HOME HYGIENE. 



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flowers, and the bather was regaled with music. 

 Under such circumstances the bath was cal- 

 culated to produce its full effect, soothing and 

 quieting the system, and leading the bather to 

 luxurious repose ; but in our day the bath-room 

 is one that the average American desires to get 

 out of as speedily as possible, the air being 

 tainted with sewer-gas, the room itself small, 

 dark, and cheerless, and in winter frequently 

 unheated. In other houses, it will be discov- 

 ered that a corner of the bath-room is made 

 the receptacle for brooms, mops, slop-buckets, 

 etc. a sight calculated to produce disgust in- 

 stead of pleasure and the water-closet is at 

 another corner, on a true level with the bath- 

 er's nose. Moreover, these rooms are almost 

 wholly unventilated. These evils need only 

 to be recognized by the builder, to enable him 

 to provide a satisfactory remedy. The venti- 

 lation of the bath-room may be accomplished 

 in the same way as that of other closets here- 

 tofore mentioned. 



Many and various are the forms of bath- 

 tubs, and the materials of which they are made ; 

 earthenware, porcelain, galvanized iron, enam- 

 eled iron, copper, and planished copper, being 

 the materials used. Of these, the planished 

 copper is that most used. This "planished" 

 or tinned copper is used of different weights; 

 in the poorer class of work, the quality is 

 known as eight ounces that is, weighing eight 

 ounces to the square foot of surface. Ten, 

 twelve, fourteen, and sixteen ounce copper is 

 also used, the latter in the better class of 

 houses. But slight reflection is needed to show 

 the advantage in having the heavier weight, 

 as, the heavier the copper, the less the liabil- 

 ity to indentation and ultimate leakage. The 

 bath-tub waste-pipe is usually connected to the 

 waste-pipe from the water-closet, and a joint 

 is made just above the trap in the sewer-pipe. 

 This is done as an economic measure, although 

 it would be a better sanitary principle to pro- 

 vide that the waste should be carried out of 

 the building by a separate waste-pipe, and the 

 water-closet be constructed in a different 

 apartment. When the bath waste-pipe is con- 

 nected with that from the water-closet, what- 

 ever confined and contaminated air be in the 

 upper portion of the soil-pipe above the trap, 

 is certain to pass backward through the bath- 

 tub waste, and thus escape into the interior 

 of the room. The different patterns of wa- 

 ter-closets are very numerous, and there is 

 not sufficient space to enumerate them here. 

 What is known as the pan-closet is that more 

 commonly used. This closet, while a very good 

 one, is not, in the opinion of the writer, equal 

 to the Demorest, or to that known as the " all- 

 earthen " closet of Mr. Jennings. This closet 

 is made in a single piece of earthen or delf 

 ware, and is therefore the less likely to have 

 attached to it the remains of fecal matter and 

 decomposing material, and it is evident that the 

 more perfectly the closet can be cleansed, the 

 more completely it will fill its purpose as a san- 



itary appliance. Whatever form of closet be 

 used, the trap should be ventilated. The trap 

 should have a separate vent-pipe communicat- 

 ing with the outside of the building and lead- 



FIG. 5. JENNINGS'S CLOSET, CLOSED. 



ing above the roof. The soil-pipe should also be 

 continued, without diminution in size, directly 

 through the roof. These ventilation-pipes are 

 necessary to prevent the introduction of what 

 is known as " sewer-gas," or more properly 

 sewer-air, a compound gaseous body mingled 

 with atmospheric air, which is produced from 

 the decomposition of organic and saline mat- 

 ters contained in sewage. Sewer air or " gas," 

 when analyzed, is found to consist principally 

 of carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and 

 ammonium sulphide, in addition to the com- 

 mon air. It appears, however, that the pro- 

 duction of these gases in the larger sewers de- 

 pends almost entirely upon the thoroughness 

 with which they are ventilated and flushed, as 

 the health of the sewer-men in London and 

 Paris is not shown to be seriously affected by 

 reason of their occupation. It may be consid- 

 ered as fairly proven that the air of house- 

 drains is more impure than that of the larger 

 sewers, provided the latter be ventilated. 

 With regard to the production of typhoid 

 fevers and other specific diseases from sewer- 

 gas and sewer-air, it may well be doubted 

 whether a single well-authenticated case of ty- 

 phoid fever or diphtheria has ever originated 

 from this cause, although it is presumed that 

 the sewer-air may afford a vehicle or means 

 of transmission of the seeds or the so-called 

 specific "germs" of the disease. It has been 

 proved that the small-pox poison can be trans- 

 mitted to herds of cattle when feeding to the 

 windward of infected textile fabrics. (A itken .) 

 It is therefore reasonable to suppose that the 

 specific germs of the diseases mentioned may 

 be carried in the same way. If, then, these spe- 

 cific diseases be excluded from those produced 

 de novo by sewer-gas, it only remains to con- 

 sider the effect of sewer-gas uncontaminated 

 by any specific " disease-germ " or virus. In 

 a case at Clapham, cited by Parkes, " the clear- 

 ing-out of a privy produced in twenty-three 

 children violent vomiting and purging, head- 

 ache, great prostration, and violent twitching 



