SAFETY IN HOUSE-DRAINAGE, 291 



standing of the subject. It is perhaps unfortunate that there is 

 so little in the severe and unpleasant details of this work to com- 

 mend it to those whose tastes have led them to the study of the 

 more attractive principles of artistic construction and the science 

 of gesthetics. An architect should have the soul of an artist, but 

 there are few men whose nature is so broad as to combine truly- 

 artistic tastes with a love for the details of difficult mechanical 

 work, involving the necessity for undertaking comprehensive and 

 exact scientific research. It is the province of the engineer to 

 engage in an occupation of this kind. His natural inclinations 

 and his rigid training in scientific pursuits fit him especially for 

 the direction of matters relating to drainage and sewage disposal. 



If we take the testimony of competent sanitary authorities 

 who are constantly employed in the design and execution of sys- 

 tems of house-drainage, it will be found that there are very few 

 architects who can be trusted to prepare specifications for plumb- 

 ing. In fact, the work of the average architect, in planning and 

 supervising constructions of this kind, has been found to be 

 almost universally clumsy and unscientific. This has been the ex- 

 perience of the writer in almost every case where his services have 

 been called into requisition to remedy serious defects in house- 

 hold drainage which have sometimes caused inconceivable loss 

 and misery. In this connection there may be quoted some perti- 

 nent remarks of one of our best known and most reliable sanitary 

 authorities. Colonel George E. Waring, Jr., who recently wrote : " I 

 have had much experience in connection with plumbing work in 

 houses designed and built by some of the first architects of the 

 country, and I do not hesitate to say that, in my experience, I have 

 not found a single case where the architect has made use of the 

 plainest and best developed knowledge of the day on this subject. 

 I may be mistaken, but I think that no architect with whose work 

 I have had to do either wrote or understood the specifications un- 

 der which the plumbing was to be done." 



Perhaps we shall be able to see now a little more clearly why 

 some of our most costly dwellings are veritable whited sepul- 

 chres. But what of the plumbers ? How is their status to be 

 defined in this connection ? From motives of economy, a plumber 

 is sometimes employed to take charge of an entire scheme of 

 house-drainage, and the employer intrusts everything to his 

 care. The unfortunate results of such confidence are seen con- 

 tinually in the unsanitary condition of innumerable houses of 

 rich and poor alike in all of our large cities. There is hardly a 

 parallel to be found in any other occupation where men handle 

 implements of death with such recklessness and with such dis- 

 astrous consequences. The plumber is a mechanic, and perhaps a 

 tradesman. His opportunities for study are few, and his inclina- 



