A SIMPLE METHOD OF DISPOSING OF HOUSE SEWAGE 



FOR FARM HOMES. 



A LINE OF IMPROVEMENT WORK. 



BY 



THE SANITARY INSPECTOR, 



DEPT. OF PUBLIC WORKS, TORONTO. 



IN these days of popular education, when 

 the people throughout the Province 

 have the benefit of free lectures in 

 dairying, fruit growing, domestic science, 

 etc., it is noteworthy that a knowledge of so 

 important a subject and one so closely allied 

 to the physical and moral welfare of the peo- 

 ple as sanitary science is confined to a lim- 

 ited number. 



True, the principles of the science is an 

 open book to the medical profession, and is 

 freely discussed at medical conventions, but 

 these discussions are mainly reported in 

 professional journals and do not reach the 

 great mass of the people at all. 



In the matter of public sanitation the 

 question of effectually disposing of sewage 

 in small towns and villages is one of the 

 most important problems that has engaged 

 the attention of scientific men. The great 

 cost of a system of sewage as used in large 

 places has rendered this course impracticable 

 while the use of privy vaults and cess-pools 

 has been found objectionable and danger- 

 ous. That there is a desire on the part of 

 those living in towns and villages, as well 

 as in less populated districts for what are 

 known as the " Modern Conveniences " of 

 the city is evidenced by the thousands of 

 cess-pools in existence or being built for the 

 purpose of hiding away far beneath the sur- 

 face of the earth the various organic and li- 

 quid wastes from the private residence, pub- 

 lic house or institution as the case may be. 



Those in authority labor under the dan- 

 gerous yet common delusion that " so long 

 as the stuflF is put down deep enough there is 

 no danger," and herein lies one of the great- 



est causes of many of the diseases which at 

 times are epidemic in whole communities, 

 viz., the pollution of the water supply. 



How is the water supply polluted by de- 

 caying organic matter buried deep under the 

 surface of the earth? 



In answer to this question a brief expla- 

 nation of the existing physical conditions 

 may be more convincing than bald assertions 

 without the reasons being given therefor. 



Over the whole surface of the earth, 

 where vegetation is possible, nature has pro- 

 vided a most wonderful scavenger system, 

 composed of millions of little workers to the 

 cubic foot; these little workers are known 

 as microbes, other species are also found in 

 vast numbers in the water and air. 



The natural functions of many of these 

 microbes tend to produce one result, viz., 

 purification, and when one comprehends that 

 both the sun and air are essential to the Ufe 

 of the various species of microbes which are 

 necessary to the proper decomposition of 

 waste matter, it will be unnecessary to state 

 that in the deep sub-soil where both are im- 

 possible, microbe life cannot exist, and hence 

 it is stated that instead of being converted 

 into life-producing matter at the surface of 

 the earth, with its dangerous properties de- 

 stroyed, organic matter is allowed to decay 

 and putrify in the deep dead earth until it is 

 washed into some near by well or stream, 

 there to cause the innumerable ills produced 

 by drinking impure water. 



It may be said that wells are too far re- 

 moved from cess-pools to be in any danger 

 from this source, but the experience of the 

 village of Lawson, near Basle, in Switzer- 



