38o TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY . 



trict surveyors insisting upon certain thicknesses of walls, but give 

 them no power to reject inferior materials, or to prevent scamping 

 and unsound work, and the disregard of all known sanitary laws, 

 and of the commonest precautions to insure health and comfort. 



It is surely time that every house erected in the great centers of 

 habitation should have some systematic supervision, so that ordinary 

 precautions shall be insisted upon to secure proper sanitation, to pre- 

 vent the use of grossly inferior materials, and to prevent these plague- 

 spots being formed in our midst ; for it must be borne in mind that 

 every house built under the system I have condemned not only tends 

 to the individual discomfort of the special occupier, but adds mate- 

 rially to the unhealthiness of a neighborhood. 



In the building of new and the rebuilding of old houses, it is es- 

 sential that proper regard shall be had to the rapid growth of sani- 

 tary science, and not only to comply with, but " anticipate as far as 

 possible, its many requirements, and especially those of them which 

 will, I believe, in a few years be considered by the population at large 

 as absolutely necessary for habitable dwellings, not only as regards 

 the actual sanitary fittings and appliances of the houses themselves, 

 but also as regards their actual construction from the foundation up- 

 ward, and also more especially as regards the light and air spaces with 

 which they are surrounded." 



If our towns are to be reconstructed and added to on healthy and 

 proper principles, each house must be properly constructed, and cer- 

 tain fixed rules insisted upon, as regards proper general health arrange- 

 ment and sanitation ; for " the same rule," to quote Dr. Richardson, 

 " applies to accumulation of health as to the accumulation of wealth." 

 " Take care of the pennies," says the financier, " the pounds will take 

 care of themselves." "Take care of the houses," says the sanitarian, 

 " the towns will take care of themselves." It follows, therefore, that 

 so far as common-sense laws can be applied to the rebuilding of the 

 houses of closely packed communities, they should be on some gen- 

 eral and uniform system, so far as laws of health are concerned, which 

 all must follow. But this only applies to sanitation ; so far as general 

 arrangement is concerned, the wants of the individual must neces- 

 sarily be consulted ; and, so far as the artistic improvement of our 

 towns is concerned, I am strongly of opinion that the greater the va- 

 riety of designs, the greater will be the artistic character and general 

 picturesqueness of our streets. 



To sacrifice internal comfort, light, and ventilation to some special 

 order of fenestration, Greek, Roman, or Italian, or to the cramped and 

 narrow lines of a mediaeval fortress or building of by-gone ages, seems 

 to me to convey nothing but poverty of thought, or narrow-minded 

 conventionalism, as opposed to all true principles of architecture as it 

 is to the wants and requirements of the people of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. 



