88 



DE. R. ANGUS SMITH ON ANCIENT AND 



which have not hitherto had sufficient conveniences ; and 

 to warming, as essential before ventilating, a point which 

 architects seem to have entirely neglected, at least in small 

 houses, and which the sanitary movement has not yet made 

 prominent. 



It would not be a scheme too great to be carried out by a 

 great capital, and its action would simply be thus : — 



1st. All purely agricultural drainage would be separate from 

 impure, going down to the nearest brook or river, adding to 

 the supply of pure water, which would maintain its natural 

 <;ourse. These drains would gradually increase as each pro- 

 prietor drained his land. In fact, they do so now, but the 

 system is not united. 



2nd. Every house and village would be drained, the drains 

 avoiding the agricultural drainage, and carried down into a 

 separate conduit for impure water, which would pass down the 

 valley, increasing constantly as a largo town came in the way, 

 but probably not increasing so rapidly as the towns, because a 

 good deal would be used for agricultural purposes on its way. 

 In this manner an immense track of ground would be brought 

 near to a supply of liquid manure. 



3rd. The streams would be left clean, and the water would 

 be used as it came down, instead of one gallon being used and 

 sent back to render impure a thousand others, as at present is 

 universally the case. 



4th. As this gradually increased, the water-closet system 

 would be gradually increasing also, and in process of time it 

 would be found profitable to make separate sewers for their 

 contents. The result would be, that 70,000 middens, the 

 number having increased very much since the last sanitary 

 movement, would be removed from the town, and hundreds 

 or thousands from all the district around us, whilst the ground 

 would be made healthy to produce food, instead of the air 

 being made unhealthy to destroy its legitimate effects. 



