Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/861

 THE FIRST GERMAN MUNICIPAL EXPOSITION 827

ineffectual, and has been superseded almost universally by steam disinfection. For the disinfection of dwellings, mechanico- chemical and sulphur processes have been found inadequate, except where the furnishings are very simple. Even under these conditions, disinfection by means of formalin (40 per cent, solu- tion of formaldehyde) is considered the best and surest. Per- sons with infectious diseases found in small apartments or in tenements are removed immediately to the hospitals for conta- gious diseases; and bedding, clothing, and small movables are taken to the disinfecting establishments. The rooms are then disinfected by carefully trained men. The Dresden disinfecting establishment is the only one where shelter is provided for the people whose only living-room is to be disinfected. In these cases promptness and thoroughness are necessary to prevent the preying of the disease upon the poorly protected neighbors.

Food inspection. A matter of intimate concern to the German municipalities is the thorough inspection of all food-stuffs. Such inspection requires chemical and bacteriological analyses. These are made in the well-equipped municipal laboratories. Dresden presented an interesting exhibit of various laboratory apparatus. Milk inspection, as in every modern health department, is given a very prominent place because of its very close connection with the public health, and with child-life in particular. A popular exhibit made by Dresden showed vessels holding stated amounts of the most important ordinary food-stuffs, and beside them the proportionate amount of nutritive matter in each. A second exhibit presented various foods together with imitations of the same. Sometimes examination shows gross adulteration, as the following examples from the Breslau exhibit present : " powdered chocolate" adulterated with vegetable starch, then brought up to standard color by the addition of powdered sandal wood ; ginger cookies glazed with mica ; white pepper corns produced by roll- ing black ones in clay; further, cigars whose wrapping "leaf" was made of brown, wood-pulp paper lightly dusted with tobacco. Some further services rendered by the municipal laboratories may be mentioned, namely: the extraction of petroleum from charred wood, to prove the incendiary origin of a fire started for