SANITARY SCIENCE. 



729 



high, the upper floor containing a tank. There 

 are no horizontal pipes under floors, and all 

 pipes are exposed on the walls, the water- 

 supply pipes being of brass. The smoke-pipe 

 from the boilers is carried up through a rect- 

 angular brick shaft, 31 by 41 inches, and the 

 space around the smoke-stack is used as a hot- 

 air duct to ventilate the water-closet rooms- 

 which have each a large window. The soil- 

 and ventilating-pipes are placed inside the shaft, 

 to which easy access is provided by large iron 

 doors, so that there is no possibility of foul 

 odors entering the building. At the Hospital 

 for the Insane at Poughkeepsie, in charge of 

 Dr. Cleveland, all of the plumbing is concen- 

 trated in towers, isolated from the rest of the 

 building, and so arranged as to insure absolute 

 privacy and abundant light and air. 



Besides avoiding risk to health, a great sav- 

 ing may be made by arranging plumbing in ac- 

 cordance with common sense. Too often baths, 

 basins, or other fixtures are located merely to 

 suit individual whims. If the occupant of a 

 house happens to like his rooms arranged in a 

 certain way, the plumbing must be put in to 

 suit. Hence, pipes are carried in all directions 

 to form connections, with greatly increased 

 damage to wood-work, etc., danger of leak- 

 age, and difficulties of access to make repairs. 

 Good plumbers endeavor to concentrate all 

 their work as far as possible, and to carry pipes 

 in perpendicular lines. Long horizontal con- 

 nections and isolated fixtures are avoided, and 

 thus a great saving in material is made, and 

 the risk of injury from leaks reduced to a 

 minimum. 



The New York Board of Health, in their 

 official plumbing regulations, advise placing 

 the soil and other vertical pipes in a special 

 shaft, between or adjacent to the water-closet 

 and the bath-room, which will serve as a ven- 

 tilating shaft for both ; the shaft to be at least 

 two and a half feet square, and to extend from 

 the cellar to the roof, and be covered by a 

 louvered skylight. It should be accessible at 

 every story, and have a strong grating at each 

 floor to stand upon. Where space permits, 

 this is a desirable arrangement. 



The fears that have been excited by the dec- 

 laration that an ordinary water-trap will not 

 resist the passage of gases, are not well founded. 

 Water-traps are the sole dependence in chemi- 

 cal laboratories and in all gas-works; pure gas 

 may pass through a water-seal during laboratory 

 experiments, but pure gas is not found in plumb- 

 ing pipes and drains, and Dr. Carmichaers ex- 

 periments prove that sewer-gas will not pass 

 through an ordinary water-seal. 



The safeguards against sevrer-gas being point- 

 ed out, the question arises, How are these rem- 

 edies to be enforced? The public need first to 

 be enlightened upon the subject, and hence 

 boards of health and sanitary societies should 

 spare no pains to diffuse information adapted 

 to popular comprehension. The newspaper- 

 press is always ready to second such efforts, 



if supplied with material. Above all, the fam- 

 ily physician should make it his duty to under- 

 stand and point out to his patients when sani- 

 tary defects exist in their homes, and in a gen- 

 eral way how to remedy them. He need not 

 necessarily be a practical plumber, nor a sani- 

 tary engineer, but he should not be ignorant 

 of the work of either. He, above all others, 

 has the most influence with the public, be- 

 cause he is believed to be disinterested, and 

 his advice is received with confidence. The 

 architect no less requires to give more atten- 

 tion to sanitary principles, and should strive 

 to impress upon his clients their paramount im- 

 portance as compared with taste in design and 

 decoration. In Great Britain, within a few 

 years, sanitary protective societies have been 

 founded for the purpose of inspecting the prem- 

 ises of individual members and reporting upon 

 their sanitary defects. The parent society was 

 founded in Edinburgh in 1879 by Prof. Fleem- 

 ing Jenkin, and like organizations have since 

 been made in Glasgow and Liverpool, and re- 

 cently in London under the presidency of Prof. 

 Huxley. The Edinburgh society attained a 

 membership of about two hundred. A fee of 

 one guinea (five dollars) was charged for each 

 house-inspection a reasonable sum, consider- 

 ing the small amount of plumbing in ordinary 

 houses in that city. The proportion of defects 

 discovered was very great, but the average ex- 

 pense of remedying them was not excessive, 

 and the members have professed themselves 

 satisfied with the results. In London, where 

 the drainage arrangements are more extensive, a 

 fee of two guineas is charged, and the society 

 has had many demands upon its inspectors. 

 Objection has been made to such organizations, 

 by prominent sanitary engineers like Mr. Field, 

 that they tend to cheapen professional work, 

 and that it is not practicable to inspect a build- 

 ing thoroughly for so small a fee. This is a 

 valid objection in the case of large private or 

 public buildings, but it does not militate against 

 the mass of ordinary dwellings. Several sani- 

 tary protective associations on the plan of those 

 just described have been organized at Lynn, 

 Newport, Savannah, and other places in this 

 country. These societies have accomplished 

 notable results through their united action 

 toward reforming public sanitary abuses, and 

 as the public become more enlightened there 

 will be an increased demand for their serv- 

 ices in the other direction. No attempt has 

 as yet been made to establish such societies in 

 large cities in America, where the work of san- 

 itary inspection is now divided between the 

 public health authorities and a few profes- 

 sional sanitary engineers. Even these are only 

 found in one or two cities, though there is a 

 growing demand for their services. Any citi- 

 zen of New York, Brooklyn, Boston, or Chi- 

 cago, by application to the health authorities, 

 can have an inspection made of his premises 

 free of charge, and a vast amount of improve- 

 ment has been effected through these inspec- 



