T'lc Country Gcntlcnia:is Magazine 



139 



1Ehe (Eountrn Saxi^e. 



HOW TO BUILD DRY HOUSES. 



CHRISTOPHER NORTH, in one of 

 his admirable essays, proposes to give 

 any one a complete set of his works if he can 

 satisfactorily answer the question of " What is 

 damp 1 " He evidently considers it a poser, 

 and is clearly driven to think it so, not only 

 from the queer vagaries it displays when it 

 attacks houses, and from the difficulties which 

 he so graphically describes of ever getting rid 

 of it when once it gets possession of any part 

 of one. There can be no doubt of this, that 

 damp houses are met with in such numbers 

 now-a-days as to suggest an inquiry as to how 

 this should be ; and, further, if there is any 

 means by which houses can be built not to 

 be damp ; for although it is now the fashion 

 with some to dispute the truth of a sanitary 

 proposition — namely, that the emanations of 

 drains, cesspools, and the like, or to use for 

 these the more forcible if not so elegant a 

 term, "stinks," are not unhealthy — about 

 which much, by the way, might be said — • 

 there is certainly no attempts made to main- 

 tain that dampness in a house exercises an 

 indifferent or no unhealthy influence on the 

 health of its inhabitants. The truth is indeed 

 indisputable that damp is a fertile source of 

 disease, not the less dangerous because it is in- 

 sidious and secret in its operations, often caus- 

 ing diseases which too frequently baffle the best 

 skill of the physician. For our part, we have 

 had evidence abundant enough that dampness 

 in a house is about as bad a thing as can 

 well be connected with it, and not a whit 

 behind the active evils of more obvious if not 

 less potent causes of disease. A few notes 

 then will be of service in connexion with the 

 subject of prevention of damp in houses, for 

 with the best practical authorities we hold 

 that there is no cure — no effectual cure — for 

 it when once it gains possession of a house. 



To know how to prevent an evil we must first 

 know what are the causes which bring about 

 that evil. In answer, then, to the question, 

 What are the causes of dampness in the walls 

 of a house ? Of all these, we have no hesitation 

 in giving the first rank in potency of evil to 

 the undrained — in too many cases super- 

 saturated — soil upon which the house is built. 

 In heavy retentive clays we hold it an essen- 

 tial thing to be done, then, to thoroughly 

 drain the site of the house, and the more ex- 

 tended the area of this drainage around the 

 house the better. This drainage, it is need- 

 less to say, is conducted upon the same prin- 

 ciple as that upon which the farm drainage of 

 fields is carried out, only that the distance 

 between the drains is less and their depth 

 greater than in field drainage. The depth is 

 greater, because the foundations have to be 

 cleared from damp, and these, especially in 

 the case of cellars being provided to the 

 houses, are a considerable distance below 

 the ordinary level. Site drainage is, there- 

 fore, expensive, yet not so much after all, as 

 may be seen from the following statements — 

 that (i) to drain an acre of light soil, the cost 

 is equivalent to a rent or annual charge of 

 1 8s. 3d., this rate extending only, however, 

 over twenty years ; (2) of an acre in medium 

 soil, a rent or drainage rate of 21s. is added, 

 and this, as before, extending over twenty 

 years ; (3) for heavy soils, the ren tfor an acre 

 over twenty years is 26s. These estimates 

 are for a single house on an acre of land, a 

 large extent of land, for an ordinary residence. 

 If farm-houses are built upon one acre, the 

 annual rate is coiTespondingly lessened, as 

 thus — (see above) — class of soil marked (i), 

 los. 8d. ; (2), I2S. 3d. ; (3), 14s. ii>^d. 



It is not, however, sufficient to drain the 

 site of a house; it is necessary that other 



