The beds are so graded as to give an even and rapid distribution of the sewage; and their entire surface is furrowed into small rows, which assist the distribution and increase the filtration area. At the four corners of each bed are inlet mains, in front of which small spaces have been cemented, to prevent the inflowing sewage from washing the surface of the ground. Upon being discharged over the sandy loam, the sewage filters through to the sub-drainage below, and is emptied from the drain tiles into the main. effluent pipe, through which it is conducted to Jones' Falls. When thus filtered, it will be found, upon examination, at the outflow of the main effluent pipe, to be as clear and odorless as pure spring water.

After the liquefied sewage has filtered through the bed, a coating of greasy substance is left on the surface. One or two days' sun dries this deposit and causes it to crack and peel. It is then raked up by the man in charge and removed, and the bed is again ready for use. Under ordinary conditions, the liquefied sewage entirely disappears from the surface of the beds within twelve hours after the flow has been cut off. The weather conditions, of course, affect this somewhat, as in wet weather, or sometimes in the winter, the filtering process does not go on quite so rapidly. In the operation of the field one bed is used each twenty-four hours and it will be seen that, having seven beds in use, each bed will have a rest of four or five days before another application of sewage is applied.

In the operation of the system, care is taken that all of the manholes and valve traps are kept clean of any sewerage deposit, so as to prevent obnoxious odors. In the disposal field at Roland Park there has been little or no trouble from this source, although at times, when the weather is murky, one may detect a slightly sour odor, and there is a slight odor of fresh sewage when the sewage is flowing on to the beds. But, as the filter beds are practically surrounded by the golf course of the Baltimore Country Club, one of the driving tees, in fact, being located in the center of the field, on one of the burms,-that although the golf course is used daily by hundreds of people, there has been no complaint whatever regarding the odors, is very good evidence of the satisfactory operation of the system. The field is maintained by two laborers, at a cost of about $2000 per annum.

THE BALTIMORE SUBURBAN SEWERAGE COMPANY.

BY J. R. READ

Chief Engineer

There is under construction (and now nearly reached completion) at Mt. Washington, Md., a project, which will appeal to nearly every small

community in the State, namely a complete, modern and up to date sanitary sewerage system. Not alone does this system take care of the sewerage in Mt. Washington, but reaches out and covers a territory of upwards of 4500 acres to the north and west of the town from which direction all sewerage must come to pollute the streams running through the town.

To carry through an enterprise of this kind it was necessary to raise considerable capital, the outcome of which was the Baltimore Suburban Sewerage Company with a capital of $1,200,000. The surveys for the construction work were begun February 1, 1911, and the actual construction work was begun March 1, 1911.

The investors in this enterprise appreciating the expense and delay of procuring right of ways through private properties deemed it expedient to purchase out-right a strip of land of varying widths through the valley of Western Run, where they intended to lay their mains, the cost of this property to be partly paid back in the selling of lots. These lots lying as they did in an undeveloped territory it was necessary to give them an outlet; the result being the Cross Country Boulevard and the Western Run Drive, two parallel roads, one on the north and the other on the south side of Western Run with a wide parkway between them and the stream running through it.

Beginning the first of March this work has been pushed through without cessation until at the present time there are upwards of 19,000 feet of main sewer lines laid with an average fall of 1.26 per cent or 66 feet to the mile, composed as follows: 3200 feet of 24-inch pipe, 2800 feet of 18-inch pipe and 13,000 feet of 12-inch pipe. There are also several house connections made. The septic tanks and disposal fields, covering six acres, will be completed before the first of January 1912. This system is built to take care of upwards of 3,500,000 gallons of sewerage per 24 hours, turning this amount of 98 per cent pure water into Jones Falls, southeast of and below Mt. Washington.

From 350 to 450 men have been engaged at all times on this work since its beginning. It required four stone crushers, five steam rollers and forty to fifty double teams to keep this work up to the standard. Four concrete bridges have been built and two more are to be built, and some seven or eight concrete culverts.

That the sewer main might have its proper fall it was necessary to tunnel down First Avenue for a distance of 680 feet.

This was all done that Mt. Washington might not pollute the streams running through the heart of it, and to prevent it from receiving the sewerage from the locality laying north and west of it.

APPLICANTS FOR MEMBERSHIP IN THE BALTIMORE CITY MEDICAL SOCIETY.

TO BE VOTED ON DECEMBER 5, 1911.

Members having any objection to any applicant will kindly advise the Board of Censors prior to the date on which the application would come up for final consideration.

DR. C. E. BRACK, Chairman,

DR. RANDOLPH WINSLOW,

DR. C. W. LARNED.

Dr. Michael A. Abrams, 1603 E. Baltimore Street, College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1909.

Dr. Charles Robert Austrain, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medical School, 1909.

Dr. Grover C. Ney, Hebrew Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medical School, 1908.

Dr. William Guy Townsend, 2017 N. Charles St., University of Maryland, 1888.

Dr. Charles B. Whettle, 1279 William Street, Baltimore Medical College, 1910.

APPOINTMENTS OF COMMITTEES FOR 1912.

Memoir Committee: Drs. A. C. Pole, Robert Hoffmann, W. T. Watson, E. E. Wolff and W. E. Wiegand.

Fund for Widows and Orphans: Drs. Eugene F. Cordell, Robert W. Johnson, George Wells, John Mace and Theodore Cook, Sr.

Public Instruction Committee: Drs. H. G. Beck, Lilian Welsh, Ronald T. Abercrombie, A. C. Gillis and J. M. Slemons.

Committee on Medical Education: Drs. J. W. Williams, C. F. Bevan, David Streett, Randolph Winslow and L. H. Gundry.

