839 and 1867, and that in the intervals the same localities yielded the majority of cases of small-pox, fever, and of an anthrax, a very special eruptive epidemic attended by carbuncles. Hence, while we are unable either to account for the cause or to prevent the periodic recurrence of epidemics, the sanitarian has learnt that it is possible to mitigate the severity of the visit; and that, whether these evils arise from the occult causes to which I have alluded, or from other causes, pure air and pure water afford almost absolute safeguards against most forms of zymotic diseases.
In speaking of the pure-water question, he remarked: Although there are many theories as to how far water which has once been contaminated by sewage may again after a time become fit to drink, I am disposed to think that there has never been a well-proved case of an outbreak of disease resulting from the use of drinking water where the chemist would not unhesitatingly on analysis have condemned the water as an impure source; and it appears probable that, whatever may be the actual causes of certain diseases--i.e., whether germs or chemical poisons, the materies morbi which finds its way into the river at the sewage outfall is destroyed, together with the organic impurity, after a certain length of flow. He pressed that there should be no further delay in bringing the Act for the Prevention of Pollution of Rivers into operation, and in enforcing the provisions of the Acts. In regard to the pollution of the air, he called attention to the fact that nearly fifty years ago Mr. Edwin Chadwick impressed upon the community the evils which were caused by the impure condition of the air in our towns owing to the retention of refuse around houses. The speaker remarked that the gases, which were the result of putrefaction, were offensive to the smell, and some of them, such as sulphureted hydrogen, when present in undue proportions in the air, would kill persons outright, or when those gases were in smaller proportions in the air breathed by people, there would be a lowered tone of health in the individuals exposed to them. Continued exposure might lead to the development of other conditions, which, in their turn, might lead to disease or death.
From this point the President proceeded to speak of the increased toxical power of volatile compounds given off by neglected decomposed matter, and was thence led to dwell upon the dangers arising from decomposed substances in cesspools and in badly constructed drains. There was no doubt, he said, that in the sewering of towns want of experience in the construction of works had in some cases led to deposits in the sewers, and evil consequences had ensued; but it might be accepted as certain that in every case where the sewerage had been devised on sound principles, and where the works had been carried on under intelligent supervision, a largely reduced death-rate had invariably followed.
Evidence of this fact he adduced from the history of Newcastle, for in the ten years beginning in 1867 the death-rate was 27.6, while in the ten years ending 1881 (during which there had been improved sewerage in operation) the death-rate was only 23, while in 1881 it was only 21.7. He instanced the like results in Munich, where the entire fever mortality sank from 24.2 in the period when there were no regulations in regard to cleanliness to 8.7 when the sewerage was complete, at Frankfort-on-the-Main, at Dantzic, and at Hamburg, where similar results obtained of a heavy zymotic mortality previous to the sewering of the cities, and a lighter mortality on the completion of the works.
These results were set forth in figures, and after dealing with the beneficial results of purifying the air of towns by the rapid abstraction of refuse matter, he passed on to review "other fertile causes of mischief" in poisoning the air of towns, the chief of these being horse manure, the dust of refuse, and smoke.
On this subject he quoted Dr. Angus Smith, who in his "Contributions to the Beginnings of a Chemical Climatology," shows that the air in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, on the sea-shore, and on uncontaminated open spaces, commands the greatest amount of oxygen; that at the tops of hills the air contains more oxygen than at the bottom; and that places where putrefaction may be supposed to exist are subject to a diminution of oxygen.
For instance, a diminution of oxygen and an increase of carbonic acid is decidedly apparent in crowded rooms, theaters, cowhouses, and stables. It is well known that oxygen over putrid substances is absorbed, while carbonic acid and other gases take its place; and hence all places near or in our houses which contain impurities diminish the oxygen of the air. The average quantity of oxygen in pure air amounts to 21 parts out of 100. In impure places, such, for instance, as in a sleeping-room where the windows have been shut all night, or in a lecture-theater after a lecture, or in a close stable, the oxygen has been found to be reduced to as little as 20 parts in 100.
That is to say, a man breathing pure air obtains, and he requires, 2,164 grains of oxygen per hour. In bad air he would, if breathing at the same rate, get little over 2,000 grains of oxygen an hour--that is, a loss of 5 per cent.; and this diminished quantity of oxygen is replaced with other, and in almost all cases, pernicious matters. The oxygen is the hard-working, active substance that keeps up the fire, cooks the food, and purifies the blood; and, of course, as the proportion of oxygen in the air breathed diminishes, the lungs must exert themselves more to obtain the necessary quantity of oxygen for carrying on the functions of life. If the air is loaded with impurities the lungs get clogged, and their power of absorbing the oxygen that is present in the air is diminished. An individual breathing this impure air must therefore do less work; or, if he does the same amount of work, it is at a greater expense to his system.
The influence of smoky town air on health is to some extent illustrated by the fact that the death-rate of twenty-three manufacturing towns, selected chiefly for their smoky character, averaged 21.9 per 1,000 in 1880; while the rural districts in the counties of Wilts, Dorset, and Devon, excluding large towns, averaged 17.7 per 1,000; and the deaths from the principal zymotic diseases in the towns were more than double those in the rural districts.
The President quoted the experiments of Mr. Aitkin, of Edinburgh, on the creation of fogs--that the vapor of water injected into air, from which particles had been strained out, was not visible; whereas as soon as foreign matter, such as dust, or smoke, or fumes, and especially fumes of sulphur, were introduced, the aqueous vapor condensed on the particles, and became visible as fog, and pointed out the fact that the barbarous method which we adopt for burning coal in this country adds to the dust the fumes which necessarily result from combustion, as well as a quantity of soot and tarry matter, a soot which assists in forming the black canopy which it is the fashion in England to consider the proper attribute of a large town.
He quoted the opinions of eminent scientific men to show that it was possible, under proper methods of burning coal, to lessen the intensity of fogs, and so to lessen materially the causes of ill-health, terminating in fatal disease of those subject to them. In dealing with the wide subject of the "general effect of sanitary conditions upon health," he gave some remarkable facts showing that sanitary work had reduced the death-rate of the European army in India from 60 per 1,000 to 16 per 1,000; that the deaths from tubercular disease in the army at home used to be 10 per 1,000--the sum total now of the total deaths from all causes in a time of peace--a reduction due to the improved hygienic conditions under which soldiers now live; that the death-rate in a certain part of Newcastle (now removed) used to be 54 per 1,000, and of the entire borough 26.1 so lately as seven years ago, while now it was 21.8; that in parts of London, where the people were ill-lodged and crowded, as in parts of Limehouse, Whitechapel, Aldgate, and St. Giles's, the death-rates were 50 per cent. above the death-rates in more open parts of the same districts, and that when proper dwellings were erected the death-rates fell from 50 in the 1,000 to not more than 20 per 1,000. He then spoke of the advantage arising to the health of the population generally by the new dwellings for artisans.
He remarked that these improved dwellings "afford accommodation to a population per acre as dense as, and in most cases even denser than, that afforded by the buildings which they replaced. Within limits it is not the density of population which regulates the health. But if a dense population is spread over the surface or close to the surface of the ground, by which means all movement of air is prevented, and if there are numerous corners in which refuse is accumulated, it will be difficult to prevent disease. Dr. Angus Smith's experiments show that while there is less oxygen and more carbonic acid in the eastern and in the more crowded parts of London, yet in open spaces the amount of oxygen rises and the carbonic acid diminishes very considerably; and that we are exposed to distinct currents of good air in the worst, and equally to currents of bad air in the best atmosphere, in towns like Manchester.
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