LECTURE VIII. 



Delivered May 26, 1880. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR THE SANITARY DRAINAGE OF WASH- 

 INGTON CITY. 



By George E. "Waring, Jr., of Newport, R. I. 



Washington is sometimes called our official metropolis. One 

 wlio reads the flood of reports which have been made, from time 

 to time, concerning its drainage, must feel inclined to call it the 

 metropolis of sanitary advice. Every one who has had to do 

 with any branch of engineering which has even an indirect bear- 

 ing upon sanitary improvement, seems to have been called upon 

 at one time or another to express an opinion concerning the intri- 

 cate problems here presented, until it has come to be a matter of 

 course, that sooner or later, every member of the profession must 

 prepare a thesis on the "Washington Sewers and the Kidwell Flats. 

 That duty, or rather that privilege, now falls to my lot, and I ask 

 your attention to a few suggestions which seem to me appropriate. 



The essential elements of a healthful condition of soil and sur- 

 roundings are very simple. Here, as everywhere, a dry and clean 

 soil beneath us, and dry and clean air about us, are the primary 

 conditions of a wholesome life. 



Where these have not been provided by Nature, they must be 

 established by Art. Washington, like other places, was adopted 

 as the sue for a city for reasons among which sanitary advantages 

 had no conspicuous place. It has grown to be a great capital 

 without reference to these sanitary advantages — indeed largely in 

 1 (1) 



