Notes

Abstract

THE exhibition at Croydon, held in connection with the Congress of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain, has a peculiarity attached to it which, though it has its advantages, is a disadvantage to the visitor. The peculiarity is that the awards of the judges will not be made known till the day of closing, viz., November 8. At most exhibitions visitors have their attention drawn to objects of high merit by the announcements of the honours the judges have awarded; but here, and this, too, on subjects often affecting their own health, visitors can, even if they care to take that trouble, only form their own opinions, guided by the skilled advocacy of the attendants at the different stalls. If all the objects announced in the catalogue as “essential,” “indispensable,” “infallibly safe,” and “the only ones of the. kind made,” are really so, then the practical application of sanitary science in households is in a lamentably backward state, even in particulars where those who are our leaders in sanitation would least expect it. It can hardly be supposed, however, that all the exhibits shown have been admitted with the sanction of the Council as illustrations of the subjects discussed at the Institute. There are, for example, music stands, clocks, sausage mincers, billiard registers, weighing machines, mechanical toys, flower scissors, electric pens, nickel-plated goods, pantographs, bells, telephones, china cements, “lightning” knife sharpeners, &c. Some of the exhibits are made on principles that have been repeatedly denounced; for example, filters so closed that the filtering medium cannot be easily and frequently changed are now by our most experienced observers admitted to be unsafe, yet there are some in the exhibition. Traps of certain construction have been likewise denounced, yet they are shown. Ventilators of patterns generally regarded as practically useless, and so-called disinfectants which are only deodorisers, are shown. It might, perhaps, have been well had the exhibition been called one of “Sanitary and unsanitary appliances,” and then the visitor would have been put on his guard not to believe in everything shown there. Mr. F. P. W. Essie, C.E., has contributed part of a collection of the materials on which his paper on the dangers of bad plumbing (read at the Congress) was based. It is intended as an unsanitary exhibition, and shows in an alarming manner how some so-called sanitary appliances may become a positive source of danger. Each specimen exhibited “has been associated with death and with disaster in some shape or other.” It is a pity no handbook or any kind of guide other than the unclassified list of entries in the catalogue has been prepared. We may be able to return to the subject next week when noticing the list of awards.