462 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[May 29, 1885. 



Fig. ai. 



carried away from the special outlet at the side of the 

 basin, throiigh the wall, into the open air as a warning- 



One very excellent provision which is furnished with 

 Pearson's Twin-Basin is the " Brian Jones's Joint," for 

 hermetically connecting the closet with the scil-pipe. It is 

 essentially a " tongue and groove " joint, and there can be 

 no doubt that, when properly fixed, it effectually prevents 

 the escape of sewer gases at a point where so very many 

 otherwise perfect appliances are defective. 



The last form of apparatus which we shall have occasion 

 to mention is that known under the name of the " Hopper 

 Closet." When we were dealing with the general principles 

 of construction, we alluded to the prevalent and very in- 

 efficient elongated conical basin, popularly termed a " Long- 

 Hopper ; " here there are many serious defects to be got rid 

 of, over and above the obvious one that the basin does 

 not afford a hold for a small quantity of water at all 

 times. The water-supply is generally placed so close over 

 the seat, and the supply-pipe is of so small a bore (often 

 less than 1 in. in diameter) that sufficient flushing power 

 is impossible. The basin itself is almost a true vertical, 

 elongated cone, and is provided at 

 the top with an iulet-arm for the 

 water, which, even provided that 

 it is delivered in a large quantity, 

 and with a powerful motion, only 

 whirls round and round the basin, 

 which it does not even cleanse, and 

 which is insufficient to sweep out 

 the trap beneath it. The traps 

 usually furnished for hopper- 

 closets, which are to be recom- 

 mended, in their modified forms, 

 principally for basements and out- 

 houses, are generally made of earthenware and of the 

 syphon or P and S type, as shown in Fig. 31. 



In the improved variety of hopper-closet there ought to 

 be a basin, in which the back is made more vertical than 

 the front, and in which the water is admitted all round 

 the basin through a flushing rim, in such a manner as 

 to thoroughly wash down its sides, and as the same time 

 flush the stoneware trap clear of all obstructions. 



The closets in a house are by no means the only channels 

 through which foul air from the house-drain or badly- 

 connected sewer can enter the building ; they are, indeed, 

 the most apparent of all such sources, and in a general 

 inspection are not likely to be overlooked by the would-be 

 tenant of a healthy abode, especially where such an one is 

 conversant with the various types of apparatus, the pan, 

 the valve, the solid plug, the flush-out, and the hopper, 

 and with the defective as well as the perfect forms which 

 it has been our endeavour to explain in these pages. There 

 are many other ways in which sewergases find access into 

 the chambers of the dwelling, both direct and indirect, the 

 chief of which are very prone to be overlooked, since their 

 jiresence is often taken to be a safeguard rather than the 

 reverse. We were reminded of this only a few days ago 

 whilst overlooking some really good dwelling-huoses in the 

 vicinity of Lambeth. 



In one particularly desirable " Grove," where the ex- 

 ternal appearance of the houses, their nicely laid out plots 

 of ground in front and behind, modern artistic paper- 

 hangings, excellent bath-room, &c., warranted a healthy 

 state of afi'airs, we were astonished to find all the drains 

 out of order. The pan-closets with their D-traps, were in 

 good working order, and could have been forgiven by the 

 side of the numerous abominable outlets for sewer-gases 

 into that most important department, the kitchen. If 



there is one place more than another where poisonous gases 

 are able to exert their baneful influences in a most decided 

 way, it is in the kitchen and the larder. Fresh uncooked 

 meats of all kinds are peculiarly sensitive thus to become 

 tainted, and spread disease surely and rapidly ; and yet it 

 is within the kitchen and scullery or their precincts that 

 untrapped or badly-trapped vents, open to poison the food 

 and air alike ; so that, in continuation of the subject of 

 efficient drainage, and the disposal of household refuse, we 

 shall draw special attention to the existing forms of appa- 

 ratus used in yard and sink drainage, with comments ujjon 

 their respective values as adjuncts to a healthy home. 



etji'torial #055ip. 



I REFERRED On p. .j96 to a report that experiments were 

 in progress at Valencia on inoculation for cholera. Since 

 then, more definite information has reached this country in 

 the shape of a telegram from Dr. Ferran to Dr. Cameron, 

 M.P. for Glasgow. According to this, an epidemic of 

 cholera is raging at Alcira, a town near Valencia, con- 

 taining 10,000 inhabitants, of whom up to the first of this 

 month r),432 had been inoculated with the protective 

 choleraic virus. Hence some 10,500 persons have not 

 been inoculated, and of these 64 have been stricken 

 with cholera, and 30 have died. Of the 5,432 inocu- 

 lated, 7 only have been attacked, and all have recovered. 

 If we may regard these statistics as trustworthy — and 

 there is apparently no reason to doubt them — it would 

 seem that this Spanish physician has conferred a benefit on 

 mankind akin to the inestimable one of vaccination by 

 Jenner. 



And, apropos of vaccination, the attempt of Mr. Hop- 

 wood to make capital out of an outbreak of small-pox at 

 West Ham has proved an ignominious failure. It would 

 appear that 98 -7 per cent, of the population there is 

 vaccinated, leaving, of course, 1'3 per cent, unvaccinated. 

 Now in the Guardians' Small-pox Hospital at Plaistow 

 the 9 8 '7 per cent, of the population has contributed 

 twenty-nine deaths, while the (unvaccinated) 1'3 per cent, 

 has contributed no less than seventy-six deaths, thus show- 

 ing that the mortality among the unvaccinated classes was, 

 in proportion to their number, 200 times that of the 

 mortalitij among those vaccinated. Surely so patent a 

 fact as this might well arrest the attention of Mr. White, 

 or even of the honourable member for Stockport himself. 



From a private letter which I have been jiermitted to 

 read I learn that that excellent astronomer and single- 

 hearted man of science, Mr. E. Xeison (the author of our 

 classical English work on " The Moon") is sustaining his 

 reputation as head of the Natal Observatory. At jjre- 

 sent he is engaged in the reduction of all tidal observa- 

 tions on Darwin's System, and for this purpose has had to 

 educate every computer, step by step, himself. He has 

 recently built a Ving to the observatory at his own sole cost 

 and charge ; in fact, the recipient of the letter from which 

 these details are derived says : — " N. spends at least 

 £300 a year out of his own piivate purse to keep the 

 observatory up." Surely at a time when the public pocket 

 is picked for such shams as Committees on Solar Physics 

 and the like, such noble disintei-estedness in the cause 

 of science such as this deserves all the publicity that can 

 be given to it. 



