b'l 



said of bath and lavatory pipes; and owing to defective 

 construction water-closets all more or less leak at one oj 

 more of their many junctions. Nurseries being generally 

 next to bath rooms, the coiisequence is that our children are 

 freely exposed to sewer gas. The scullery, the bath room, 

 and the room next the closet, are sure to be tainted spots. 



The remedy for all these evils is very simple. Of course 

 the reconstruction of our sewers will be an expensive pro- 

 ceeding, but not so expensive as imperative. In recon- 

 structing these, their size, their shape, their fall, their depth 

 will all have to be reconsidered. A. maximum depth must 

 be established below which no house drain must be laid. 

 As a rule sewers, main and minor, are not sufficiently 

 get-at-able. House dra^ins must be made capable of easy 

 examination at definite points, and examination should be 

 periodic. The fall should be such tha.t their contents should 

 never stagnate, but flow on uninterruptedly from the house 

 to the sewer junction. All direct communication with 

 houses should be cut off. That is, all inlets to drains 

 should be outside houses. Household slop-water and slops 

 should fall on to a trapped drain inlet outside the house. 

 Even the water closet should do this. No brick-work 

 drains should be allowed, and socketed glazed pipes should 

 be imperative for house drains. The semi-socket I count 

 a socket, but cannot allow the plea of ease of pulling to 

 pieces to weigh for one moment in favour of the mis- 

 chievous unsocketed pipe. In addition to these precautions 

 all basements should be waterproof, and a really efficient 

 system of sewer ventilation established. 



I have always preferred that system urged by Mr. Peter 

 Spence, viz., a cupola fire shaft at chosen sewer junctions. 

 What we want is a system which shall cause the external 

 air to turn inwa^rds rather than outwards; rather enter the 

 sewers than escape. 



Trapping is an important point. Hitherto traps have 



