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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1880)
March, 1880 66 THE WEST SHORE. planted and standing all kinds of rough usage, but abundantly repaying any lover of flowers for all the care that may be bestowed upon it. It growl readily from culling, and Increases rapidly by underground runners. In short, it is in every respect a satisfactory plant to cultivate, and being found so sparingly in its wild state, makes it all the more valuable. S. SANITARY EFFECTS OF DRAINAGE, W. I.. WADS, M 11. Leaving out of our calculation the advantages of drainage for agricultural purposes which are such as to cause it to take the first place among the essen tials of successful farming, we propose to speak of it in its relation to public health. Water, in a state of stagna tion, has long been recognized as a pro lific source of danger l health. As water undergoes putrefaction only he cause of foreign material held in solu tion, it follows that the more it is con taminated by such material the more offensive it becomes. Under the influ ence ef light and heat, stagnant water becomes a nidus for innumerable germs of all the lower forms of fungoid veg etation. A good idea of the offensive character of such water can be obtained by smelling of water in which cut Unw orn have stood for a few hours in warm weather. Wo are then prepared with data from w hich to estimate the amount (f effluvia arising from a square mile ol our ponds and swales. The quantity of matter, chiefly vegetable, which is in a state of decomposition in the course of a year is almost beyond calculation The Spring and Autumn are the sea sons in which putrefaction is most ac tive. This is owing to the fact; that heat and moisture, both essential to the change in question, are present in the proper proportions at this season. Streams, so long as they are in rapid motion, nrc not a source of danger This is one reason .wbv the streams of the Mississippi valley aie so much tttOR unhealthful than those of Oregon which having their sources fed by mountain springs, arc never dried up by the summer heat. To just what extent these putrescent matters are the causes of disease has never leen definitely settled. Thei can be little doubt that malarial dil eases, most of the fevers, dysentery, and perhaps, diphlhciia, have this origin- while rheumatism, bronchitis, asthma, catarrh, and, perhaps, other affections, owe their origin to excessive moisture, conjoined with cold. Water standing and nvnnnvntin" mlTICs off a VBSt amount of heat, and this is without doubt, a prolific cause of consumption, which fell disease carries off its thou sands annually. So close is the con nection between the rainfall, evapora tion and physical conformation of a country with its sanitary condition, that a knowledge of the former is all suffi cient from which to predict the latter. Sewerage was the fust remedy for the large amount of decaying matter accumulating in cities; but from its very nature it is almost valueless as a sani tary precaution. Millions of dollars have been expended to remove the filth a short distance from the city, while, perhaps, the very next breeze bears the on y dangerous part, its noxious gasses, ack to the nostrils of the citizens, while the unventilated trap sends up its lUOta of death-dealing poison from the sewer. In one week, during July, 1866, 200 children died in New York City uul 700 in Philadelphia, from causes tracable to decaying animal and veget able matter. Tens of thousands of hildren die in our great cities yearly Irom causes 111 their nature largely eventable, The remedy for all this must be radical, and ample to the fullest extent. The key-note of the reform is the perfect separation of ill matter liable to undergo decom position from the waste water; this, liter being deodorized, to take the usual course of the sewers, which will convey nothing else. All the matters separated are then to be completely lessicated and used for agricultural pm poses. 1 lie complete execution 01 this plan would exert a remarkable ef fect on the vital statistics ot the cities. We learn that the Russian Minister f the Interior has signed a concession giving the American firm of Hutchin son, Kohl & Co. the right to the fur trade of the Komcndoiskin and Sulin Islands, oil' Kamtschatka, for a term of twenty-five years, at a rent of 5,000 roubles per annum. This, it is stated, is the first of a series of concessions that will be granted to American citizens in connection with the fur trade and fish eries upon the Pacific-Siberian coast, as being the best means of dealing with the disputes that have occurred recently between the Russian and the United States Governments in respect to those I ud list t ies. THE AUD1PHONE AND DENTAMIONE. BY K. B. BATON, M. D. PORTLAND, OREGON'. Perhaps no appliance of equal notori ety has won a reputation so equivocal as the Audiphone. To-day il is regard ed by many all over the land as an inestimable boon, and, by perhaps an ccpial number, is, after a brief trial, thrown aside us worthless. Now, strange as it may sound, the principal cause of this disagreement of opinion and experience rests neither in the in strument nor yet in the physical condi tion of the patient, but, it must be said, in the ignorance of the latter concerning the principles upon which it is con structed and used, and in want of per severance and faith. The writer has arrived at these con clusions by actual experience with the deaf, and it would seem that the very simplicity of the audiphone has misled patients into supposing that its practical use is equally simple, lie ventures the statement that proper instruction in its use is as needful as that to enable a pa tient to use an artificial eye or limb. A couple of cases will be appended to this article illustrating these points. In the mean time, let us determine those deaf .individuals who can and those who can not, be benefited by the instrument ; this, of course, will include a description of its modus operandi. Deafness may be considered as arising from two principal abnormal conditions of the ear, viz : Disease of the appar atus which conducts the sounds to the auditory nerve; and disease of the nerve itself. It should be clearly understood that the audiphone is useless where great deafness is caused by disease of the nerve ; a condition only to be ascer tained by a competent physician, Fortunately, nervous deafness is com paratively infrequent, while deafness from disease of the conducting appar atus (i. c., the drum, etc.), is precisely the kind which the audiphone assists, ami the greater the deafness the more marked the assistance derived. For the sake of those who have not seen the instrument, the following de scription of its nature and working may prove acceptable. Advantage is taken of the acoustic principle that solid bodies possess the superior power of conducting and transmitting sonorousi vibrations. With this is counted a 1 I physiological fact, viz : that the nerves