1866.] Sewage and Sewerage. 187 
your air.” ‘This is to the point. And we may add that, according 
to a paragraph in the ‘Times,’ of November 16, 1865, the ash-pits 
of Manchester take their fitting place, amongst some half-dozen 
barbarous abominations, as causes of a recent severe outbreak of fever 
in that unwholesomely managed city. 
The water-closet system for the removal of excreta comes lastly 
for consideration—a system which, though of recent date, and, out 
of this country at least, of comparatively limited development, is yet 
in a fair way towards establishing itself ineradicably in the domestic 
arrangements of the upper classes of civilized nations. Its econo- 
mical merits rest on the engineering axiom, “Carriage by suspension 
in water is the cheapest mode of transport ;” and its merits on the 
score of inoffensiveness need no other exposition than a certain 
country will furnish, in which the water-closet is even now some- 
thing of a novelty, and known even yet by the name of “ Cabinet 
Anglais.” Its demerits are—first, in an agriculturist’s eyes, the 
exceeding dilution to which it subjects manurial matters at all times, 
and most especially at times when the country is already saturated 
with rainfall; and, secondly, from the sanitarian’s stand-point, the 
great liability to derangement under which it labours at times of 
severe frost in wealthy, and at all times, in poorer houses. Of the 
agricultural difficulty, Mr. Menzies offers one solution, and to this 
subject we shall recur, addressing ourselves in the meanwhile to the 
Hygienic aspect of the system. And it must be confessed that here, 
as elsewhere, the old proverb holds good, “ Corruptio optimi pes- 
sima.”  All-efficient, immocuous, and inoffensive as is the in-doors 
water-closet if properly fitted up, it may be made as noisome as, and 
assuredly will be more noxious than, the old-fashioned out-door 
retreats, if it be not so fitted up. ‘The precautions to be taken 
relate, first, to the lighting and ventilation of the room itself; 
secondly, to the ventilation and trapping of its outlet-pipes; and, 
thirdly, to the communications which these discharge-pipes are 
allowed to set up with other waste-pipes. These precautions we 
will give in the words used by Mr. Rawlinson in his paper of 
‘ Instructions and Suggestions to Local Surveyors with respect to 
Main Sewers, Drains, and Waterworks.’ ‘“ House-drains,” says 
Mr. Rawlinson, “sink-pipes, and soil-pipes, should have means of 
external ventilation. Down-spouts may be used for ventilation, 
care being taken that the head of such spout is not near a window. 
Inlets to all pipe-drains should be properly protected. Water- 
closets, if fixed within houses and having no means of direct day- 
light and external air ventilation, are liable to become nuisances, 
and may be injurious to health. Water-closets should have a daylight 
window, not a ‘ borrowed light,’ and fixed means of ventilation which 
can neither be seen nor tampered with. Permanent openings, equal 
toa slit twelve inches in length and one inch wide, should be provided.” 
Tf these rules and regulations are disobeyed, the house of the 
