110 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [April^ 



The public water-supply of towns, no longer led, as of old, in 

 wooden pipes, to public fountains, thence to be fetched in pail and 

 pitcher to the dwellings, was urged by steam-pumps at high pres- 

 sure, through iron pipes having lateral branches, into the houses 

 themselves, and even up to their highest floors. This permitted 

 the adoption of Bramah's water-closet (a capital invention) with its 

 swift water-rush and trapped exit- drain, instead of the noisome 

 privy, untrapped and waterless, with its stagnant pit of putrescence 

 beneath. And though Bramah's closet itself was a costly piece of 

 mechanism, cheaper contrivances of like kind soon followed, 

 bringing within reach of the poor as well as the rich the inesti- 

 mable blessing of cleanly defecation. 



These ameliorations had, however, gained but little attention, 

 and were but slowly making their way, when, in 1833, the views 

 of their advocates received at once a terrible confirmation and a 



powerful impulse, by the sudden outburst of the Asiatic cholera. 

 *******¥r*¥r****** The 



consternation it produced was universal ; and it gave rise to that 

 remarkable series of resoarches, conclusions, and practical reforms, 

 known collectively as the modern Sanitary Movement. 



Under this new influence the substitution of flowing drains for 

 stagnant cess-pools was carried on with much increased activity ; 

 though obstructed by a vehement controversy as to the proper 

 size and form of the drains. Small circular stone-ware tubes were 

 recommended by one party ; large brick flat-bottomed sewers by 

 the other. The tubular system happily proved to be the cheapest 

 as well as the best ; and its advocates, after a ten years' struggle, 

 finally carried the day. Whole towns are now drained through 

 12-inch pipes, which would formerly have been deemed of scant 

 dimansion for the draina«re of a sinde mansion. 



The application of the manurial streams from urban drains to 

 irrigate farm-lands was also warmly advocated by the sanitary 

 reformers, but as warmly declared impracticable by several lead- 

 ing engineers ; whose views upon that part of the question pre- 

 vailed. 



The second invasion of Asiatic cholera, in 1849, gave a new 

 impulse to the abolition of cesspools ; and the value of tubular 

 drains, of small size and rapid scour, for their replacement, 

 had by that time obtained very general recognition. But the 

 leading engineers of England, while admitting, theoretically, the 



