THE 



POPULAR SOIEKOE 

 MOKTHLY. 



JULY, 1888. 



SAFETY IN HOUSE-DRAINAGE. 



By WILLIAM E. HOYT, S. B. 



IT was a little more than five years ago that Dr. Frank Hast- 

 ings Hamilton wrote for " The Popular Science Monthly " an 

 article on sewer-gas, in which he vigorously arraigned science 

 for its failure to keep pace with civilization in the disposal of 

 household wastes. The effect of Dr. Hamilton's article was quite 

 unprecedented. His forcible presentation of facts and theories so 

 affected the popular mind as to create an almost universal dis- 

 trust of sanitary science, and, even at the present time, the idea 

 prevails that plumbing fixtures in our houses are always a 

 source of danger. In magazines and newspapers the discussion 

 has been from time to time renewed, and the same pessimistic 

 views are almost invariably held that were first advanced by Dr. 

 Hamilton. 



It is a subject of vital interest now to determine if this unfor- 

 tunate condition of things described as existing five years ago 

 still continues. We should know the truth or falsity of the asser- 

 tion that there has been in late years a retrograde movement, hy- 

 gienically considered, in substituting house-drains and sewers for 

 the old earth- vaults and cess-pools. Can we have plumbing fixt- 

 ures in our houses without danger to health, or must we make 

 great concessions in comfort and convenience for the sake of 

 safety ? The question has lost none of its interest since Dr. Ham- 

 ilton called into question the trustworthiness of sanitary science. 

 Let us examine the evidence upon which the indictments have 

 been made. We shall find, in the first place, that there is a sur- 

 prising popular ignorance in regard to the literature of the sci- 

 ence. How many well-informed persons are there, who know of 

 the work of Pettenkofer, of Carmichael, of Naegeli, and Wernich, 



VOL. XXXIII. 19 



