460 Transactimis. — Miscellaneous. 



Such very defective practice exists in almost every house that, 

 although an amateur, I offer no apology for venturing to point 

 out some of the dangers to which we are exposed, or for sug- 

 gesting what appear to be improvements. General interest in 

 these questions was greatly stirred by the attack of typhoid 

 fever from which the Prince of Wales suffered some twenty 

 years ago. This has grown, until several associations have been 

 formed in England for the purpose of sanitary inspection, and 

 numbers of men have qualified themselves to act as sanitary 

 specialists, whilst some City Corporations have adopted the 

 wise practice of retaining the services of such men as per- 

 manent public officials. It will be almost impossible for me 

 to acknowledge every source from which I have drawn the 

 remarks which follow, but, in default of this, let me say that 

 no part of them has originated with myself. I have therefore 

 no patents to recommend, and no special make of appliances 

 to advertise, but will deal impartially with whatever I have 

 examined or tried, speaking merely as a purchaser and user 

 of such articles as are usually offered to householders. 



Without further preface, I will begin to deal with the first 

 division of the subject, viz., — 



Sanitation. 

 In doing so, I propose, before plunging into details, to speak 

 of some general principles, the fuller understanding of which 

 has led to great reforms in the older system. I well remember 

 that the country-house in which the Prince of Wales con- 

 tracted his illness was said by the newspapers to stand in 

 an elevated position, and was considered to occupy a most 

 eligible site for general salubrity. Owing to the slope of the 

 grounds it was supposed that the drains would have every 

 chance of carrying away rapidly, and to a safe distance, all 

 the waste which might prove injurious to health. Yet, in 

 spite of these supposed advantages, it was believed that the 

 source of danger was a water-closet near to the Prince's 

 apartments. It was afterwards clearly ascertained that this 

 was the fact, and it was soon evident that, from want of 

 knowledge of the true principles of sanitation, the favourable 

 situation of the house had been allowed to become its greatest 

 danger. Up to this time it had been generally, and, indeed, 

 is still very often, the aim of the plumber to make an air-tight 

 connection between the water-closet and the soil-pipe, and to 

 lead the latter, in a bottled-up condition, direct to the public 

 sewer or to a cesspit. In the same way he carried some of 

 the waste-water pipes into the soil-pipe, in the belief that their 

 discharges would cleanse it, whilst at the same time they 

 would themselves be carried away by the most effectual means 

 at command — viz., the air-tight system of pipes. If each of 



