Withy. — On Sanitation and Ventilation. 463 



cleansing which water-wastes may effect in the soil-pipe by 

 their discharges is very small, and this is the less necessary 

 after the pipe has been opened at both ends, and especially as 

 thereby its own discharges will better than formerly effect 

 the purpose now that they get away more rapidly. There 

 being, then, no valid reason for continuing such a plan, it was 

 seen to be much better to carry each water-waste, or several 

 combined, through the wall of a house, and to let the end 

 project over, and discharge in the open air upon, an ordinary 

 grated sink connected by a good trap to the drain. By 

 adopting this arrangement we get (1) a free inlet for air at the 

 bottom of the waste-pipe, and (2) an entire severance of it 

 from the drain. All such wastes should be well trapped at the 

 top, because the pipes necessarily get foul, and will conse- 

 quently emit tainted air. In the event of two or more wastes 

 running into the same main pipe an upper air-inlet also must 

 be provided, lest the discharge rushing down the main pipe 

 should suck the water out of one of the traps. In the case of 

 any discharge which may be a heavy one, as from a bath or 

 slop-sink, such an inlet should also be provided to prevent it 

 from untrapping itself. In all such cases there will be the 

 additional advantage of a free current of air through, as de- 

 scribed in the improved soil-pipe. There is not the same 

 urgency for this, but where first cost does not stand in the way 

 it is very desirable. A good plan is to carry the waste-pipe 

 itself up, and out through the wall a little above the highest 

 vessel to be discharged. 



The rainwater pipes should never be connected to the 

 drains, but should either discharge upon such a grating as that 

 just described, or else into an open channel communicating 

 with one. Where they are connected to a drain the foul air 

 will flow up them in dry weather, and may enter a window or 

 find its way in at the eaves or under the slates. On one 

 occasion when visiting at a friend's house in London, in the 

 summer-time, I left the bedroom-window open, and woke in the 

 night to find the room filled with the vilest smell. In the 

 morning I looked out of the window to discover the probable 

 cause. Underneath was the top of a bay-window, with a small 

 and innocent-looking pipe in one corner to carry off the rain. 

 My host got a plumber at once, and found that this pipe was 

 carried direct, without any trap, into the drain which led to 

 the main sewer in the road. The small pipe w T as made of zinc, 

 and was perfectly blackened inside by the foul gas for which it 

 may have been for years the principal outlet. The danger in 

 such cases, however, is not confined to houses connected with 

 public sew 7 ers. In a house to the sanitation of which I had 

 devoted much care, and which had its own cesspit, I noticed 

 a bad smell on the top of the porch. The London experience 



