470 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



When several wastes are conneoted to one main pipe the 

 best plan to ensure sweetness is to carry the latter up a foot or 

 two above the top of the highest vessel to be discharged, and 

 to pass it out through the wall, and leave the end open. It 

 will then be fully open at both ends like the soil-pipe, but, 

 unlike it, does not need to be carried to the top of the house. 



Bain-water Pipes. 



Eain- water pipes should never be connected to the drains, 

 but be made to discharge over a sink-trap, or into an open 

 channel running into one. When the rain is collected in a 

 tank the overflow from it must be treated in the same way, in 

 order to guard against the possible contamination of the water 

 by sewer-gas. Plate XLIX., fig. 2, shows the general con- 

 nection of all these details. 



From a sanitary point of view it may be scarcely necessary 

 to speak of the supply- and waste-valves fitted to the various 

 vessels used for washing. My own experience, however, leads 

 me, after trying for many years some of the most attractive 

 modern appliances, to revert to the simple screw water-taps, 

 with their unions well exposed, and to the plain plug-waste of 

 a large size, with grating or cross-bars fixed beneath. Part of 

 the cost thus saved may, however, be very well spent, in the 

 interest of cleanliness as well as taste, in having all visible 

 parts of the fittings carefully electroplated. It may be well 

 to add that it is decidedly in the interest of sanitation that all 

 these necessary appliances and the apartments which contain 

 them should be designed carefully for their several uses, and 

 made to look cheerful and attractive ; nothing put in more 

 than is needful ; no covering on the floors fitted close to the 

 walls or tacked down, lest it may retain wet; and no unneces- 

 sary draperies, because they will harbour dust. I would have 

 no wood covers, or even margin-pieces, round the tops of sinks, 

 nor have any cupboards fitted under them, or under lavatories, 

 but would support them all with neat brackets. The lavatory 

 waste-pipes can be made with more care, and painted. Dirt, 

 damp, and decay, with the smell resulting from their presence, 

 can thus be exorcised — for they are indeed evil spirits. 



In the bath-room a self-contained bath, not cased in but 

 with its upper edge rounded over, standing upon suitable feet 

 on a leaded portion of the floor, and surrounded with glazed 

 tiles on the walls, extending from the floor to 18in. or 2ft. 

 above its rim, would be attractive even to a fairy, because a 

 glance would enable her to see that nothing insanitary existed 

 in the shrine devoted to her ablutions. 



Having strayed into the regions of romance, it may appear 

 to be high time that I should close this portion of the paper. 

 Indeed, there is very little more that I can say beyond urging 



