EECENT EUEAL PUBLICATIONS. 403 



by a •windoTV not sufQciently high to empty the gasometer overhcacl. As for the back- 

 stairs, tbe basement smells climb them en route for the (lormitorics. The chimney flues 

 are also badly constructed, and a smoky atmosphere is all but constant. Overcrowd- 

 ing lends its quota of evils, as iiress-beds in every available corner testify. Tbe drain- 

 pipes are injudiciously laid inside instead of outside the basement, with leaky joints 

 caused by indifferent luting, and with pipes broken where they pass through the walls, 

 owing to continuous settlement. A foul soakago of the soil around the unpuddled 

 pipes speedily follows. The Icad-w^ork is also defective — dishonestly executed with 

 the thinnest material, and badly junctioned to the drains; or if once properly per- 

 formed, the maintenance of that state of things is neglected from ignorance or'parsi- 

 mony. The water-pipes, too, are all built in the brick-work or buried deep in plaster, 

 a burst pipe soon causing the walls to resemble a huge sheet of wet blotting-paper. 

 As for the sinks, they are far too numerous, and made to i>erform improper services. 

 The scullery traps have long ago lost their gratings, and are filled up with grease or 

 other refuse. Up-stairs the waste pipes of the lavatory and of the bath are connected 

 direct with the sewer. There is, moreover, only one cistern for the multitudinous ne- 

 cessities of a family. The closets supplied from this same cistern stand directly in the 

 passage, and have only one door ; the apparatus is faulty, and the hidden soil-pipe is 

 somewhere imperfect. Ventilation of the drains there was originally none, and none 

 is contemplated ; the accumulated gases therefore take the water-trap by storm and 

 invade the atmosphere of the house. Even the flushing of the too flatly laid house 

 drains are unattended to, or left to the periodical downfall of rain through the rain- 

 w-ater pipes, which only serves to stir up the nuisances, not carry them resistlcssly 

 away. 



If the mansion is situated in the country, there arc, perhaps, no «lrains to flush, no 

 sewers to ventilate ; a cess-pool instead receives elemental down-pours, household slops, 

 culinary waste, closet excreta — everything. Moreover, there is no overflow therefrom, 

 save into the surrounding soil. Perchance the house is an ancient one, and connected 

 with old brick sewers, the bulk of them rotten and harboring vermin, who gnaw their 

 way into the rooms, and let in upon the inmates the continually evolving gases of the 

 undergroimd tunnels. These, again, may drain into some gigantic jnt, or series of 

 pits, hidden in the grounds, or they may debouch into some festering or open ditches 

 iu the meadows below. If newly-laid drains convey the t/ftft; matters into a sewerage 

 receptacle with a view to utilization in tho garden, in all "probability they are choked 

 up, and an accumulation ensues Avhich, by and by, ruptures every joint. Of course 

 the tank is not ventilated, and tho compressed gases blow through tlie traps, tainting 

 the very milk in tho dairy. Tho water is in a worse plight : tho supply is contam- 

 inated and unfiltered, the waste-pipe of tho leaden cistern connects unapologetically 

 with tho sewer ; iu other words, there is not even a trapped overflow. Or, tho house- 

 hold may be dependent upon a well, tho yield of which is nauseous from the infiltra- 

 tion of sewago through a iiorous soil. 



To prevent or remedy the above evils is tbe design of this woik. The 

 author, in a chapter devoted to tlie subject of sinks, water-closets, &c., 

 while admitting that the dry-earth closet system has some advantages, 

 does not think it can ever come into general use. On this point he says : 



I kuow^ that there arc many who advocate the exclusive use of tlic earth-closet in 

 our towns and cities. But how would it work ? Take, for example, Norwich, with, 

 say 17,000 houses and 75,000 inhabitants. Mr. Broadman calculated that in order to 

 do justice to tho system, tho town would have to bo divided into four first-class and 

 eight second-class districts, and an immediate outlay of £4,C00 be made for horses, 

 vans, paiis, and drying-ldlns. Tho annual cost of colleotion and m:inagemeut, Avith 

 the cost of tho earth, would be about £b,500. The estimated profit at 'Ms. per ton, or 

 ijs. per individual, would bo about £14,500, but this is evidently very much exag- 

 gerated. 



And Avhat would such a condition of things necessitate? There Avould be, for in- 

 stance, S,000 or 10,000 pails to cart away froni"the back doors or front areas of tho first- 

 class houses at least every third day, and in the second-class districts, where the closets 

 were down stairs, and a fortnight's accumulation could bo allowed, there would be 

 about 130 tons of manure and earth to remove daily. This is independent of the return 

 journeys with the dry eartli. One cannot for a moment consider that any board would 

 undertake such a business as this. I think that it would prefer to wait for the profits 

 which utilization will some day bring, and in the mean time build sewers and push on 

 with the water-carriage system. In favor of the earth-system is undoubtedly what 

 the poor cottager would make by the sale of his soil to the market-gardener, or the 

 reduction of rates which might follow^ a good management by the authorities. "* 



* * * The greatest objection to the adoption of the earth-closet in towns 

 is, however, made by Dr. Parks, in questioning that the earth-trcatmcnt prevents tho 



