Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1887 — Results of Sanitary Work. [ARTICLE]

Results of Sanitary Work.

It is reasonable to hope that tlie average duration of human life may be largely and permanently and the ills to which it is subject correspondingly abated, as the progress of sanitary science reveals the sources of diseases and provides the means for successfully attacking them.. An example of what has already been accomplished in this direction is given by the Sanitary Plumber. That paper says: The population of Birmingham, England, was, in 1871, 344,980, or forty-one persons to the 427,709, or fift.y-onW to an acre. It is an axiom in the history of centers of population that deaths increase with the density of population, but in that city the number of deaths in 18'/1 was 8,594; in 1885 that number was 8,150, numerically less, despite the increase of ten persons to the acre of space. Had the deaths for 1885 been the average of three years, 1873-75, it would have been 11,121. The saving of life, as shown by the diminished deaths since 1875, as compared with the three years ending 1885, was fully 17,715, the money value of which, on Dr. Farr’s estimate of the average value of human life, was £2,810,085, to which, of even more value, add improved average of public health. This result is clearly traceable to the sanitary work of the last ten years.— Exchange. ”

Thf, Michigan Central Railroid is preparing to build ferry-boats that will run, winter and summer, across the Straits of Mackinac. Of course, there is much ice there in winter, and to get. through the ice each boat %ill have a screw-wheel at each end, the stern wheel to have one-third greater power than the bow wheel. When running through comparatively clear water or • smooth ice the bow wheel will pull and the stem wheel will push. Its crushing power will be immense, and its projectors say that it will walk through ice two or feet thick with perfect ease. When it meets the great floes, so common in the Straits, it is expected that the front pcrew will push the boat back and the rear screw will push her ahead. The greater strength of the rear screw will push the boat up against the floe, while the powerful currents circling ahead from the front screw will wash a passage in the floe and allow the ferry-boat to run through. A committee of French electricians, to which was referred the question of protecting from lightning the high steel observatory tower at the Universal Exposition soon to be held in Paris, decided that it would itself be a gigantic lightning rod, and that if only care were taken to maintain adequate metallic connection with earth deep enough to be permanently moist, not only would those inside it be perfectly safe during the most violent thunderstorm, but everything near it and for a considerable distance around it would be protected. The earth plates will be of copper and will be connected with each angle at the base of the tower by substantial cables. The top is to have a tall copper rod with a gilded point. Thebe are several new houses in New York City that are only fifteen feet wide. A large and pleasant entrance hall, with a fireplace and ornamental staircase, occupies the whole width.of the house and extends twentytwo feet back. The kitchen is in the rear, and the parlor and dining-room on the second story.— Chicago Times. The popularity of the ulster is probably owing to the fact that you can wear it longer than any other garment. A young lady calls her fellow “Honeysuckle,” because he’s always hanging tnrer the’ front fence. 1