188 Sewage and Sewerage. [ April, 
richest man in the country may be made, as we know such houses 
have not rarely been made, as fertile of fever as the most wretched 
of our town or even of our village alleys. Defective ‘‘ house-work ” of 
this kind, at Croydon, has been shown by Dr A.Carpenter* to have 
been the true cause of such unhealthiness as has recently prevailed 
there ; and the carelessness of the owners of house-property, as to 
carrying on their private works in a safe manner and upon correct 
scientific principles, has thus cast an undeserved doubt on the 
general results of the Croydon sanitarian works, which the gentle- 
man just quoted says, have been “ eminently successful,” whilst those 
of the irrigation have been “ marvellously so.” And justas the rich 
man can make his private house poisonous, so the lodging-house 
keeper, by the like means can, and often does, make the atmosphere 
of his hired apartments as depressing and even dangerous to the 
health of the jaded holiday-maker, as the confined air of his cham- 
bers or office had become. The indoors arrangements, or rather 
misarrangements, of a house situated in the most salubrious of locali- 
ties may neutralize all the advantages of outer nature, and the weary 
man may find that he is, at the end of his month’s vacation, as poor 
in health as he was at its beginning—magnas inter opes inops. 
If the water-closet system is fraught with such dangers to those 
who, ew hypothesi, have the power of taking care of themselves, it 
may seem to be rash to recommend its introduction among the 
lower grades of society. But, just as we should recommend the 
retention (which, indeed, needs no such recommendation) of this 
system amongst the upper classes, but should imperatively urge the 
adoption in all cases of the precautions above specified, so, for the 
poorer part of our population, we believe that the water-closet 
system, at all events under that particular modification of the 
ordinary arrangement known as the “ Latrine,” is, after all, the 
best also. or full details and figures of the different forms of 
latrine, we refer to the excellent ‘ Report of the Commission for the 
Improvement of Barracks and Hospitals,’ at p. 87; but the general 
statement of the relative merits of the latrine and the water-closet 
which the Commissioners give we will herewith quote :—* Water 
latrines,” they say, “are preferable to soil-pans,” ¢.e. water-closets, 
“because they are not open to the same objections. They can be 
made to consume a very small amount of water; they cannot be 
injured by any ordinary force; they are simple in construction, 
require very little repair, and are easily kept clean. There are 
various forms of these latrines in use, but the principle of construc- 
tion is the same in all. It consists in placing a water-trough under 
the seating, which is filled to a certain depth with water, and 
* «Times, December 19, 1865, and the ‘Croydon Chronicle,’ January 20, 1866 ; 
and a pamphlet by Dr. Westall, ‘On the Advantages to be derived from the 
Adoption of the Local Government Act as exemplified at Croydon.’ Ridgways, 
London, 1865. ; 
