SEWER-GAS. i 7 



water-closets, baths, and wash-basins. He further remarked : "I sup- 

 pose most of you would object to having a vault filled with dead bodies 

 a few yards from your house, and connected with it by a pipe. Yet 

 this is practically what we do. Water is no protection from the poi- 

 sonous germs which generate and live in this foul air. This matter 

 demands our most careful attention, for we are in a very critical and 

 unhealthy condition." 



Colonel George B. Waring, Jr., sanitary engineer, addressing the 

 public through the daily press, gives the following advice : " Let us 

 take no step backward in the essential improvement of the adjuncts of 

 our daily life. Let us only lop off luxurious superfluities, and see that 

 what is really needed is good. . . . There is no doubt that the luxury 

 of a wide distribution of plumbing appliances throughout the whole 

 house has led to a great increase of risk and to a wide distribution of 

 dangerous defects. The use of stationary wash-basins in bedrooms 

 not immediately adjoining soil-pipes is to be deprecated ; and every- 

 thing should be reduced to the simplest elements that will give the 

 necessary sanitary control of the waste matters of the house." 



Not long after Mr. Wingate had protested to the Academy against 

 " the foolish fear which prevails regarding the risks to health from so- 

 called modern improvements," declaring that there was no need of 

 taking a step backward, a circular was received from the Heath House, 

 Schooley's Mountain, New Jersey, containing a certificate from 

 " Charles F. Wingate, consulting sanitary engineer," a portion of which 

 reads as follows : " I found the plumbing fixtures all placed in an 

 extension, so as to be completely isolated from the rest of the hotel, 

 and with a free circulation of air around them. There are no basins 

 in bedrooms. ... In short, sanitary considerations seem to have been 

 studied at every point, and this, I am sure, will have due weight with 

 future guests." 



It seems fair to assume that an arrangement which Mr. Wingate 

 can conscientiously recommend as contributing to the health and safety 

 of the guests of the Heath House he can conscientiously recommend 

 also to the occupants of any other house, and especially to the occupants 

 of city houses, where the danger from sewer-gas is tenfold greater 

 than at the Heath House. 



If I have interpreted their language correctly, one of these dis- 

 tinguished sanitary engineers is substantially in accord with Dr. Par- 

 ker and myself, and the other is absolutely in accord ; and these are 

 the only sanitary engineers, so far as I am informed, who have pub- 

 licly, and over their own signatures, taken exception to our views. 



It seems, however, that the people themselves, without asking the 

 opinions of sanitary engineers, or of any one else, have concluded, in 

 many instances, to " lop off the luxuries," and to practically adopt the 

 measures which I have suggested these concessions on the part of 

 civilization being subsequently indorsed and approved by both sanita- 



YOL. XXII. 2 



