APPENDIX 349 



moment. Near the house must be the stable and pens for animals the 

 waste from the house goes upon the ground, and not very far away from 

 the house the chamber slops and the more offensive matters go into 

 a pit, which must not be too distant. The result of all these conditions 

 is a pollution of the soil at all these points a pollution which spreads 

 with every rainfall, and which, sooner or later, reaches the well ; yet the 

 water may appear as pure as ever. It only remains to have the suitable 

 disease-germ lodged in this polluted territory to bring down the whole 

 household with a fever. This is the kind of soil-pollution which is hard 

 to cure, and which, in long-settled countries, causes laws to be enacted 

 requiring all vaults for the reception of house and human waste to be 

 made water-tight, so as to save the soil from its poisoning influence. 



This is the kind of poisoning which, in the Dark Ages, caused so much 

 unrighteous persecution of the innocent. In those days, no care whatever 

 was taken in the towns, high-walled, crowded, and unsewered, to protect 

 the water supply from pollution as a result, some terrible epidemic of 

 fever would arise. Then the angry populace would, in their ignorance, 

 cry out : " The Jews have poisoned the wells." The wells were poisoned, 

 no doubt, but the Jew was no more worthy of blame than were his ac- 

 cusers. Nevertheless, the Jews were not spared they were robbed, 

 imprisoned, executed. 



Drainage in the city is a comparatively easy problem when the city's 

 sewers are laid in the streets. In the country it is more difficult, and on 

 this account the fewer fixtures or " modern improvements " there are in 

 the house the better it will be. There should be no less care within the 

 country house, where waste-pipes are put in, than in the city house. The 

 material should be well selected, tightly joined, and properly ventilated. 

 The water-closet should be remote from the house. Earth closets are 

 better than the ordinary vaults house- waste from kitchen and laundry 

 should be taken to a considerable distance from the house, and far away 

 from the well, and either deposited in a water-tight cesspool, or conveyed 

 away, by a system of subsoil drainage tiles, arranged so as to fertilize 

 some unoccupied plot of ground. 



ON GOING INTO THE COUNTRY 



To spend the summer in the country would be the choice of all city 

 dwellers, whenever their purses will permit of it. And there are not a 

 few advantages in such a course ; the change of scene is good, the moun- 

 tains and the seaside give a purer and cooler air an air that invigorates 

 and aids in restful sleep at night, so different from the midsummer atmos- 

 phere in hot cities. There are fewer excitements in the country ; we do 

 not " live so fast," and there is full scope for healthful life and activity in 

 the open air, with the green and blue of nature all about us, instead of 

 the monotonous walls of towering houses. 



