ANCIENT THEORIES OF SANITATION

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1658, 11 January 1895, Page 3

ANCIENT THEORIES OF SANITATION

It is difficult to account for the universal prejudice against night air which has pervaded all nations and all agog until close upon our own times. No single instance can be quoted of a medical writer rising superioi to this curious delusion. The dread of cold watei as a drink is a marked characteristic of all the olden authorities or health, and no feature of quackery was more severely condemned than a^i occasional eccentric recommendation of its value. The difficulty of obtaining it pureand unpolluted may partly account for the bad reputation oi cold water. Boorde is decidedly oi opinion that water, cool by itself, is no! wholesome for an Englishman ; he recommends as about the best "running , water, the which doth swiftly flow from east to west upon stones oi pebbles." Sir William Vaughan, m his " Natural and Artificial Direction! for Health," has also strong views or the water question. He deems it bettei i on clay than on stone, and most whole i some m summer. Emphatically "ii I ought seldom to be drunk," If com

6 pelled to drink water, " see that yoi 5 seeth it gently at first." JEf putrid reviv( 5 it with oil of sulphur or aqua vitse. Per 4 haps the strongest anti-water author 4 ity is Thomas Cogan, head-mastei 4 of Manchester Grammar School, whc wrote "The Haven of Health." Ht quotes an opinion of Eliot's that watei if used for a child may be a harmless and even a sufficient drink ; but he it , very certain that men by nature arc 1 wine-drinkers, " except some odd abstep mious, one among a thousand perchance ? degenerate and of a doggish nature, foi 1 dogs of nature do abhor wine." — Health.

t ___ > Experiments were made recently at - Cureghem, a suburb of Brussels, m pre--3 sence of many foreigners, including 3 Colonel del Canto, who defeated the i Balmacedists m Chili, with a new rifle, 3 the intention of M. Marga, an officer m i the Belgianarmy. The main feature m the i invention is the cartridge, which is so ? arranged as to contain what are practi- * cally two charges. These are fired m 3 succession. The extraordinary muzzle--1 velocity of 3000 foot-seconds was at--3 tamed. The sole objection to the new i weapon seems to lie m the increased 3 cost of, and labour of filling, the cart- ' ridge.