29© THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and Miquel, and a score of other scientists abroad, whose investi- 

 gations have added so much to our knowledge of specific dangers 

 to health and the means of overcoming them ? And how many- 

 have heard of the careful and painstaking sanitary work of able 

 scientific authorities in the United States ? The labors of Waring 

 and Putnam and Pumpelly and Smyth have been no less valuable, 

 but the records of their investigations and experiments, although 

 of great popular interest, are not widely known. No one can 

 speak or write intelligently on sanitary to7' . -^ without familiarity 

 with this literature ; but the writers who have arraigned sanitary 

 science so severely are those who are most ignorant of its meth- 

 ods and its principles. 



Let us consider the popular notion already alluded to — that 

 we can not safely have plumbing fixtures in our houses. It is 

 evident that the present requirements of comfortable living de- 

 mand a reasonable number of convenient baths, closets and basins, 

 and all the usual apparatus of this kind which modern civiliza- 

 tion has introduced into the houses of the well-to-do. We can 

 hardly consider these as luxuries. They are, in fact, absolute ne- 

 cessities; and to dispense with them would cause great incon- 

 venience and inconceivable loss of comfort, and even of health. 

 In compliance with the demands of a high civilization, sanitary 

 science has been directed persistently toward the perfection of 

 means to obtain all possible conveniences for free and frequent 

 ablutions, as well as for the immediate and complete removal of 

 household wastes. What evidence is there that science has failed 

 in this particular ? It is said that costly houses fitted with elabo- 

 rate and expensive appliances for luxurious living have been often 

 invaded by disease and death, and that the cause of this has been 

 sewer-gas. These facts can not be disputed, but it is absurd to 

 claim that science is at fault in this matter. The unfortunate 

 results of such cases are invariably due to ignorance and em- 

 piricism. 



In his census reports. Dr. Billings estimates that, in the United 

 States, one hundred thousand deaths occur every year from 

 strictly preventable diseases alone. This is unquestionably a 

 very moderate estimate, and, if there are reckoned also twelve 

 cases of serious illness for every death, we see what a great amount 

 of suffering results from ignorance of sanitary principles. 



But how is this ignorance manifested ? Are not our architects 

 competent to deal with the problem of household sanitation ? It 

 will be said, perhaps, that it is the province of the architect to 

 direct the entire work of house-building, and to arrange every 

 detail of the fittings. But it should be considered that the science 

 of sanitation is broad and comprehensive. Years of study and of 

 experience in sanitary work are necessary for a proper under- 



