Water Supply and Drainage 



245 



allowed to filter through loose stones to the soil. It is important to remember 

 that such applications to the soil should be made before decomposition com- 

 mences, and in moderate quantities and at intervals so as not to over saturate the 

 soil. Its disposal should be near the surface of the ground so as to benefit by 

 the oxidising influence of the air. Solid matters should be collected and removed 

 at intervals and dug into the soil in the summer. 



The old-fashioned privy should not be considered for a moment; where the 

 water closet is not used there should be an earth closet. The earth closet can 

 be procured ready- 

 made, or built as 

 desired. In this the 

 excreta are received 

 into a movable 

 wooden box, well 

 lined with galvanised 

 iron or tarred. Dry 

 earth or ashes are 

 used to absorb foul- 

 ness, and the box 

 should be arranged 

 so that its removal 

 and transportation 

 be easy. It should 

 be emptied at fre- 

 quent intervals and 

 the contents d i s - 

 posed of as already 

 suggested. It is 

 understood t h a t a 

 properly ventilated 

 structure should pro- 

 tect it from the rain 

 and weather. The 

 earth closet may be 

 embodied in an ex- 

 tension of the house 

 itself, but it should 

 also be separated 

 from it by an open 

 passageway. 



With the use of 

 the water closet the 

 cesspool becomes the 

 natural receptacle. 



The ordinary method is to release the sewage into the leaching or dry-wall type, 

 in which the liquids, escaping through the loose stones, saturate and permeate the 



Tank and windmill at Southport, Long Island. A most excellent and dignified treatment. 



Wilson Eyre, architect 



