716 



SANITARY SCIENCE. 



if there be freight enough. Should the Pacific 

 Mail Steamship Company reduce its rates, the 

 Kosmos Company binds itself not to charge a 

 higher rate, and it furthermore engages to al- 

 low the Government an extra 25 per cent, re- 

 duction during periods when the crops have 

 failed in Salvador, and wheat, Indian corn, and 

 flour have to be ordered from South America. 

 The mails between Central America and Valpa- 

 raiso are to be carried free of charge. 



On the other hand, the latter undertakes to 

 subsidize the line at the fixed rate of $500 for 

 each trip. It releases the company from the 

 payment of all harbor dues, and promises the 

 steamers prompt dispatch, night or day, the 

 same as is granted Pacific Mail steamers, and, 

 should bad weather compel the steamers to 

 leave without delay, they are allowed to do so 

 without clearance the contract to be bind- 

 ing for one year, and any differences of inter- 

 pretation arising, while in force, their decision 

 is to be obtained through arbitration. 



Commerce! The foreign trade movement in 

 Salvador has been of late years as follows : 



SANDWICH ISLANDS. See HAWAIIAN ISL- 

 ANDS. 



SANITARY SCIENCE. This is a wide subject, 

 which has undergone a rapid development in 

 the past few years, and any complete treatise 

 would require volumes. But an attempt will 

 be made in this article to discuss some of its 

 more important branches, to show where there 

 is most urgent need of reform, and to furnish 

 practical hints to the general reader. 



Plumbers. Mr. Hellyer, in his book on " The 

 Plumber and Sanitary Houses," remarks that 

 in America the bad principles are not so thor- 

 oughly ingrained in the plumber as in England, 

 and are therefore more easily eradicated. He 

 complains (and his experience is large) that old 

 plumbers do not take sufficient interest in their 

 work to make it perfect. "They have bottled 

 up soil-pipes, waste-pipes, and drains all their 

 professional lifetime, or only ventilated them 

 in a half -inch way. They have united pan- 

 closets to D-traps ever since they used the 

 cloth, and now they stand unmoved by the 

 wants of the times, by the charms of Hygeia, 

 and cry, ' What the plumber hath joined to- 

 gether, let no sanitary engineer pull asunder.' " 

 On the Darwinian theory, he considers the old- 

 fashioned plumber and his mate to have been 

 developed from the pan water-closet and D- 

 trap. While claiming for the English plumber 

 greater practical skill than his American com- 

 petitor, Mr. Hellyer admits his need of increased 

 theoretical instruction, and adds that the aim of 

 all that wish for true progress in sanitary mat- 

 ters should be "to educate the hand-worker." 

 The current stories of the ignorance and the 



reckless performances of phimbers are not a 

 whit beyond the truth. Hundreds of examples 

 of their criminal carelessness might be cited, 

 and may be duplicated any day in the contract- 

 built houses of our large cities. There ia no 

 stupidity or mischief that an ignorant or un- 

 scrupulous plumber is not capable of commit- 

 ting. But, when it is considered what disad- 

 vantages plumbers have labored under, it is 

 not strange that they are in such bad repute. 

 Few of them have had any training other than 

 that afforded in the public schools and what 

 they could pick up in an ordinary shop. Of the 

 nine hundred master-plumbers in New York 

 city, only a small minority have served a regu- 

 lar apprenticeship. The earliest plumbers in 

 America were of native stock, and, like all 

 American mechanics, were superior craftsmen. 

 Ship-plumbing was at first their main occupa- 

 tion, and was well executed. When Croton 

 water was introduced, house-plumbing became 

 more of a business. Some English and Scot- 

 tish workmen emigrated from the old country, 

 and the bulk of the work was performed by 

 men trained to the business. But the trade 

 was in its infancy; few houses had much 

 plumbing, and the science of sanitary plumb- 

 ing was not yet developed. A journeyman's 

 skill was shown by his manual dexterity in 

 making traps, or in lining baths or tanks with 

 sheet-lead. Gradually machinery produced 

 many of the articles previously made by 

 hand, and less intelligence was required in 

 the workman. Any novice could screw up 

 a coupling or put in a fixture where every- 

 thing had been prepared for him. Contract 

 work then became the rule. A boy, after 

 being but a few months in a shop and learning 

 to wipe a joint, considered himself a full jour- 

 neyman. As soon as he had saved enough to 

 buy a kit of tools, lease a basement, and hang 

 up a couple of wash-basins and a roll of lead 

 pipe in the window, he began business on his 

 own account. The demand for workmen, and 

 the chances for slighting work, were so great, 

 that men who had failed at every other call- 

 ing became plumbers ; brick-layers, gas-fitters, 

 masons, -and even shoe-makers, assumed the 

 title, but the largest number of recruits were 

 tinsmiths, who found it desirable to combine 

 a knowledge of plumbing with their other 

 work. As competition increased, there was a 

 race to see who would do the cheapest work. 

 The result is seen in the wretched condition of 

 the majority of houses built within the past 

 few years, and the consequent prevalence of 

 sewer-gas and zymotic diseases. Pteally good 

 plumbers found it useless to compete with their 

 inferior and unscrupulous rivals, and aban- 

 doned contract work. Latterly, especially since 

 the passage of the plumbers' registration law, 

 a change for the better has taken place. In- 

 ferior workmen must now be content to do 

 repairing, and there is an increasing demand 

 for competent and trustworthy workmen. The 

 low standard of capacity and workmanship in 



