HO USE-BRAIN A GE. 317 



tlie greatest freedom from nuisance, security to health, perma- 

 nence of satisfactory performance, and ease and cheapness of 

 inspection and repair, are as follows : 



1. Have no more fixtures and pipes than are really necessary, 

 and have all the fixtures as close to the soil-pipes as possible. Do 

 not put fixed wash-basins in any sleeping-room, nor any fixture 

 in such a position that its outlet-pipe must run horizontally, or 

 nearly so, beneath the floor for a distance of more than ten feet 

 before it discharges into the soil-pipe. 



2. Avoid, as far as possible, the placing of fixtures in the base- 

 ment or cellar of the house. In a house properly constructed 

 from a sanitary point of view, the basement or cellar should be 

 entirely given up to heating and ventilating arrangements and to 

 storage, and should not contain either kitchen, laundry, sinks, or 

 closets. All the pipes for drainage, water, gas, etc., should be 

 plainly visible and readily accessible on the ceilings or walls of 

 this lower story, and this can not be effected if kitchen-sinks or 

 laundry-tubs are placed on the lowest floor. This advice can not 

 be followed in many cases because of the expense ; but it should 

 be the rule for all houses costing twenty-five thousand dollars and 

 upward. 



3. Soil-pipes should be of cast-iron, of the kind known as extra 

 heavy, and, for an ordinary dwelling-house, should be four inches 

 in diameter, weighing about thirteen pounds per foot run. If the 

 soil-pipe must be carried beneath the floor of the cellar or base- 

 ment, it should be either bedded in cement or put in a brick 

 trench with a removable cover. Every joint in a soil-pipe should 

 be so made that it will not leak when the pipe is filled with water 

 to a height of ten feet above the joint. 



4. Provision must be made for the constant passage of a cur- 

 rent of air through the soil-pipe from the bottom to the top, and 

 it should have no dead ends. For this purpose it is necessary 

 that the soil-pipe should pass up through the roof and be freely 

 open at the top. It must not be diminished in size above the 

 highest fixture ; on the contrary, it is better that it should be 

 slightly enlarged, so that a four-inch pipe may properly be con- 

 nected with a five-inch pipe above the upper fixture. That part of 

 the soil-pipe above the upper fixture should be of as good mate- 

 rial and have the joints as carefully made as that below. 



5. In order that a current of air shall pass through the soil- 

 pipe, it must have an opening connected with the air below as 

 well as above. Should this air which is to pass up through the 

 soil-pipe be taken from the sewer, or from the air of the street ? 

 In other words, should there be a trap in the soil-pipe between the 

 house and the sewer, with a fresh-air inlet between the trap and 

 the house, or should the trap be omitted and the sewer be venti- 



