Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/147

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POPULAR MISCELLANY.
137

Growers' Association" the plans of a fruit-evaporator, on condition that they should be published and furnished free to all applicants. This is simply a fraudulent scheme to secure free advertising, and of which "The Popular Science Monthly" has fallen a victim, unless the matter referred to in its columns was paid matter.[1] The scheme was tried on the agricultural press of the country last year, but with only partial success, as the fraud was soon detected and exposed. They now seem to have tackled the periodicals. I inclose a page from the "Farmers' Review" of July 28, 1886, which fully exposes the whole fraud. For any further information which you may desire, I refer you to the "Country Gentleman," "Rural New-Yorker," "Ohio Farmer," or any other reputable agricultural journal. Trusting that the next issue will contain such reference to this pretended association as shall counteract any advantage the parties might otherwise derive from the publication in the April issue, and will also put other periodicals on their guard,

I remain, very truly, yours,
O. C. Gibbs,
Editor "Farmers' Review."
Chicago, March 29, 1887.

It appears, from papers which Mr. Gibbs sends with his letter, that the object of the recommendation is to induce parties to write to the address given for the plans and drawings promised, when they are informed that another and still better evaporator has been put upon the market, which will be furnished them at a price less than the cost of making the "Arnold Evaporator." The pretended society consists of persons interested in the sale of the new evaporator; and the names of persons of known repute, which are enrolled in its list of members, appear to have been borrowed without the owners' consent. So, if any of our friends have intended to inquire about the "Arnold Evaporator" on the strength of our notice, we only have to say to them, "Don't." To those who may already have been misled by our item we offer our apologies.

The New York Skin and Cancer Hospital.—The New York Skin and Cancer Hospital was incorporated in November, 1882, and now has a city hospital building in East Thirty-fourth Street, at which more than four thousand cases have been treated by a staff of physicians of recognized competence, and a country branch of cottage pavilions at Fordham Heights, near High Bridge; the two properties being valued at about $80,000. The pavilions of the country branch are projected in recognition of the fact which has been abundantly verified in army practice, that such structures, light, airy, and admitting only a small number of patients at a time, are free from the objections which attach to the solid buildings of city hospitals with their crowds of patients occupying the same quarters year after year. They are much more easily and for a longer time kept free from the infectious qualities likely to attach to a permanent hospital, and the patient is relatively secure from the peril from poisonous influences which he is sure to incur in a city hospital. Being slight and cheap, they can be removed if they finally become infected, and their places supplied by new, clean, and entirely wholesome cottages. The estate at Fordham comprises sixteen acres of land in an elevated situation that commands fine views of the Hudson River and Long Island Sound. It will be occupied with cottages as they are needed, and the means are supplied for building them. Two have been built, and are in use, and four others are under way. The experiences of the past year, we learn from the recently published fourth annual report, have already indicated the wisdom of the new undertaking. "The favorable effects of fresh air, sunshine, quiet, and isolation upon the cancer-patients is shown in the prolongation of life, and in the comfort and helpful care it is possible to administer." Upon the record of what they have accomplished, the managers of the institution invite gifts for building other cottages, to be named by the giver, costing from $2,000 to $5,000 each; and endowments for beds, of $3,000 during the life of the donor, and $5,000 in perpetuity. The total cost of hospital accommodations for one hundred patients on this plan of building is estimated at $50,000, which, with $50,000 paid for the property, will make the price $1,000 a bed—a very small sum, compared with the cost in some other hospitals. The managers are aided in the care of patients by the Ladies' Auxiliary Board, by whose exer-

  1. Nothing of this kind has ever appeared in "The Popular Science Monthly "outside of the regular and avowed advertising pages, under any guise.—Editor.