HO USE-DRAINA GE. 323 



to professional character for a physician to hold a patent for any 

 surgical instrument or medicine." Much the same feeling exists 

 with regard to patenting or otherwise attempting to obtain exclu- 

 sive control of means for preventing disease, for supplying fresh 

 air or pure water, for disinfection, or for the removal of the foul 

 and dangerous substances necessarily produced by human beings 

 in daily life ; and, while the physician, the architect, or the engi- 

 neer may make use of patent ventilators, filters, traps, or closets, 

 purchasing them as manufactured articles, because they will 

 serve the purpose, and it is easier and cheaper to buy them than 

 to make original designs, yet they avoid giving certificates or rec- 

 ommendations in favor of any such patented article, and distrust 

 those who do so. I state this as a fact, without discussing the 

 question as to whether it is right or wrong, wise or unwise ; it 

 is given merely as one reason why in this paper I do not dis- 

 cuss the merits of particular forms of patented appliances for 

 house-drainage, since it is sufficient for my purj)ose to show that 

 convenience, cleanliness, and safety can be secured without the 

 use of any particular form or piece of apparatus. At the same 

 time it should be distinctly understood that I do not condemn all 

 such patents or i)atented articles. On the contrary, I believe that 

 the improvements which have been made in house-drainage dur- 

 ing the last twenty-five years have been due, to a considerable 

 extent, to the competition of business interests, urged on and 

 directed by scientific investigations made by men who would 

 themselves have never patented an appliance or engaged in its 

 manufacture. 



It is to be remembered that, when a system of house-drainage 

 has been made satisfactory, it will not remain so unless it is prop- 

 erly used and looked after. Rust and grease will tend to obstruct 

 the pipes, the tops of lead bends will corrode, cloths and rubbish 

 will be thrown into the fixtures, fresh-air inlets will become 

 plugged by snow or mud, the open top of the soil-pipe may be 

 closed by accumulated ice. One of the most frequent dangers 

 arising from want of care is that which results from leaving the 

 apparatus unused for several weeks or months, as when the fam- 

 ily shuts up the house for the summer and goes to some health 

 resort. In a few weeks, sometimes in two weeks, the water in the 

 traps so far evaporates that they are unsealed, and then follows a 

 stream of air into the house, bearing with it micro-organisms which 

 gradually settle in the layer of fine dust which gathers on floors, 

 shelves, ledges over doors, gas-fixtures, etc. If, now, the family 

 returns and occupies the house, using only the ordinary processes 

 of sweeping, dusting, etc., which do not destroy the germs but 

 merely scatter them about, there is serious danger of sickness. 

 On leaving a house in this way, arrangements should be made to 



