54 



House Sanitation. 

 By John Haslam. 



[Read June 5, 1883.J 

 [Abridged.] 



The subject of sanitation is one that is exercising the 

 thoughts of the professional and scientific world, in the hope 

 of discovering the most effectual means to deal with an enemy 

 that is still defeating their most careful research. 



In the air of sewers and house drains the products of de- 

 composition are variable, arising from both solid and liquid 

 excreta, together with house water and other refuse matter 

 poured down the sinks, which pass into the sewers. 



Diarrhoea and typhoid fever arise from the air of sewers and 

 faecal emanations. AVith regard to the productions of 

 diarrhoea from fcTcal emanations, it appears from observations 

 in England that it is intimately connected with temperature, 

 and usually commences when the thermometer is persistently 

 above 60°, and when there is at the time a scarcity of rainfall. 

 I wish to show that it will be in the summer in this climate 

 that any defects in the sanitary arrangements of the city will 

 assert themselves with the greatest persistency, as heat is one 

 of the chief agents in inducing the sewer gas to leave its 

 solitude and poison our homes and surroundings. 



The presence of such sewer gas in the air we breathe will be 

 an unfailing source of depression and debility, and will be a 

 certain source of the spread of typhoid fever. 



During the last ten years the subject of sanitation has been 

 discussed in England in all its bearings. The results have 

 been varied, but the discussion has established two things. 



Fi7'sf. — That when drinking water is contaminated by sewage 

 those who drink the water are in danger of suffering from 

 typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and other febrile ail- 

 ments classed under the term zymotic. 



Second. — That when sewer gas finds its way into a house or 

 its surroundings the inmates are in danger of an outbreak of 

 such zymotic diseases, not to speak of minor illnesses, the 

 connection of which with sewer gas has been clearly 

 established. 



We should, therefore, be inspired with the determination to 

 have the best system of house sanitation, together with the 