Committee on Legislation, A. M. A.: Dr. Nathan R. Gorter, alternate Dr. Marshall L. Price.

Committee on Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis: Drs. Donald Hooker, A. T. Chambers, O. E. Janney, A. H. Whitridge and Lilian Welsh.

Committee on Tuberculosis: Drs. W. L. Moss, M. F. Sloan, G. W. Todd, Victor Cullen and John Girdwood.

Committee on Midwifery: Drs. G. W. Dobbin, Mary Sherwood, S. A. Nichols, John T. King and Bernard Wess.

MEDICAL SOCIETY MEETINGS

101

Committee on Eugenics: Drs. L. F. Barker, Frank Martin, F. W. Keating, G. W. Wilkins and W. E. Gaver.

Committee on Defense of Medical Research: Drs. T. S. Cullen, Harvey Cushing, W. R. Stokes, Peregrine Wroth, Jr. and A. L. Wilkinson.

Milk Committee: Drs. W. M. Dabney, R. A. Urquhart, G. C. Lockard, Charlotte Gardner and G. H. Richards.

Laboratory and Museum Committee: Drs. W. R. Stokes, W. H. Welch, Claribel Cone, Gordon Wilson and J. L. Hirsch.

MEDICAL SOCIETY MEETINGS.

BALTIMORE COUNTY.

The Baltimore County Medical Society met on November 15 at Creighton Sanitarium, Lutherville, as the guests of Dr. L. G. Smart, the medical superintendent. After luncheon, an interesting program was given, the speaker of the occasion being Dr. L. F. Barker of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Much interest has been taken in the association this year owing to the places of meeting. The members have met at a number of the leading institutions of the county, and at different villages at the invitation of local physicians. Last summer they took a trip down the Bay. Dr. Josiah S. Bowen, who has just been elected a member of the House of Delegates from the third district of the county, is president of the Association.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

On November 15 the Montgomery County Medical Society held a public meeting in the town hall, Kensington, Md., for the discussion of Sewage Disposal.

The speakers were as follows: Dr. James Dudley Morgan, President Montgomery County Medical Society; Dr. Marshall L. Price, Secretary State Board of Health; Dr. Wm. C. Woodward, Health Officer, D.C.; Dr. C. H. Mannar, Health Officer, Montgomery County; Mr. Asa B. Phillips, Superintendent of Sewers, D.C.; Mr. Wm. Pinkney Whyte, Jr., General Counsel, State Board of Health.

General discussion opened by Drs. O. M. Linthicum and Wm. L. Lewis.

A great deal of good is expected as the outcome of public interest in the health of the community.

SECTION, MEDICAL EXAMINERS.

The question as to how much a physician should charge an insurance company for the examination of prospective customers was discussed at the meeting of that section of the Baltimore City Medical Society, November 16.

In many parts of the country insurance companies have cut the price from $5 to $3, with the result that numerous medical societies have passed resolutions against the reduction and leading physicians have refused flatly to consider such practice.

102

THE BULLETIN

COMING MEETINGS.

ANNUAL MEETING OF BALTIMORE CITY MEDICAL SOCIETY.

Tuesday, December 5, 1911, 8.30 p.m., sharp.

1. Report of nominating committee. Election of officers; Report of Censors; Election of new members; Report of Secretary and Treasurer; New Business.

2. The use of vaccine in the prevention of typhoid fever in the U. S. Army, Dr. F. F. Russell, Major, Medical Corps, U. S. Army, Curator, Army Medical Museum. 3. The prophylactic inoculation against typhoid fever in institutional and private life, Drs. H. W. Stoner and F. W. Hachtel; Discussion on both papers: Dr. J. L. Hirsh, E. L. Whitney and W. L. Moss.

Neurological Section, Friday, December 8, 1911.

1. Test for determining mental age-the Binet scale, Dr. E. B. Huey.

2. Presentation of cases, Dr. 1. J. Spear.

3. Report of brain tumor cases, Dr. Randolph Winslow.

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON HYGIENE AND DEMOGRAPHY

The XV International Congress on Hygiene and Demography will be held at Washington, D. C., September 23-28, 1912. The President of the United States will be the Honorary President of this international Congress.

Any person who is interested in the study or practice of hygiene or demography may become a member of the Congress, entitled to take part in the proceedings, and to receive the published transactions, on payment of the membership fee of five dollars ($5.00).

The Congress is organized in two divisions—a division of Hygiene in eight sections; and a division of Demography, the ninth section:

Section I, Hygienic Microbiology and Parasitology; Section II, Dietetic Hygiene, Hygienic Physiology; Section III, Hygiene of Infancy and Childhood, School Hygiene; Section IV, Industrial and Occupational Hygiene; Section V, Control of Infectious Diseases; Section VI, State and Municipal Hygiene; Section VII, Hygiene of Traffic and Transportation; Section VIII, Military, Naval and Tropical Hygiene; DIVISION II, Demography.

Address letters to the Secretary-General, Dr. John S. Fulton, Army Medical Museum, Washington, D. C.

BOOK REVIEWS

Diseases of the Ear, Nose and Throat (for the family physician and undergraduate medical student). By H. O. REIK, Associate in Ophthalmology and Otology in the Johns Hopkins University and Surgeon in the Baltimore Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital; assisted by A. J. N. REIK, Surgeon in the Baltimore Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital.

This manual of 364 pages with 81 illustrations is divided into two portions. The first, 190 pages, being devoted to the diseases of the ear, its complication and treatment; while the remaining 174 is taken up by the nose and throat conditions.