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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



work, copies of tlie plans and specifications must be filed at a 

 central ofiice, and be approved by some competent person ; that 

 the work as it progresses, or when completed, must be inspected 

 by a municipal officer, and that there shall be a register of those 

 plumbers who are considered competent to do such work. 



Usually also there is provision for the inspection of the plumb- 

 ing of any house when there is reason to suspect that it is in a 

 dangerous condition, or upon the application of the owner or ten- 

 ant. It is common to require the ventilation of soil-pipes and 

 traps, the trap between the sewer and the house, and the fresh- 

 air inlet, and that all soil-pipes within the house, whether verti- 

 cal or horizontal, shall be of iron. These regulations are not 

 approved by certain manufacturers and patentees, who find that 

 they conflict with their interests ; but upon the whole it is best to 

 allow the municipal health authorities to settle these questions, 

 rather than to have them controlled by trade interests, and it is 

 better to have the rules uniform, and leave as little as possible to 

 the discretion of the officials, even though, in a few cases, this 

 may lead to the putting in of a trap or ventilating-pipe which is 

 not absolutely essential. 



The first municipal Board of Health to carefully investigate 

 the subject of defective house-drainage, and to issue instructions 

 and regulations with regard to it, was the Metropolitan Board of 

 Health of New York city under the presidency of Prof. C. F. 

 Chandler, of Columbia College, from 1875 to 1883. To meet the 

 requirements of the board, manufacturers rapidly produced new 

 and improved forms of fixtures, a registration of plumbers was 

 established by law, and the rules and regulations of New York 

 city have practically been the model for those of other cities. 



There is still another point of view to which brief reference 

 may be made, viz., that of a man who has a pecuniary interest in 

 certain forms of apparatus, closets, traps, etc., which he wishes to 

 have introduced as extensively as possible. He does not approve 

 of municipal or other regulations which make the use of his ap- 

 pliances difficult or expensive, and he will look favorably on those 

 rules which require the use of his apparatus or its equivalent. It 

 is not to be expected that he will advocate the use of new forms • 

 of apparatus, unless, indeed, he owns the patent for them, or has 

 introduced them himself ; yet this does not necessarily follow, and 

 still less is it to be assumed that, because a man seeks to promote 

 his pecuniary interests, his arguments and propositions are neces- 

 sarily unsound, and to be condemned. 



Professional men, such as physicians, architects, and engineers, 

 do not, as a rule, look favorably upon the taking out of patents 

 connected with their special work. This is formulated in the 

 code of ethics of physicans in the statement that " it is derogatory 



